frick
Member III
Greetings to all,
My 1971 E29, lives in the water, I normally only short hall for a week or so to do my bottom work every year or so.
This year i pulled before Hurricane Sandy visited NY. On veterans day Monday, it was a nice day so i started to prep my bottom. While cleaning my folding prop, I was dripped upon. I water came out of the top of my rudder. From around the rudder post. Upon more inspection I discovered that I had about a 1/2 inch of play in the rudder. Damn.
The knowledge bank in my yard said it was time to pull the rudder. We discussed several repair plans, and I brought the bad boy home.
West Systems suggested to methods
A: Drill a pile of holes and over a long time dry it out, and inject epoxy.
B: Cut out a barn door size hole and remove the form and inspect the welds.
c: Call Foss Foam and have a new one made.
I decided to start with plan A as it was the least invasive.
I started drilling holes in a one inch pattern until i hit that nice hard dry white foam (a sign that my rudder was made by Foss and not in the Ericson plant. Ericson was to have used a yellow colored foam.)
Using this method I discovered that the water was only in the top 5 inches of the rudder in the leading edge fat foam section, and a about 8 inches down the post. I have now drilled about one hundred 3.8s holes, and the water is coming out slowly. I have used the shop vac, and have a fan running over the holed 24/7.
The good news... The water was mostly clear and not rusty. And the foam is returning to white as it dries.
I have been thinking about how to test the welds with doing the barn door cut...
While drilling, I have found some of the bar stock that is welded to the rudder post. I'm thinking that I place a drill bit on that metal and have a few friends hold and torque the runner post, if the metal moves it must still be attached. If that's true, i will after drying time is over, do my epoxy injection.
Hows is that logic?
My 1971 E29, lives in the water, I normally only short hall for a week or so to do my bottom work every year or so.
This year i pulled before Hurricane Sandy visited NY. On veterans day Monday, it was a nice day so i started to prep my bottom. While cleaning my folding prop, I was dripped upon. I water came out of the top of my rudder. From around the rudder post. Upon more inspection I discovered that I had about a 1/2 inch of play in the rudder. Damn.
The knowledge bank in my yard said it was time to pull the rudder. We discussed several repair plans, and I brought the bad boy home.
West Systems suggested to methods
A: Drill a pile of holes and over a long time dry it out, and inject epoxy.
B: Cut out a barn door size hole and remove the form and inspect the welds.
c: Call Foss Foam and have a new one made.
I decided to start with plan A as it was the least invasive.
I started drilling holes in a one inch pattern until i hit that nice hard dry white foam (a sign that my rudder was made by Foss and not in the Ericson plant. Ericson was to have used a yellow colored foam.)
Using this method I discovered that the water was only in the top 5 inches of the rudder in the leading edge fat foam section, and a about 8 inches down the post. I have now drilled about one hundred 3.8s holes, and the water is coming out slowly. I have used the shop vac, and have a fan running over the holed 24/7.
The good news... The water was mostly clear and not rusty. And the foam is returning to white as it dries.
I have been thinking about how to test the welds with doing the barn door cut...
While drilling, I have found some of the bar stock that is welded to the rudder post. I'm thinking that I place a drill bit on that metal and have a few friends hold and torque the runner post, if the metal moves it must still be attached. If that's true, i will after drying time is over, do my epoxy injection.
Hows is that logic?
