| Coronado 35 Log (Big Kahuna Gets New Bottom Paint) |
| Date: March 7-14, 2009 |
 |
| Click here to go back to Don's Coronado 35 Homepage |
| Quantico and northern Virginia have been cold throughout the winter. Even though the boat was on the hard, little got accomplished in the snow. When the boat was pulled last fall, I scraped the barnacles and muscles and powerwashed her. Still, the rust remained. See picture to right. First thing this spring was to prepare the hull. No worries, the glass was easy to sand. The first step in keel restoration was to grind and sand the rust. Would have liked to sand blast, but equipment and environmental issues prevented it. Once cleaned, I put a coat of Locktite Rust Treatment on to chemically neutralize any remaining rust. See picture below: |
 |
| Back to the ship's log (Jan - Mar 2009) |
|
|
 |
 |
| Once the rust nuetralizer was applied, I checked the keel again bow to stern. There are several old pock marks and one small dent to port which need to be fared with epoxy. Then I applied two coats of POR-15. The stuff is advertised to stop rust permanently, even on marine surfaces. We'll see {skepticism}!!! Their site is: www.por15.com Picture of the POR-15 coated keel is below. It took two coats to get good coverage. As you can tell, the keel looks considerably better. |
 |
| Note: after she sat for a few days, I noticed a couple small spots of rust begin to form on the POR treated keel. The stuff hardens very nicely, but it is very thin when you apply it. I had to sand a little and apply a third coat. If you use this stuff, make sure you get great coverage. Brush on several thin coats rather than thick ones, allowing each to cure, lightly sanding between.. Three coats on this keel only took one quart. |
 |
| Special Thanks: How many guys have a girl who will help them sand and paint the bottom? One in a million, right? Yup, here she is!!! Gail helped mask off the boot stripe and she even rolled the first coat of paint onto the hull. HOW AWESOME IS SHE? |
|
 |
| Finally, Big Kahuna with three coats of ablative bottom paint, ready to launch! We also custom matched the color of the blue paint and did the transom. Had to fully remove the old name before re-christening her. It was a big project. Years from now, the intent is to return her to the Coronado 35 orginally color scheme. Funds allowing, we'll get her professionally gelcoated. For now: we're ready to enjoy a broad reach down the channel! Pass the margaritas! |