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Posts: 194
| I found a small crack in the hull of my big ole 14' jon boat. Any suggestions on how I should fix it? |
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Posts: 273
| Depends on the size the crack. If it is small you may be able to fix it with an epoxy or patch material you can get at most boating stores. If it is a decent size crack you are going to want to have it wleded. If you can put your fist through the hole, sell it to your brother-in-law  |
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Posts: 194
| Good one, Peaches. I still need a boat , though. Define Small, Please. The crack in my boat is aout 1" X 1/16". It's right at the end of a reinforcement. |
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Posts: 273
| For peace of mind I would have it welded. With a crack that size you could go either way though. I am not sure what you mean by a reinnforcement, but it sounds like there should be plenty of metal to put a bead on. A good welder should have you back in business in 10 minutes including prep work. |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | JB Weld. Lots of it. Use one of those wire brush attachments for a drill to clean it up, first. m |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Lebanon,Mo | I was thinkin mother-in-law........ |
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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 |
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