Clean the steel, glue it on with epoxy, making sure to smear glue on all of the sticky side (to seal the metal) and when dry, paint with rex oxide paint (likely the colour of the bottom of the boat anyway. I mean of course that the strip of steel is stuck on flat, not hanging down on one side!
You say the hull is finished? Underneath you only need to rough up the paint for sufficient adhesion. Any remedial filling work is right underneath so will not affect the finish of the sides assuming that you mean you have painted this already.
Agreeing with Ray, I would try the hull out soon-as and decide if internal ballast works ok first. It is easy to see the difference as attaching a temporary keel underneath only takes a bit of masking tape.
To be honest, for the amount of time that the boat is in the water, the likelihood of rust is minimal.
I used a steel strip because I had some handy, but builders merchants sell roof ties, which are thickish, and plated for rust prevention, at reasonable cost. They are perforated with holes but this is easily remedied by a swoosh of filler.
I would still advocate slightly oversize bilge keels or fins.
Ashley
Edited By ashley needham on 05/07/2019 09:48:42
Edited By ashley needham on 05/07/2019 09:50:53