Fairing up swing keel on Venture 25 that is in NEED

[Gregg9020]

As the sailing seaon wraps up for 2008 (sometime after November) I will be looking at a huge project.... The swing keel on a 1976 Venture 25 needs to be cleaned up and smoothed out. I have figured out how we are going to get the boat lifted enough to drop the keel, but what I haven't figured out is what should I do about the keel. My thoughts are to grind down the high spots and take off all of the rust on the entire keel, but once we have that done, what do I do or use. Right now the keel is really rough, and there is a lot of rust and painted barnicles. Has anyone used either bondo, or Marine Tex? We want to make this as soom as possible, but don't want to spend a ton of cash. What about wrapping the enite keel in fiberglass, and gel coating it?

Any and all thought about making this thing smooth again will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Gregg

 

[caguy]

In days past body shops used lead to fill in roigh spots.

I would be temped to sand blast down to bare metal and with a torch fill in the rough areas with melted lead. Make sure you heat up the keel as you go fir a good bond. The only concern I would have is in keeping the boat in the water permanently docked. With salt water the dialectric effdect may cause corrosion. If you store on a trailer I don't think I would worry about it. Lead is esy to work with and shapes easily. It is something you can do with an acetylene torch and a few bars of lead. My keel is coated with red oxide and shows no wear at all.
Frank

 

[Gregg9020]

I think mine is too

But the one I am going to tackle is a friends boat, and it doesn't have anything at all on it. So if I decide to use the lead, I am going to have to pull the keel off the boat? I was hoping for a moderately easy fix. I really don't want to pull the keel. We are going to have it in a shop on a lift, and I am not sure if the owner of the shop is going to be willing to have a 600# keel laying around his shop for a week. What do you think about taking it down to bare metal, and using bondo and then wrapping it in fiberglass or gelcoating the thing over the bondo? It is stored on a trailer all of the time, in my backyard, so long term salt is not the issue.

I am thinking of grinding it down to get the bare metal, and then fairing it out. The weight of the keel hasn't been altered at this point, and I am sure he is looking to get it smoother, The fairing is not to the extent that there are inch+ deep areas that need to be fixed, it is just showing its age.

Thanks, I will run it by him on the lead, but I think he will want to go another way ( less involved and money)

Gregg

 

[MacMikey]

Removing the Keel is easy...

and it would allow you to take it to a sandblaster for the hard part of the job.
If it were mine, I would fair it and fill the pits with an eposy filler, sand, prime, and paint with a good rust inhibitor or anifouling paint if you were going to saltwater. Remember to wear you steel toed shoes while working with the Keel....685 lbs. hurts when you drop it on your toe.

 

[Gregg9020]

I have

a friend that has a shop nearby and he has a car lift. He said that we could use it on a weekend. What my plan is to do is get some straps and make a sling like the marinas pull large boat out with. That way, I can have it suspended and the keel can drop all the way to the ground straight. We are not planning on pulling the keel off the boat, just get the worst and hope for the best from there.

A car lift is the easist if you know someone with it. Your isea of setting it on a frame was a consideration, and if the lift doesn't seem to be doing the trick, we may go with that idea. I am hoping the car lift is going to lift. I think you are going to need more than 2-3' as the keel itself is about 6' long. Think about the steel toed boots with your idea.

Gregg

 

[Bob McL]

Done it before -

To see what I ran into, go to PhotoBucket.com and look for the "sailingaz" account. The keel had originally been faired with what looked a material called AllMetal (a metal particle based epoxy). Rust had gotten under the material and sandblasting. chiseling, sanding with a 16 grit wheel were all required. I used a rust inhibiting product called POR15 after I got the keel cleaned, then faired with RestoGrip (also a POR15 product) then additional coats of POR15 (five coats in all). The POR15 is black colored. I understand you can also use tar epoxy from West Marine. You can also see how I got the contour of the boat hull for building a support to keep the boat steady and a jig I made for a floor jack to remove and reinstall the keel. Notice that I clamped pieces of wood for side support to keep the keel upright. The bottom of the keel rested on a furniture moving dolly with the side supports as it was slowly dropped. Then the top (front) of the keel was supported by the floor jack and lowered. By pulling the keel around with the floor jack handle it rolled right out; took only one person. Since I was constantly climbing in an out of the boat, you can understand why I needed the contoured supports front and back to keep it steady.

 

[caguy]

If you do wrap it with glass make sure you have enough

clearance for it to fit in the trunk.
By supporting the back with the cable you should be able to lower the front with an car jack. If you don't have a way to sandblast, a water blaster will also knock off anything that is not clinging for life. If it is stuck so hard that a high pressure water blaster won't take if off epoxy over it and don't sweat it. I rented a water blaster from Home Depot to strip my trailer. The guy gave met a nozzle that they keep behind the counter so their customers don't get hurt. When I told him what I needed it for he brought out the secret weapon. It really did the trick. Take some pictures of the process and send them to me and I will post in the Mac information section for others. Pictures posted in the forum get erased when post expires.
Frank

 

[Timo42]

Bondo won't work long term,

I am thinking of using west system epoxy with filler after sand blasting. If you are going to all that trouble, why not pick up the boat, remove the keel and drop it on a small utility trailer, put the boat back on the trailer, and get it out of the way while working on the keel. If you don't do the whole keel water will get under any coating you use. Having someone sand blast the keel is a lot easier and cleaner than trying to do it yourself. I know I wouldn't want anyone sandblasting in my shop *yks Think fine grit everywhere for the next several years. Lead would be hard to use due to the mass of the keel, the technique is to heat the substrate until it melts the lead then paddle the lead to shape, then grind and file smooth. Not to mention that lead is toxic and vaporizes if you get it too hot. My wife the chemist says that the first sign of plumbism is limp wrists but in SF... nttiawwt ;D You still have to wear a mask with epoxy, but it's a lot safer. Did you guys ever get the porthole cut into the bottom? Tim

 

[MacMikey]

Link to Bob's "Sailinggaz"...

Link Below: