Posts: 2686
Location: Hayward, WI | My boat developed a crack in it last season, and it was an easy but solid fix.
First thing I would do it drill a small hole directly at both ends of the crack (with the bit just drilling THROUGH the ends of the crack). This will keep the crack from getting longer. Then get a scrap piece of aluminum, and a tube of silicone, some rivets, and a rivet gun.
Squeeze/squish as much silicone up into the crack as you can, then put a generous amount around it. Drill some holes for the rivets through the hull and the aluminum patch. Coat the heads and shaft of the rivets with silicone as much as you can, and install them with the rivet gun.
Just be careful to have silicone around everything that could leak. Silicome every hole you drilled, smear some on every rivet, etc.
I fished hard the rest of the year using this repair, and it didn't leak one bit.
I researched the right way to fix cracks. Some people said that you can weld, but often times welding will stress the aluminum enough that you will develop a NEW crack right next to the weld. A lot of what I read actually said that patching is probably a more durable way to do it. Also, if something IS wrong with your patch you can just drill out the rivets and do it over.
Another thing. If your boat doesn't have a floor, you can use the clean looking rivets that you find on boats. I didn't want to take the floor out of my boat, so we just used pop rivets, but like I said - no problems.
curleytail |
