Saildrive pitting/corrosion

[fontmell]

Hello - Anyone refurbished the exterior of a saildrive

Please advise the best way to clean up and ensure protection
I am assuming sand down
Use some kind of 'salt remover' any recommendations
Then what to coat it with? Is a filler necessary?

Thanks in advance

 

[vyv_cox]

I would abrade with progressively finer grades of wet and dry finishing with 600. If the pitting is very bad you could try filling them with JB Weld. The manufacturer's coating is essential, don't try to economise on that.

 

[RichardS]

I sand mine down with coarse sandpaper 80 / 100 / 120 to remove old loose antifoul and key any bare metal (not that there is much of that these days) and then use a few coats of primer, Primocon or whatever, and a few coats of Trilux 33 antifoul. That lasts for a couple of years before it needs doing again. It seems to be doing the trick because my saildrive anodes last several years.

Richard

 

[Cantata]

Something like JBWeld sounds the job, after suitable prep work. Note that if your saildrive anode is firmly attached and doing its job, you should not get any pitting or corrosion, at all !! I am somewhat paranoid about this, and when I change the anode I always go to extra lengths to ensure the mating surfaces are very clean, the screws are as tight as poss plus using thread lock, and I paint antifouling over the screwheads and over a small area of the anode around each one to be as certain as I can be that the anode will stay put.
New saildrive legs are frighteningly expensive!

 

[bigwow]

Several years ago I had props with no anodes and one of my saildrives lost some of it's paint. I sanded with production paper then gave the bare patches several coats of epoxy. It was quite handy that a neighbours boat in the yard was having the hull epoxied and I had what was left in the paint tray after every coat, so the saildrive ended up with about eight coats. Still fine approx ten years later.

 

[Yngmar]

Ours had no pitting, but if it did, I can highly recommend International Watertite for filling/fairing metal parts under water. Used it to fair the lead keel and fill some pitting on the aluminium rudder bearing housing. All still there.

For the saildrive (and propeller), I've cleaned off the remainders of old paint with an abrasive nylon brush wheel on a power drill, then used this excellent aluminium etch primer and finally Velox plus antifouling.

For touching up the gearbox, Volvo grey spray paint.