Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help pond boat

i just acquired a 10 foot alum. flat bottom (john) boat that appears to be seeping from rivets about a beercan per 15 minutes. nothing i cant live with.....however, would like to collect suggestions on how to tighten her up.

thanks in advance for any thoughts....


D.I.E.D.

I use silicone on the bottom of the rivets. It seems to work better than doing it inside the boat. Expect to refresh every couple of years.

I have fixed these with epoxy over the rivets inside and out. It works for a couple of years.

Take it to a good weld shop. The rivets never hold no matter what you do. It is cheaper to rivet than weld, so boat builders rivet. A good shop with a TIG should be able to weld all rivets in under an hour. Expect to pay $50-$75.

found with a search: Dura-fix
---or---
last resort

Has anybody here had their aluminum boat interior sprayed with the spray on truck bed liner?
I thought about doing it to an old aluminum boat I found to tighten it up and make it look better.
Chip

Chip,

That sounds like a great idea to me....it would also reduce the sound transmitted into the water.

I have fixed this problem on about a dozen boats. I ask several welders and each said the cost to fix by welding was not worth the cost of an inexpensive jon boat. They did not even offer a price.They said it takes special knowledge and equipment to work on aluminum boats. I have used paint on bed liner , epoxy, car repair material and a few others. Epoxy works the best so far and is cheap. It has to be low cost to make it worth while on small jon boats. I have not tried a product called liquid metal (I think) that is a mix that has an adhesive/epoxy and metal (aluminum) in it. I have also not tried a boat repair material that comes in sticks (looks like 12in. aluminum 5/8 inch rebar) that you melt over a hole with a propane torch.

I have some rivets leaking on my 35 year old 12' jon boat as well. This last weekend I smeared a small amount of black roofing repair caulk that comes in a tube on the rivets on the bottom of the boat. It has worked so far, but I still have one or two rivets lightly leaking that need to be re-caulked, I should have waited until the bottom was dry before applying it. :rolleyes: The roofing repair caulk I used is suposed to work on both wet or dry surfaces and runs $1.80 tube at the hardware store. I have used epoxy before and it also works well too. One of these days I will get around to painting the whole jon boat inside and out.

Ewest-- The welders you talked to evidently did not want to work. Welding Aluminum is easier than steel.I am supervisor over an aluminum weld and grind shop. I have been doing it for 13+ years. It doesn't take "special" equip. to do the job. A TIG welder is optimum, but a standard MIG will do the job. Cost is higher than epoxy or silicone, but the weld will last forever. It will be cheaper to weld than use a factory coating such as Rhino Liner. I have welded up the rivets on countless 10-12' john boats and know it can be done in an hour or less. Shop time for weld shops run $50-$75 an hour.

Seems like you could tighten up the existing rivets with a rivet gun. Call your local aircraft mechanic. If they won't do it for a reasonable price they may be able to give direction on how to do it. Their price is about the same as a weld shop (actually our aircraft mechanic is cheaper than our weld shop he charges $50 and hour) I have a 1965 riveted boat and it doesn't leak a drop. 42 years is pretty good IMO.

I had a riveted river boat in Ak.and fixed the leaking rivets with the stick type boot repair that you melt. Heat up the rivets with a small torch and hold the stick to it to melt.This stuff held up for years with a lot of bottom dragging on sand and gravel bars.
Mike

101 ways to fix a boat leak. Nowhere but Pond Boss. I never knew how much I didn't know.

you guys are awl right! mega dittos BMeister. so many solutions, so little time. will pick one and provide a follow up at some point.

not that i mind having to drink the beer so i have something to bail with.

my thought was to back up rivets with a metal plate on one side, and hit w/ ballpean on other side, but some of those solutions sound like less work w/ probably better results.

thanks again......

The problem with trying to repair rivets from the inside of the boat is the seats. I can't get to a bunch of them.