Struts and Rudder Ports

     If you look at my post from February 6, 2011, there is a picture of the strut when I was pulling the cutlass bearings. As you can see, the surface of the strut is slightly pitted, and covered with barnacles and surface corrosion.The bedding compound is also in rough condition near the outer edges. So, my wife and I spent an afternoon scraping out the sloppily applied bedding compound from around the edges of both struts, and both rudder ports. I then ran an air line out to the boat, and used one of those small, residential sized sandblasters, along with a flexible sanding disc mounted on a grinder, to strip all four castings down to bare metal.

     I was very careful to thoroughly clean the area between the hull and the castings, to assure a proper bond for the 3M 5200 adhesive sealant, which was applied immediately after the sandblasting. I filled the entire void area around the castings, and fared the sealant smooth to minimize turbulence and drag. 5200 takes at least a week to cure, so I am leaving it alone for a while now, and moving on to other projects. My goal is to paint the struts and rudder ports while I am doing the barrier coating of the hull, but it will be a few weeks before I get to that. In the meantime, I am going to work inside the hull, on this new arrival...

     More to come...