Keel Fairing

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by US27inKS

On my boat the factory had used bondo.

Yep that sure looks like Bondo! Especially with the moisture intrusion discoloration...

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by halekai36

Yep that sure looks like Bondo! Especially with the moisture intrusion discoloration...

Which is why you're not supposed to use BONDO on a boat, especially below the waterline.

[US27inKS]

Originally Posted by halekai36

Yep that sure looks like Bondo! Especially with the moisture intrusion discoloration...

Actually the picture is after fairing with epoxy and phonelic microballoons. Phonelic is a reddish brown plastic of some sort. they used to make distributor caps out of it. The varied coloration is due to the multiple layers that had to be applied because I'm not good enough to do it in one shot.

The reason for me to have a look at the keel joint in the first place was that the bondo was cracking and falling off. There would have been no reason to sand the original bondo so smooth, or at all. I just heated it with a torch and scraped it of. Besides, bondo is pink.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by US27inKS

Actually the picture is after fairing with epoxy and phonelic microballoons. Phonelic is a reddish brown plastic of some sort. they used to make distributor caps out of it. The varied coloration is due to the multiple layers that had to be applied because I'm not good enough to do it in one shot.

The reason for me to have a look at the keel joint in the first place was that the bondo was cracking and falling off. There would have been no reason to sand the original bondo so smooth, or at all. I just heated it with a torch and scraped it of. Besides, bondo is pink.

So what's with all the "crazing", "cracking" and "fissuring" looking areas in that photo?? It looks ratehr delineated to be feathering marks but the pic quality is very low.

That's quite odd & I've never experienced that with epoxy? Polyester, yes, due to shrinkage, but epoxy no....

Also when I mix with epoxy the filler layers, color wise, are not anywhere near that visible or discernible, like they are with a colored creme hardener product such as Bondo..

Which Epoxy and what hardener did you use??

This is how I'm used to seeing multiple fairing layers look.

Photo Linked From Triton381

[US27inKS]

Yes the pic quality is low. Size limitations and all. There is always a visible line between layers of filler materials no matter what the material. The reason it is so easily seen is that the pic was taken after coating it with a layer of epoxy resin to help seal it. This made the color differences stand out. You can see that there is a reflection on part of the keel toward the rear. Add a camera flash, and they really stand out. Some of the straighter lines were due to using an old spreader that left lines in the filler, and were filled with the next layer.

I never was very good at spreading filler so that it gets done in 1 or 2 shots. My keel has about 1/4 inch difference between the stub and the lead. It only took me about 5 tries to get it right.