Restoration of 1981 C-22 swing keel #10580

[CloudDiver]

The last pic is about 4 hours after I coated the hull sides, and six hours after the 2nd coat on the rub rail. The Prekote is dry to the touch within 30 to 45 minutes and wet sandable after a few hours. In the previous pic I had done a cursory wet sand on the rub rail only and did the 2nd fresh water wash to the bare fiberglass bottom. In the pic below, 20 minutes after I had finished rinsing, it started to rain, LOL!

 

[piedpiperIII]

and again you are my hero, wish I had an enclosed shop to work on mine.

 

[HillbillyWanderer]

So I have been thinking about sealing the keel. The pin slides throughout the hole in the keel. At that point it's metal on metal. I suppose you could coat the hole with epoxy but honestly can't see it standing up to the weight and friction of the keel swinging up and down over time. So at this point would there not become a point for water intrusion for the keel?

 

[CloudDiver]

So I have been thinking about sealing the keel. The pin slides throughout the hole in the keel. At that point it's metal on metal. I suppose you could coat the hole with epoxy but honestly can't see it standing up to the weight and friction of the keel swinging up and down over time. So at this point would there not become a point for water intrusion for the keel?

See page 4 of this thread where I refurbished my keel. The bushing is not as wide as the keel is so it has an epoxy collar on either side sealing it into place. The epoxy will absolutely stand up the weight of the keel.

 

[HillbillyWanderer]

Looks good. As for mine, I dropped the keel the other day but haven't done anything with it yet. The keel must have been done just before I bought the boat. Screws came out very easy and the pin and hole in the keel show no wear at all. Had bushings installed as well. Seems like a lot of extra work to drill out hole install bushing and cover with epoxy. Any other ideas or that is just the way it is?

 

[CloudDiver]

Looks good. As for mine, I dropped the keel the other day but haven't done anything with it yet. The keel must have been done just before I bought the boat. Screws came out very easy and the pin and hole in the keel show no wear at all. Had bushings installed as well. Seems like a lot of extra work to drill out hole install bushing and cover with epoxy. Any other ideas or that is just the way it is?

From the sound of it you are just fine the way it is, the only thing you would need in the future is to maintain the paint. If the bushing is already installed I don't understand what you mean by 'extra work to drill out hole, install bushing, and cover with epoxy'.

 

[HillbillyWanderer]

My bad, what I meant was that the plastic bushings "spacers" on on the side to the keel to keep it from moving back and forth.

 

[CloudDiver]

My bad, what I meant was that the plastic bushings "spacers" on on the side to the keel to keep it from moving back and forth.

You are correct that it is a ton of work to drill out that hole to 1.25" and install the stainless bushing. Then again, if you have the correct tapered ream (or can borrow one) its not too bad of a job and would totally worth it.
If your keel is really good shape to begin with and the existing 1 inch pin hole is also good I would recommend this; Take the pin out and clean the hole really good with a solvent like acetone. Do a light wire brushing with a round wire brush cleaner they sell at Home Depot for cleaning copper pipes before soldering, wash the hole again with acetone or denature alcohol. Then just use a small paint brush to put a liberal coating of epoxy resin inside the hole and let it cure. Use a round backed small file to clean up the hole to ensure the keel pin goes back in smooth, the grease it with waterproof marine grease, done. The epoxy will help prevent premature wear to the pin and seal the cast iron in the hole from water intrusion.
On second thought, before you do any of the above, just check out that hole with pin out closely. You mentioned that the keel had been redone just before you bought the boat so this step may have been done already! Regardless, the one thing that prevent keel pin wear is eliminating side to side motion at the keel hanger brackets. You said there was plastic spacers or washers on the keel pin to prevent slop, which tells me you probably still have the old style bronze hangers. You could spring for the new hangers which will eliminate that spacing, but measure twice if you install them. Mine are wide enough that the rub and scrape the edges of the keel hard enough to scrape off paint, so I either need to mill down the inside face of the hangers a few thousandths or sand down my keel around the pin pivot to make it a little thinner. I think I will get my spacing right by just using a file on the hangers a little and then sanding a bit of filler off the keel, probably less than 1/16 inch on either side. Measure twice, adjust, and measure again!

To make the best judgment based on the opinions of everyone here who has done this job, post some pics with a close up of the keel pin hole... Lets have a look!

 

[CloudDiver]

Damn! Cold weather and rain forecast for this weekend... Not sure how much I will be able to do paint wise. May have to modify the plan, hmm...

 

[CloudDiver]

Prime-Kote on Hull complete (2 coats). Tipping wasn't so nice, there will be a fair bit of wet-sanding needed. Before I do the top coat I am going to try to find a better tipping brush, 3rd attempt.

 

[CloudDiver]

This is my desk calendar at work. My favorite morning ritual is making the notes on the steps I have completed related to painting and the blister repair, keeping track of total drying time.

 

[CloudDiver]

Foiled again!

Well, its raining today... a lot. You'd think that isn't an issue for me because I can work in my shop, but the plan today was to wet sand the 2nd coat of primer and the topcoat of Brightsides I just put on the rub rail area. I'd rather do this outside because it gets messy, but I'm not working out in the rain... Well, maybe I'll just sit here and get my taxes knocked out so I can order my new Tohatsu Sail Pro. I hope they have a spring sale coming up!

Here is a teaser to the final color. I painted the rub rail area so I can get the aluminum channel screwed back on and bedded with a Sikaflex 291. Getting it knocked out now helps prevent damage to the rub rail when moving the cradle in and out of the shop door, and having it already finish painted I won't have to fuss with taping it off a dozen times! Still not planning to paint the hull sides until the bottom coatings are complete.

 

[CloudDiver]

A quick side project

I put this together Friday afternoon/evening. With the measurement I took from the keel pocket I am really afraid that my keel won't fully extend down without ripping off all the paint on the keel itself, especially around the pin/hangers and in the pocket itself.

4 Sheets of Elmers Foam craft board and a can of spray adhesive for about $25 at the craft store. 3 sheets are 1/2 inch, 1 sheet of 3/16". With a film of adhesive between each board brings the total thickness of 4 boards from 1 & 11/16" to about 1 & 13/16", just a 1/16 over the 1.75" I measured as the narrowest part at the top of my keel trunk.

I cut it out exactly to the overall shape of the top section of my keel and carefully located the keel pin hole. I have given it a rough shaping and tried it out by mounting it and turning it up and down. It is still very sticky and not going into the full down position.

I am going to wax the keel pin and wrap it in some glass tape wet out with epoxy to make a tube. I'll epoxy that tube into place to give the keel pin hole some real strength, flexing the model while mounted and it still being so sticky is stressing the hole and could blow it out, the foam isn't too strong there have bored through it with a 1 inch forstner bit.

Anyway, I'll use a little bondo to build up areas that can be thicker and tweak the final shape until it gives the perfect guide to use to ensure keel will function properly. As it is I am going to have to grind off the keel spacers I installed... I think CD screwed the pooch on those instructions. More on that later.

 

[$tingy Sailor]

Hey, Luke

Your measurements sound off compared to mine (#10330). Why is your keel so thick at that end and your pocket so narrow? My keel is about 1-1/2" thick on the pocket end. It doesn't need to be built up or foil shaped beyond a 60 degree angle just aft of the pivot pin, which is where the water flow starts. And my pocket is 2-1/16" wide at the lock bolt, which is next to my 1/4" spacers bonded onto the keel.

You should have more than enough clearance for lowering the keel plus enough for the spacers.

 

[CloudDiver]

Sounds about right, 2 1/16 tapering up to 1.5, where mine is 1.75 at pocket end. When I put the epoxy filler in I only filled voids and pits up to the level of the cast iron. I guess I just built up too much beyond that with the following layers without thinking it would matter. My spacers are placed very close to the CD recommended location but I'm certain I have to grind them off now. I doubt I will even need to replace them, but I have an idea of where they will go if I buy another set.

Hey, Luke

Your measurements sound off compared to mine (#10330). Why is your keel so thick at that end and your pocket so narrow? My keel is about 1-1/2" thick on the pocket end. It doesn't need to be built up or foil shaped beyond a 60 degree angle just aft of the pivot pin, which is where the water flow starts. And my pocket is 2-1/16" wide at the lock bolt, which is next to my 1/4" spacers bonded onto the keel.

You should have more than enough clearance for lowering the keel plus enough for the spacers.

 

[CloudDiver]

I got an afternoon window of sunshine yesterday and got the 2nd coat of Steel Grey onto the rub rail area. With that area painted I could re-mount the rub rail. I taped it in place, making sure the sections were seated with the ends butted together, then pilot drilled all the screw holes. Masking tape was keeping it mostly in place, but not tight against the hull so I went ahead and put just a few screws in each piece. They are on good and snug for now. I'll take them back off again later so I can bed them properly and install the remaining screws. For now the channel is providing protection as I move the hull in and out of the shop doors, and I haven't ordered the replacement Vinyl extrusion yet. Its good as it is now, I'll get back to this when the paint is finished.

 

[CloudDiver]

Back to the motor mount... I had soaked the components for several days in my de-scaler solution to get the corrosion build up out of the tubes and clean off the running rust. Below is the before and after.
You can also see in the pic the new bronze bushings I got from Garhauer. Funny thing about those, the flange on half of them is twice as thick as the others. In the pic you can see this on the first set pressed into the tubing. I'll have to call them tomorrow and ask why they do this and where they should be placed. The original plastic bushing flanges were all uniform thickness.

 

[CloudDiver]

For sh!ts and giggles, here is what was left of the original bolts. I had to cut the heads off and pound them out with a punch because the aluminum tubes had basically exploded and seized everything inside the stainless tube; (what is left here is after days of soaking in de-scaler to get rid of all the white chalky corrosion so you can actually see what aluminum remains, it was way messier when they came out)

 

[CloudDiver]

As of this Friday it is 30 days since I completed sanding off the bottom paint. After having a chat with a friend who restores wooden boats (but did plenty of work on fiberglass hulls) he assured me that 30 days (plus it having been out of water since September, stored indoors, inverted, with gelcoat gone) was probably plenty of drying time for my thickness of hull. So I'm excited to carry on with completing the bottom job, I'll roll on the first coat of epoxy resin Friday night and fill the blisters I ground out over the weekend. Hopefully the following weekend I'll have the first coat of Interprotect on.

 

[CloudDiver]

Christmas in March... Happy Tax Refund season!