Restoration of 1981 C-22 swing keel #10580

[CloudDiver]

I had mentioned before how I got some cheap fiberglass solid rod to use as plugs on vertical surfaces. I noticed the bumper on the starboard support leg of my boarding ladder hung over the edge of the transom near the waterline. The simple solution is to raise the mounting holes 3/4". I over-bored the original holes to 3/8". I put a piece of blue tape on the inside and used slightly thickened epoxy to glue in 1 inch plugs of the fiberglass rod (which I sanded first, then cut to 1 inch). After the epoxy cured I used a Japanese Pull-Saw to cut off the excess as close as possible and then sanded flush. I used this same method when filling the motor mount holes, however the fiberglass rod for those was 5/8 inch. Same for rudder mounts, using 3/8" rod, but they will be re-drilled in the same place leaving a nicely glass lined hole all the way through.

 

[CloudDiver]

A small investment in tools can go a long way. When working with fiberglass, and especially if sanding bottom paint, dust control is a big deal. Last summer I bought the "Dust Deputy" to augment my Shop-Vac for dust control. It works on the same Venturi principal that Dyson Vacs use as well as large dust control systems for wood shops. Cool thing is this Dust Deputy only costs $40 and works with any Shop Vac with the addition of an extra hose set and a 5 Gal bucket. The Venturi traps the dust is a cyclone that falls down into the bucket so none of the fine dust ever hits your shop-vac's filter... this saves time and money on cleaning or replacing filters which are quickly clogged by fine fiberglass and paint dust. The beauty here is you don't need a HUGE Shop Vac either. Because the dust is collected in the 5 Gal bucket you don't need to worry about buying a shop-vac with a high capacity collection bin, and you also don't need big HP vac motor for massive suction. The big box stores have smaller shop-vacs that run about $49 and they provide plenty of suction for an orbital sander or belt sander, plus the filter never gets clogged. Plus, the smaller vacs are easier to move around and inside the hull while drawing way less amps than the big ones.
Anyway, I hooked this baby up to my Dewalt 5 inch orbital sander and cleaned up the transom... Holy Crap! I could see no visible dust coming from the edges of the sander shoe but I could clearly see the dust swirling in the plastic cone of the Dust Deputy! Nice!
BTW, the dust you see all over in this pic did not come from the transom, this was from finish sanding the keel and I did not have the unit hooked up to the sander at the time. I got a fine coat of dust all over my garage that took an entire day to clean up! D'oh!

 

[CloudDiver]

Coming soon... I also picked up a second engine hoist off CL for $100. I am trying to get everything ready to flip the hull so I can sand and re-paint the bottom... waiting on Stingy Sailor to post his article about painting Cove and Boot Stripes! I need to have a good plan of attack because I want to roll everything concurrently, not having to seal and store any portions of the mixed epoxy paints. I've had a blasted cold all this week so I haven't touched the boat in a few days.
Hey Don, I've got all the heavy equipment, 2 Cherry pickers, 2 floor lifts, and 4 boat stands plus the Keel Cradle so when I'm done we can tackle that swing keel hull you've been procrastinating on, LOL!

 

[CaptDon01]

Nice work Luke, now all I need is a keel!

Don

 

[CloudDiver]

Capt Don, from memory I know that swing keel looked pretty bad but comparing what I remember to what mine looked like after it came back from sand blasting I'm almost convinced it may be salvageable? The acid test would be to dismount it and weigh it. If it were to be less than 450 lbs I would imagine that it has lost too much cast iron to save... but if it were still around 500 it may be fine to fill and reshape with the high density filler. I guess it would be a waste of $120 in blasting fee and a lot of physical labor to find out that were the case.

Nice work Luke, now all I need is a keel!

Don

 

[CaptDon01]

My concern is the huge flakes of iron that come off, and the iron being impregnated with salt, that the sand blasting wouldn't remove.

 

[$tingy Sailor]

Like Luke discovered, I too can attest to water permeation into a keel. After being out of water for months, when I hammered and ground the several layers of different coatings off my keel, it too sweated moisture for days. These keels are like Swiss cheese! That's one of the reasons I opted for sandblasting instead of Permatex Rust Treatment. Another was it only cost me $83 up here : )

My entire multi-part keel restoration story will be on my blog when the job is finished. Starting fairing this weekend, so it should be a downhill run from here on out.

 

[CloudDiver]

My concern is the huge flakes of iron that come off, and the iron being impregnated with salt, that the sand blasting wouldn't remove.

You would be surprised at how clean the substrate becomes after sandblasting, and there will be some loss of material as well. I wouldn't worry about salt. I used a quite liberal splashing of acetone (more like a gushing rinse) on both sides prior to barrier coating. This was less than 6 hours after blasting on the first side and less than 18 on the second side, but ensures no residual dust (or salt) and displaces any moisture that may be present in from air exposure.

Like I said, I think the biggest judge of how salvageable your keel may be is the weight. Too much loss and its not worth starting. The high density filler in the epoxy is actually almost as strong as steel (or seems like it anyway), and will add some weight but not as dense as the original cast iron.

 

[CloudDiver]

Can't wait to see how it came out... I'm glad you got a good deal on sandblasting. You can back me when up when I make the suggestion to others that sandblasting is well worth the extra expense. When you compare the amount of time, sweat equity, and effectiveness of results between grinding and sanding at home vs. spending a few dollars on blasting... well, we know who the winner is!

Like Luke discovered, I too can attest to water permeation into a keel. After being out of water for months, when I hammered and ground the several layers of different coatings off my keel, it too sweated moisture for days. These keels are like Swiss cheese! That's one of the reasons I opted for sandblasting instead of Permatex Rust Treatment. Another was it only cost me $83 up here : )

My entire multi-part keel restoration story will be on my blog when the job is finished. Starting fairing this weekend, so it should be a downhill run from here on out.

 

[CloudDiver]

The Bomb Proof Forestay

Another topside project I have been fiddle-farting around with, further procrastinating on flipping the hull for bottom paint, is adding some much needed strength to the forestay.

As with most C-22's from this era the plywood backing in the foredeck stops before the forestay bolt foot-print, leaving only the fiberglass even if it is really thick. Luckily my hull must not have experienced heavy forestay loads since there were no signs of buckling in the foredeck. I looked at the CD internal forestay reinforcement kit, but it is twice as expensive as the stem fitting with external tang. Since everything was coming apart anyway I went with the new style stem fitting. I can see how others who do not need to take apart the entire front end of the boat and do a major install would benefit from the internal kit. I'm also going with the stainless bow roller so I ordered that too, it helps locate the area to drill the pocket for the tang.

Here is a pic from inside (upside down) with all the foredeck hardware stripped and that abortion of a chain-pipe removed. I will no longer be stowing my anchor rode in that area to prevent further moisture and the following mildew. I'll keep my chain rode in a velcro closed heavy mash bag and deploy it from the deck, then stow elsewhere once rinsed and dry.

The white around edges is excess thickened epoxy from when I attached the poly backing block for the new style CD bow-eye. You'll see it fully installed in later pics.

 

[CloudDiver]

The Bomb Proof Forestay con't

I cut a template for the area out of some thin cardboard, then I cut the final piece from 1/2" marine ply. The below pic is the piece test fit in place, held in lightly with 3/4" screws. My heavy duty welding clamps are reversible, so you flip the bottom section over and it expands rather than clamps. I braced it against the bow-eye backing block to push the plywood up against the horizontal surface. Well, this didn't work. The 1/2" marine ply is too thick to flex in the middle and mate with curve of the foredeck even if it is only a light curve.

 

[CloudDiver]

The Bomb Proof Forestay con't

So the 1/2" version was a waste, hopefully I can reuse the piece elsewhere. I needed something thinner that would flex. I had some 3/16" finished plywood (birch I think), Home Depot stuff so def not made with marine grade adhesive. Considering that I would do 2 layers with epoxy adhesive and paint out the bottom, plus epoxy pot all the bolt holes I don't think this material is a bad choice (just not the very best). So I used the finished shape of the 1/2" inch thick version to cut out 2 new ones in 3/16".

First I brushed the bare plywood with un-thickened epoxy resin, then I mixed the rest with colloidal silica to peanut butter thickness. I used the slow cure resin, this is important because it takes some time to get everything set in place correctly. I applied a liberal amount of the thickened epoxy adhesive to the underside of the foredeck with a plastic spatula, then more to the mating surface of the plywood. I wanted to make sure I filled any voids in the uneven areas and got good squeeze out. Working under the deck was a tight squeeze and I had to be careful handling the epoxy and anything it touched in the tight quarters.

Here is the first plywood lamination after curing.

 

[CloudDiver]

The Bomb Proof Forestay con't

Adding the second lamination was way easier and used 2/3 the amount of mixed epoxy adhesive as the first go around. Notice on this one I switched the grain direction to fore/aft, so my layers are opposed +/- 90. When I mixed up my thickened epoxy I put it all in a Ziploc bag, cut the bottom corner off, and applied it like a pastry bag. This wasn't need to spatula the adhesive onto the wood surface but it really helped when filling the outside edges. I then used the rounded end of West System plastic mixing stick to dress the beads.

I seem to have forgotten the pic of the second lamination but it looks the same as the first except for the grain direction going fore/aft. This view is obviously from topside. Before the first lamination had kicked off I also inserted a shaped plug from the 1/2" plywood into the hole where the oval chain pipe was. Here is everything sanded down after curing with the new bow roller and stem fitting installed.

Notice that all the holes are filled with epoxy. From the first lamination below deck the thickened epoxy pushed up into the holes. I tooled them level and sanded when cured. I re-drilled them slightly with my countersink bit. They will have to be drilled again all the way through and re-filled with epoxy to seal the two fresh layers of plywood below. The old-style bow light will remain permanently filled since I'm going with a bow-pulpit mounted bi-color light. Notice the hole in the middle of the port side forward foot of the pulpit for the nav light wire to pass below.

With the additional 2 layers of lamination the total deck thickness is just over 1 inch!

 

[CloudDiver]

Here is the Stem tang passing through the deck. You have to bend it a little straight to get it through. I've taped off around the tang so I can file a flat spot for the tang to rest where it will be bedded.

 

[CloudDiver]

Last post for The Bomb Proof Forestay project

I didn't mention that before the last step I re-drilled the mounting holes for the stem fitting/anchor roller. To get the tang to pass through the deck the original mounting holes must be filled and new ones drilled about 3/8" fwd of the original position. I was really careful lining everything up and checked my work twice to make sure the stem fitting and bow roller were nice and straight and that my holes drilled straight through. I put in some temp grade 5 bolts to hold it down, all will be replace by stainless later.

After I had filed the flat spot for the tang to bed I used a plastic dead blow mallet to pound the tang flush with the bow. Then I could drill the 5/16 mounting holes. With that done I could test fit the bolts through the backing block on the inside. Here the flat spot I made to bed the tang , but I have yet to epoxy the tang backing block into place. The funny thing is how the tang bolts and the bow eye bolts don't seem to look like they are in-line, but when looking at the tang and bow-eye/bow-shield from the front of the boat it looks fine...

 

[Time_Out]

Have you tested to make sure you can fish a wire for your pulpit-mounted nav light up through the forward leg of the pulpit all the way to where you need to mount the light? On mine, I had to use the aft leg, as it seemed to be a continuous stainless steel tube. It worked for me. Just thought I might ask before you go to mount the pulpit.

Keep up the good work!

 

[CloudDiver]

I've already drilled through the tube directly above the forward leg, through the top and then through the bottom wall so I have a passage for the 16ga wire ( may use 18ga or even 20 since the LED bulbs draw so little amps). I'll close the hole with my TIG welder. I'll actually be doing a series of posts soon on Stainless Steel modifications to the boat including mounting plates for bow and stern NAV lights plus running the wires, a SS compression post, outboard handrails on the cabin top, round backing plates for pulpit mounting bolts, and beefing up the stern pulpit w/ extra mounting legs while raising the mainsheet traveler up (So you can lift the tiller high enough to step under it and adding a split backstay).
I love welding stainless, my 308L filler rod flows like butter

Have you tested to make sure you can fish a wire for your pulpit-mounted nav light up through the forward leg of the pulpit all the way to where you need to mount the light? On mine, I had to use the aft leg, as it seemed to be a continuous stainless steel tube. It worked for me. Just thought I might ask before you go to mount the pulpit.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Time_Out]

I sure could have used your stainless welding expertise when I had to weld the bracket to my pulpit for my nav light! I had a welder at my mechanic's shop do it, but it looks like he just used regular welding rod. I wasn't happy about that at all, but whatcha gonna do now? Damage has already been done. I coated the welded area with a couple thick coats of epoxy. If it starts to rust, I may have to replace the pulpit and start over with someone who can show me their work, not just tell me they can do it!

 

[CloudDiver]

Stainless has to be welded using the TIG process and stainless filler rod used also. Sounds like the guy just had a regular MIG welder and zapped it on with standard steel wire. That's bad, the weld will begin to rust immediately and crack. That can be repaired without replacing your bow pulpit as long as he didn't do extensive damage to the original tubing. It can be carefully cut off and the regular steel weld bead ground off even if it goes below the surface. Then a new mount plate can be welded on properly by TIG with 308L filler rod and the surface imperfections filled. the tedious part of the job is filing down and smoothing out any repairs the the round tubing. I'm pretty good at it with small sanding discs on a right angle prelatic die grinder followed by different levels of scotch brite pad discs... the result is nearly finish polished. 308L filler rod is a great rod for general use on 304 and 316 stainless. It has great strength, excellent flow, and is also the ideal choice when you don't actually know what grade of stainless your base metal is. There are other filler rod types for stainless that I will look into, since you can opt for greater corrosion resistance at the cost of strength, but for something non structural like the Nav light mount plates strength is no big deal.

Worst case, if he really damaged your pulpit with that weld you wouldn't have to replace the whole thing. Just the foremost bend at the peak could be cut off. A new tube can then be run through a bender to match the hoop and then welded in using two smaller diameter slugs that match the ID of the tube. I have to buy a 20 ft piece of the 1 inch stainless tube for my project so I should have some left over. I'll keep you in mind if you need a piece to make that bend.

I sure could have used your stainless welding expertise when I had to weld the bracket to my pulpit for my nav light! I had a welder at my mechanic's shop do it, but it looks like he just used regular welding rod. I wasn't happy about that at all, but whatcha gonna do now? Damage has already been done. I coated the welded area with a couple thick coats of epoxy. If it starts to rust, I may have to replace the pulpit and start over with someone who can show me their work, not just tell me they can do it!

 

[CloudDiver]

Original Battery Tray

The original wooden battery tray was in poor condition. The plastic guides for the strap were still there but the screws so rusted that the heads popped off with light pressure from a paint scraper pulling up on the plastic. the nails or staples that help the tray sides to the bottom were gone too, I think just the old built up layers of paint were holing it together.

Any, from the persuasion of a hammer and my zombie killer demo-bar/hammer I pulled most of the fragmenting plywood out. Still have some chipping/grinding/sanding to do to get the massive glop of polyester adhesive off the hull bottom.

I'll build two new battery trays from my 1/2" marine plywood and paint them. Wondering if I should relocate them farther forward to try to get some weight off the stern, but I don't want to get too far away from the breaker panel, bus bar, charger etc...

Has anyone else using a dual battery set up moved them farther forward? Pros and Cons?