help repairing an aluminum jon boat

[SFC Hall]

I was just given and old Sears Jon boat. The seats are broken away from the hull, the transome is rotted the bottom is dented and it leaks...

the question is... what do I use to seal the bottom? it has a lot of small leaks... will the fiberglass resin stick? then what can I do to paint it? it is just the unpainted aluminum... very thin stuff. I will make new ply wood seats and glass them in, but again, will the glass stick? I have never used it with aluminum.

thanks for you guys help...

[Peter E.]

Hey Bud nice to see another member to the forum. Judgeing from the problems you mentioned I would recomend the following:

To the Seats:

Take the seats and try to place them back into theiroriginal positions   and bore out the old rivites and rerivite the seats back into position.

As to the Transom:

That is rather easy to fix, if you will look check the underside of the transome board and there should be a L shaped peice of metal holding the transom board in position along the bottom of the transom. If not simply replace the bolts holding in the transom boards.

Onward to the dent: to be honest I would look to find a 4x4 peice of wood that will go under the place that is dented and if it goes for two or three of the bottom channels the use as many as nessescary to brace under the dents and take a 1/2 inch peice of ply wood cut to the size of the area that is covered by the dent. The take however much weight you need to press it flat you can use sand bags or if what ever will give you the weight. Let that sit for a week and check it. do it until it holds its form. The hardest thing to do to metal is to take a bend out of it.

Finally the hole in the bottom:

you should not I repeat not use fiber glass. though it will stick it will not work well because the aluminum will flex and it will not. Jb weld is about the same. The best thing to do is to bite the bullet and let an experienced welder take care of that. I tried the fiber glass on my boat and the jb weld and I had to keep fixing it. Now I got it welded and never have any problems.

As to painting it I would sand it to kind of ruff it up the prime it and then paint it. The paint will stop the small leaks that are so easy to miss.

Well good luck and happy fishing.

Peter

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

No,resin won't stick.  Correction,...it will,..but not for very long.

If you drill out leaking rivets, replace with a tapered head bolt w/ nut and a drop of 3m 5200 on each.  The rivets used on jon boats are "stamped" rivets.  Not the same thing you load in your rivet gun.

Careful who you let weld the boat if that's an option.  You can trash the whole boat in seconds.

coat the board you use for the transom with resin before installing.

[Peter E.]

I am in total agreement with LBH on being careful on who you let weld your boat. And thatnks LBH I would never have thought to mention the difference with the rivits.

Peter

[flechero]

While I agree 100% with the suggestion of an experienced aluminum welder, that may not be the most practical solution. A good welder can be very expensive. Considering this is an old boat that's had a rough life already, the repair bill and time spent may cost more than the boat is worth, or even a new jon boat.

It may not be the perfect option but glass works. I used fiberglass resin on the rivits of my jon boat, it lived in the boathouse for 4 years (in the water) and did not take a single drop of water in. Before I glassed the rivits, I had to dump the water out every few hours and keep it on land. The trick is to use a high speed drill and a wire brush to prep the areas and wipe with acetone a few minutes before applying the glass resin. (the project took a total of 2 hours and $20 to complete)  I have also glassed 2 other boats for friends that had similar results.  I think the trick is to just cover the rivets, not the whole bottom.  Mine looked like a polka dotted hull of little 2" circles of resin over all the rivets... but the bass don't care.

I really hate to disagree with Peter and L_B_H since they are certainly more experienced with aluminum boats than me, but if done right, glass is a cheap, easy way to fix the problem... not permanantly but for a good while.

[robe0531]

i had a few rivites leaking on my boat and i used an item from cabelas that is made to fix the leaks around rivits and small holes it worked great cost about 6 bucks  i have not had a problem with it at all the stuff flexes with the boat and can be painted

here is the link for it at cabelas

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0001390010655a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&QueryText=boat+patch&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=boat+patch&noImage=0

give it a shot worked great for me and can save big money on a welder