Chrysler Sailors Forum

Wanted to share my keel restoration pix as I get ready to install her. As you can see, I had the usual deep pitting and scaring. Quite an ordeal with my power grinder using grinding wheels, cutoffs, and wire brushes.
Punched out the old sleeve and pressed in a new stainless steel sleeve with 3/4 inch bore for beefier support.
Also, capped it with flanges each side to support the sleeve ends.
The keel epoxy filler is Simpson Strong-Tie FX-738 Metal-Filled Epoxy Paste.--->>>>Product PDF<<<-----

Powerful stuff and reasonably priced.
After final sanding, brushing, and cleaning painted with Rust-Oleum High Performance C9578 System Coal Tar Epoxy
3 coats thinned at 12% each, waiting 24 hours between each coat. Great stuff and economical. Gallon runs about $75 from McMaster-Carr. After waste, still had 1/2 gallon left.
The trick with this stuff is to apply all coats and forget it for a week and come back. It takes about that much time for it to fully harden into a very hard, durable finish.
I plan to add two coats of Sherwin Williams Macropoxy 646 for the final finish



More to come as I finish this phase...

nice set of photos (thanks) and good job.

Beautiful!
Scott

Sweet! Very nice job, and thanks for sharing!

Beautiful job Bob...looks nicer than mine. I also used the coal tar epoxy. I did not thin and only put on two coats, but it seemed to turn out well. Looking forward to see the completion.

dumb question : is the keel one solid piece of forged steel? Doesn't look like cast iron. How did it get so pitted? thanks

Reality wrote:dumb question : is the keel one solid piece of forged steel? Doesn't look like cast iron. How did it get so pitted? thanks

The C22 keel is referred to as a 'shell casting'. It's cast iron over a stainless steel inner plate. A portion of the stainless plate is exposed where the lift cable attaches. My guess is that the inner SS plate extends the full length of the keel to include the sleeve/shaft area.

As for "...How did it get so pitted". My keel was badly rusted. Every layer I cut off with a grinder would show another layer, and so on..I was determined to get all of it. I used both 4.5" and 7" angle grinders with various attachments and as I like to say, 'I went medieval on its ass'

astrorad wrote:Beautiful job Bob...looks nicer than mine. I also used the coal tar epoxy. I did not thin and only put on two coats, but it seemed to turn out well. Looking forward to see the completion.

Bill,...thanks. Glad to see someone else going with the coal tar epoxy. The stuff was so thick I decided it was better to go with multiple thin coats than one or two thick coats. In hindsight I should have stayed unthinned because after 3 coats I'm not sure I have the 20 mil DFT. I posted I was going to overcoat with SW Macropoxy 646. but I've decided instead to apply another unthinned coat of the coal tar epoxy and leave it semi-gloss black..

/Bob

thanks for the additional info about the keel. Again, nice work.

Bob...that sounds like a good plan.

Greetings- I just bought a 1983 C22 (Wellcraft/Starwind) with a missing swing keel. I have checked out a couple of great videos about how to restore, very helpful. Thanks for posting those. Does anyone have an idea where I can find a keel for my new/used boat? Thanks, Harry

Welcome aboard!
Scott

Well, I've located a keel from a 1975 Chrysler 22. Does anyone know if that's the same as the missing keel for my 1983 Wellfleet/Starwind? I suspect it is, but I didn't want to drive 200 miles for nothing. Thanks, Harry