Painting the iron keel.

[IH82BL8]

Like many of you, I own a Hunter with an external iron keel. The boat is on the hard and I will be painting the bottom soon. The current condition of the keel is pretty hideous. It has what I'm guessing is an epoxy over the iron and ablative bottom paint over the epoxy. Whatever it is, it's coming off in huge flakes/small sheets.

My question is, how do I prep the keel for bottom paint. I assume it needs to be sanded down to bare metal but what goes on it before the bottom paint?

Thanks.

 

[Amos Cape]

I jest got done with my bottom job. What I did to the keel was to go to metal and used POR 15 then filled in with marine tex then the normal bottom job. I know two other friends that have done this and have had no problems for five years now.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

You have to clean the metal very well and get rid of the rust for best results. Interlux recommends Interprotect 2000 over metal. Check out their product info.

 

[Steve Dion]

I would suggest scraping the old stuff off and sand blasting down to shinny metal. Then you can follow the directions from your favorite product.

 

[Richard Bryer]

On my list- I am up on the hard to strip the bottom ( Never realized how tough to get off VC tar is!) I am going to have the keep sandblasted and perhaps the hull soda blasted- was to meet the prospective contractor this am but he re-scheduled to tomorrow Plan is to coat with a coat of Interprotect 2000 right away, fair, coat with 4 more coats

 

[Warren Milberg]

A lot depends on how much time and money you want to spend - and how soon you want to go sailing. I used to use POR-15 on my iron keel, but was unhappy with the result. That poor result may hve been the result of not blasting the keel down to bare metal first, and etching it, before applying the POR-15. I have since removed the old POR-15. I now just sand the keel as much as possible (HHN will rent you a vacuum sander for $15/hr) and apply 3-4 coats of Interlux Primocon, then 2 coats of ablative paint, then go sailing...

 

[heart of gold]

I just went through this arduous procedure this spring. Its not fun. The yards up here in Vancouver are not keen on sandblasting but I found a one man show that "wet sandblasts" and was able to talk the yard into letting me go this route after tenting the boat in completely. As promised, there was virtually no dust and the keel was completely paint and rust free. I then cooked it with a rented propane furnace to about 95 degrees F. for 24 hours. You should have seen the moisture come out of the pores in the cast. I kept cooking it until this stopped, then applied an etching agent, 1 coat of Interprotect, then faired, another 2 coats of inter protect, then 2 coats of ablative(Interlux CSC). How did it work out? it looked great and only time will tell.

 

[gutsgolf]

rust control

I used a product a few years ago called , I think it was called ospho it was supposed to turn rust back into a paintable metal. would that work n the iron keel

 

[navigator97]

If you feel that you can't get all of the rust off down to bare metal, then consider using Pettit Rust-Lok. I have wire brushed down the areas with rust showing or loose paint, and applied the Rust-LOk (I think I used 2 coats of that). DO use rubber gloves. It has low viscosity and is tough to get off of your skin. After the Rust-Lok, i have at times used Interprotect, as others have recommended - (it's good stuff). I then put 2 coats of Anti-Fouling paing on those areas, even if I'm only applying 1 coat to the rest of the bottom. The areas that I have treated this way have held up for several years. Of course, there are ather areas that pop up in following years and I treat them the same way. Now there are few rust spot areas the need attention. If you have the time and money, then blasting the whole keel and going fron there is better. Good luck.

 

[IH82BL8]

Thanks everyone. The marina won't let me blast. I think the difference in results depends on the prep effort. I have a dustless sander (approved by HHN). I think I'll scrape of the huge flakes, then sand, then wire brush. It sounds tedious but, to put that in context, I just spent 26 hours removing the original Hunter stripes--THAT was tedious.

 

[srhummer]

IH82BL8 - Let me know how it goes with HHN - I am in HHS and normally pull in HHN. Was thinking I may need to pull elsewhere this winter to be able to blast.

 

[isaksp00]

I used an angle grinder, with both grinding and very coarse wire brush wheels on my hideous H23 keel. The 31 would be larger, and mine was no fun. I tried POR15, with their metal wash and metal prep solutions. Followed the directions as closely as I could. It is OK but not great. About 2 seasons in fresh water, and while generally not peeling off, there are various places with bubbly, powdery rust. It is fairly easy to paint on.