Fixing Our Zinc Mounts | Welding Stainless Studs & Bristle Blaster Profiling On Our Steel Hull

The Alaskan Gypsy already had bolt-on zincs — but not the right kind. The old setup used weld-on zinc bars that were drilled and forced into service as bolt-ons. The spacing was never quite right perfect, making every zinc change awkward and not something you'd want to do holding your breath underwater! In this episode, I cut off the old studs and weld in new stainless studs set to the industry-standard diver-friendly spacing. While I’m at it, working on the hull with my dad, I welded over some micro rust corrosion pits with the BestArc mig welder and, clean up the flash rust from jack stand spots with the Bristle Blaster, maintaining the sandblast profile before paint. I'm getting to know this little welder and figuring out the bristle blaster's strengths and weaknesses as I use them both more. In this video: • Cutting off the old mis-spaced zinc studs • Welding new stainless studs with modern spacing • Cleaning flash rust with the Bristle Blaster • Addressing an area the sand blaster couldn't solve • Grinding, checking alignment, and prepping for primer We have our zinc based primer on and we are busy dialing in the details before epoxy barrier coating. Zincs and a few little spots. ⸻ ⏱️ Chapters – “Zincs & Steel | Fixing Our Zinc Mounts” 00:00 Intro – What’s going on under the hull 00:38 Flash-rust and jack-stand spots after blasting 01:12 Why the old zinc setup never fit right 02:03 Cutting off the old mis-spaced studs 03:05 The corrosion pocket the sandblaster missed 04:00 Welding over tiny rust pits with the wire-feed MIG 04:52 Grinding and bristle-blasting the repaired area 05:28 Laying out the new stainless-stud pattern 06:15 Tacking in the new studs and checking alignment 07:25 Finishing welds with 7018 stick 08:10 Fitting the diver-friendly zincs on correct spacing 09:05 Surface cleanup before primer 09:45 Wrap-up – ready for paint and the next stage #AlaskanGypsy #SteelBoat #BoatRefit #ZincAnodes #ShipyardLife #Welding #HullRepair #BristleBlaster #DiverFriendlyZincs #MarineCorrosion #boatrestoration #sailboatrefit Kool Kats by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/