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 Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums
 General Sailing Forum
 Filling and fairing keel rust
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Volksaholic
1st Mate

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55 Posts

Initially Posted - 03/27/2022 :  13:02:52  Show Profile
I've got an '81 Catalina 25 with the iron fin keel that was kept in the Great Salt Lake for a number of years and then stored on the trailer for the last 5 years due to declining health of one of the owners. I'm scraping the bottom paint to start prepping to refresh it but there are also some fairly deep blisters of rust on the keel. I'm looking for advice for the best way to repair them. If it matters, it looks like I'll be storing it on the hard most of this summer at a freshwater lake while we see if Utah is going to recover from our drought or if the GSL turns into a mini Sahara Desert.

My gut tells me to at least grind/chisel down to at least solid material. I've used rust converter type products on auto rust with good result but I don't know if that's appropriate with the filler(s) I'll need to re-fair the keel. I'm also considering brushing on thin epoxy followed by a silica thickened epoxy to fill the cavities, followed by epoxy or epoxy/'glass to seal it up.

Does that seem like a solid plan or is there a better proven approach to doing this repair? I was surprised that I didn't find any other questions about this because I can't imagine I'm the first one to deal with it, but either I wasn't searching properly or everyone else already knows what to do.

I'm sure pics would help. I've got some from when I bought it, but yesterday was the first time I started knocking the crust out to see how bad it is so I need to get some fresh pics.

Thanks,
Paul
1981 Catalina 25 TRFK

Paul
1981 Catalina 25 TR/FK
Soon to be named either Fiddler's Dream or Fool's Errand depending on what it takes to get her into shape
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