Brian and Steve, Thanks for the input. I pretty much did the feeler gauge trick. I used a sawzall with a 12 inch blade and then a wood saw. I got some rust down but not big chunks. More like dust. I then went to more desperate measures! hahaha I basically installed a trailer winch to winch the keel down. (You'll have to look at the pics on my site to see what the heck I mean.) That worked awesome...till the pendant broke. UGH! So then I basically drilled a half inch hole in the exposed keel, installed a dowell that I could strike with a hammer and beat it out the rest of the way. I've got pics of all this stupid stuff on the site. Thankfully, after two days its pretty much out. Now I can get back to the fun stuff, Lookout blisters here I come! Thanks again everyone for all the great ideas and help. If you're bored and wnat to check out the pics they're at www.havasumontgomerys.funtigo.com go to the Bottom/blister job page and scroll to the latest update from 12/31/05 Happy New Year!!! Sean