Don
Thanks for the idea of flooding the keel compartment with nitrogen. That would probably keep the rust at bay if I was confident that I could keep that area sealed and void of air (specifically o2). I don't know how I could inject the nitrogen and then get the compartment sealed quickly enough to be confident that there was no air in there. But.....The rusting process is already under way. I'm not sure but I'm wondering if there had already been some swelling of the keel itself that aided in sticking the swing keel in there. At this point, I think its probably a better move to just get the steel out of there and replace it with lead. That way, should moisture ever invade that compartment again at least I won't have to deal with the rust issue. I also thought that I may weigh the swing keel. I would think that it has had to of lost a signifigant portion of its weight from all the corrosion that was removed from it. Since lead is denser by quite a bit than steel, I should be able to add back the missing weight by placing a little bit more into the keel itself. It will be interesteing to see what the weight of the swing keel is down to now. What I have seen on paper is that it should weigh in around 360 lbs. I'm not sure if that is the right number, 'cause honestly, we've been able to manhandle it around pretty easily. At least compared to what I expected. I'm thinking that it is considerably less than 360 now. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
