Has anybody seen this before, getting corrosion of tan on keel. The boat is only in salt water for 5 1/2 months. This whats happen after comes out of the water has white like chalk residue. When clean away get this underneath. Any thoughts?
Keel getting corrosion
- Thread starter Eagle2man
- Start date
Oday 302 1987, has little on port side of wing keel. It starts as write corrosion.
So that keel is probably not too different than my 1988 O’Day 322. I am assuming it is lead. Mine is covered in epoxy and fared. Pretty thick.
Sailboat Data shows lead…
sailboatdata.com
Did you grind at those 2 areas? It looks like it is discolored around the corrosion. Trying to understand if this is old damage someone fixed or what. How long have you owned the boat? How long have you seen this corrosion?
A little on the wing… any other damage?
If you scrape those 2 big voids, can you get to solid lead?
My first thought is that you need to strip the keel (or at least the affected areas) down to solid lead. The. You would have to fill the voids with something (Bondo?), then seal the whole area to prevent water ingress.
But this is way over my pay grade.
Greg
Sailboat Data shows lead…
O'DAY 302 - sailboatdata
One of the last O’Day’s, (the parent company closed in 1989). A few more were built when the molds were purchased during short lived Cal/Pearson revival. The molds then, apparently went to Japan where another O’Day affiliate existed. The wing keel on this and some other similar O’Day’s was...
sailboatdata.com
Did you grind at those 2 areas? It looks like it is discolored around the corrosion. Trying to understand if this is old damage someone fixed or what. How long have you owned the boat? How long have you seen this corrosion?
A little on the wing… any other damage?
If you scrape those 2 big voids, can you get to solid lead?
My first thought is that you need to strip the keel (or at least the affected areas) down to solid lead. The. You would have to fill the voids with something (Bondo?), then seal the whole area to prevent water ingress.
But this is way over my pay grade.
Greg
Couple years ago grind all off and recovered in epoxy and still came back.So that keel is probably not too different than my 1988 O’Day 322. I am assuming it is lead. Mine is covered in epoxy and fared. Pretty thick.
Sailboat Data shows lead…
O'DAY 302 - sailboatdata
One of the last O’Day’s, (the parent company closed in 1989). A few more were built when the molds were purchased during short lived Cal/Pearson revival. The molds then, apparently went to Japan where another O’Day affiliate existed. The wing keel on this and some other similar O’Day’s was...
Did you grind at those 2 areas? It looks like it is discolored around the corrosion. Trying to understand if this is old damage someone fixed or what. How long have you owned the boat? How long have you seen this corrosion?
A little on the wing… any other damage?
If you scrape those 2 big voids, can you get to solid lead?
My first thought is that you need to strip the keel (or at least the affected areas) down to solid lead. The. You would have to fill the voids with something (Bondo?), then seal the whole area to prevent water ingress.
But this is way over my pay grade.
Greg
Assuming this is a lead keel, the original damage was probably a casting fault.
The keels are cast in a sand casting. As the lead is being poured chunks of sand can fall off the mold and become encapsulated in the lead and not visible when the mold is removed. Over time the thin lead covering the encapsulated sand begins to leak, water gets in and the casting cracks near the debris. Had something similar happen to my keel.
In my case each spring I would find a bulge in the keel. I started tapping around bulge with a hammer and the thin skin cracked. After peeling the lead off there was a pocket of sand encapsulated in the lead. Fortunately it was not too deep. The area was opened up to solid lead, the sand cleaned off and filled with thickened epoxy and then faired.
From the photos, the damaged area does not look like it was prepared properly for the repair. It appears that some sand remains embedded in the lead. This prevents a good bond between the epoxy and the keel, so eventually the epoxy falls off. The damage is also fairly deep and there is little structure to support the epoxy making it vulnerable to breaking off. So the 2 issues are a bonding surface with a lot of impurities and no structure to the repair.
If I was to repair this, I would start by removing all the debris and old paint and fairing compound as best as I could. Then remove damaged lead back to a clean solid surface. I would probably remove the hook shaped lead and make the repair area a half-moon shape, i.e., a smooth arc of lead. Once the basic shape is set, wire brush the area, drill and install a series of screws and then coat with unthickened West System epoxy. Eventually the screws will be buried in thickened epoxy, so the screw heads should be below the line of the keel. Basically it is the same as using re-rod in poured concrete. The screws will help give shape to the trailing edge and provide some structure for the epoxy.
After coating the repair area with neat epoxy, mix up some thickened epoxy with an adhesive filler like colloidal silica (can't remember which West Number it is) and fill the area with the epoxy. This will be the core of the repair and it needs to be applied before the neat epoxy cures. After the core is fully cured, wash with warm water and a scotch brute to remove the amine blush, dry and sand with 80 grit paper. The surface should be relatively flat and lower than the lead surrounding it. Clean with water only, no solvents and dry. Now it's time to fair. Either use West System with micro balloons or an epoxy based fairing compound for underwater use, Interlux Watertight or Total Boat Fair will work. I'd lean towards the West system. Apply the fairing compound and sand as many times as is needed to get a smooth fair surface. Finally barrier coat and apply anti-fouling.
Good Luck!
The keels are cast in a sand casting. As the lead is being poured chunks of sand can fall off the mold and become encapsulated in the lead and not visible when the mold is removed. Over time the thin lead covering the encapsulated sand begins to leak, water gets in and the casting cracks near the debris. Had something similar happen to my keel.
In my case each spring I would find a bulge in the keel. I started tapping around bulge with a hammer and the thin skin cracked. After peeling the lead off there was a pocket of sand encapsulated in the lead. Fortunately it was not too deep. The area was opened up to solid lead, the sand cleaned off and filled with thickened epoxy and then faired.
From the photos, the damaged area does not look like it was prepared properly for the repair. It appears that some sand remains embedded in the lead. This prevents a good bond between the epoxy and the keel, so eventually the epoxy falls off. The damage is also fairly deep and there is little structure to support the epoxy making it vulnerable to breaking off. So the 2 issues are a bonding surface with a lot of impurities and no structure to the repair.
If I was to repair this, I would start by removing all the debris and old paint and fairing compound as best as I could. Then remove damaged lead back to a clean solid surface. I would probably remove the hook shaped lead and make the repair area a half-moon shape, i.e., a smooth arc of lead. Once the basic shape is set, wire brush the area, drill and install a series of screws and then coat with unthickened West System epoxy. Eventually the screws will be buried in thickened epoxy, so the screw heads should be below the line of the keel. Basically it is the same as using re-rod in poured concrete. The screws will help give shape to the trailing edge and provide some structure for the epoxy.
After coating the repair area with neat epoxy, mix up some thickened epoxy with an adhesive filler like colloidal silica (can't remember which West Number it is) and fill the area with the epoxy. This will be the core of the repair and it needs to be applied before the neat epoxy cures. After the core is fully cured, wash with warm water and a scotch brute to remove the amine blush, dry and sand with 80 grit paper. The surface should be relatively flat and lower than the lead surrounding it. Clean with water only, no solvents and dry. Now it's time to fair. Either use West System with micro balloons or an epoxy based fairing compound for underwater use, Interlux Watertight or Total Boat Fair will work. I'd lean towards the West system. Apply the fairing compound and sand as many times as is needed to get a smooth fair surface. Finally barrier coat and apply anti-fouling.
Good Luck!