Keel bolt

Most of the keel bolts are in reasonable condition I have removed the rust where necessary and given them a coat of rust treatment and painted them however there is one in the battery locker which has a heavily corroded head and the plate washer has completely disintegrated I suspect that there may have possibly been a spillage of battery acid which has eaten away the bolt head and plate whatever the cause this bolt needs to be replaced. I have borrowed some heavy sockets and a 65:1 geared socket drive. these were originally intended for the removal of lorry wheel nuts but ideal when a great deal of effort is required in a confined space as to reach the bolt with a socket would require two extension bars and the consequent loss of effort that this arrangement brings.

65:1 Socket drive

Keel bolt note absence of plate 

For the first attempt at removing the bolt I chipped off as much rust as possible and then found a socket which was a tight fit on the head of the bolt and hammered it on and then fitted the geared drive.

65:1 socket drive in place

I applied a spanner to the input of the drive and started turning the socket started moving but all that happened unfortunately was that it rounded off the bolt head and as I had not got a smaller socket that I was willing to drive onto the bolt It was a case of retire and think of a plan 'B'. 

While thinking about plan 'B' I got on with painting some of the locker fronts panels for the heads and the galley and started lining the crockery stowage and the wine locker with some of the van lining carpet off-cuts that I had left over from the headlining no photographs I am afraid.

After searching through my toolbox I came up with plan'B' for the keel bolt I had some short flogging ring spanners which I hadn't used in anger probably for about 45 years and so today I had another go at the keel bolt. After selecting a ring spanner which would be a tight fit I hammered it onto the remains of the bolt head and proceeded to try and loosen the bolt and after much effort I managed to turn it about one turn in the right direction all the time hoping that I would not shear off the head. By the time that I had moved the bolt that far the head was getting more rounded off and the spanner refused to grip it so I gave up for the day I will need to dress the bolt head and fit a slightly smaller spanner for the next attempt.

To finish up the day I marked out the galley worktop for the new sink which had arrived on Wednesday the intention being to cut out the openings for the sink and the mixer tap over the weekend. All in all its been a bit of a frustrating week with only limited progress but hey ho these things happen.