carpedium

Sounds like some one visits the Starcraft Forum on Iboats, lots of good reading there for anyone rebuilding/restoring an aluminum boat, spend some time going through the threads there. yup, read that for days!

I need to make a decision on the decking. My buddy has some Aluminum sheating, but i am told by a lot of people that the aluminum will be very loud. I like the advantage of no rot for a million years, and very light weight. A.) From a trolling standpoint, will this extra noise and vibration cause a problem with spooking the fish? I would think so? B.) I will be coating with spray in bedliner, so I would think this would deaden the noise. I can also put rubber gasketing between the stringers and the deck. Can anyone think of an additional way to deal with this? C.) Given these variables, what would you do?

Yes, I filled the boat to the water line and marked where water was raining. I am considering aluminum decking as well. I'll keep this thread posted!

Thanks for the additional info. I have 2-part epoxy that I will be sealing the thing good with.

Jim, Thanks for the tip. It turns out that most of the rivets that are leaking, don't spin. Is this a symptom of another problem? e.g. instead of vibrated loose, stressed loose, etc.

Did the leak test tonight, certainly a few loose rivets. Also, about mid-hull there is a substantial amount of water leaking out of the keel plate. What do you guys make of this?

I agree. It looks like solid aluminum

Congrats!

Just picked up some 5/8 advantech. Good compromise between weight and strength. I called the manufacturer, and they said although its not labeled for this use, their ongoing tests indicate that this would be a good application. They use a waterproof epoxy resin embedded into the wood fibers, so there is no need to overcoat with epoxy or seal in any way. I will use whatever leftover gluvit epoxy I have to seal it anyway, for added protection.

Got some supplies for this weekend in today!

On the size of the rivets, I am going one size up to be able to true-up the hole properly. Plus the larger rivets are rated for like 66% more load vs. 3/16 per the manufacturer.

Well, I just made a phone call to a local welder and he happened to have some time on his hands to weld up all the cracks. He's also going to beef it up in some spots to make it stronger. He's basically doing it for what it would cost me in materials for bar stock and other non-pop rivet tools. It will be done in less than 24hrs. Buckboard - I agree. I wouldn't want to use the poppers in this application either since there is obviously a lot of stress concentrated in these areas with no fastener redundancy like the rest of the hull.

Like this paint scheme:

Would anyone object to these for decking screws? http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Tappin ... crew-1VE74

Does anyone have an idea on what to do with this boogered stringer-end? My first thought is to remove the rivets, and add some AL bar-stock extending 6 inches or so down the rib. Then riveting the bar stock to the good part of the rib/hull in two places and replacing the other rivets with new, through the bar stock. Either this or weld it. I don't know which one would be more difficult.

Thanks for the words of encouragement! I have also heard that about the freeze/fail with the foam, buckboard. I plan to go back in under the decking with blue insulation closed cell foam. I like this method because it creates channels where trapped water can escape back to the stern between the angled foam pieces. It then eliminates the possibility of further freeze/fail when/if water finds its way through the decking near the bow of the boat.

Well, a buddy came over to help me out - ended up getting the thing stripped down. There was an extra 120lbs of water soaked into the foam alone. What shocked me was that the front half of the boat was completely foam with no void in the middle to allow any water to flow out. This was from the factory. The decking was in horrible condition. Turns out i was just walking on wood pulp over foam.

Yeah, for the cost i'm leaning toward the advantech with the bedliner. Its nice and textured so it won't be slippery and it will keep the foam dry and free of slime from the top anyway.

Yeah thats true. Also will have fish slime migrating down in there.

Has Been, Thats a really neat idea. Are you talking about stuff like this:? http://www.lowes.com/pd_371964-46086-22 ... facetInfo= I'll have to see if I can get these in 16 footers. If so, this may be a great option. Then I wouldn't need the bedliner, just paint the sides, etc.

So... now its time to decide on material to be used to replace my semi-soft decking. I know some here have used advantech OSB with some level of success, but I am concerned with the extra weight it adds. Some other online forums have raved about this stuff for this use. It always goes back to " I've had this piece of advantech floating in my pond for 5 years with no dimensional change or warping...." This is a ~18 ft aluminum boat. The deck is going to be primed and sprayed with "spray-in" bed liner, so this will also act as a moisture barrier and UV protectant from the top. Option 1 - Standard 1/2 plywood treated with a few layers of 2-part epoxy for outdoor water fitness. (almost 1.5x cost) Option 2 - 5/8 Advantech OSB (Need to be treated on cut edges with epoxy?) I know that the safe bet is to go with marine grade plywood and coat with epoxy, but that blows my budget and with the standard plywood coated, others have experienced similar results. Any info or experience would be appreciated.

All great info. Now I need to make a decision on decking.

WWIV, unfortunately Home Depot, or every tool store I could google didn't have one of these tools. As rolmops stated it has to be pretty heavy duty to handle 1/4". Rolmops, Thank you for your input! I was originally going to go with the SS bolt method, but I got read the riot act over at Iboats and hulltruth a while back for bringing that up. I guess the problem is with dissimilar metals and corrosion. Its probably a long shot that it will cause me problems.. both pretty stable metals but I am not an expert in that area and the rivets are already in the mail. It turns out my buddy has a heavy duty pneumatic rivet gun that will drive these home. I plan to dip these in flex-seal marine epoxy prior to engaging. I also have a gallon of gluvit on its way to my house that I plan to slather with reckless abandon all over the inside of the hull after the leaking rivets are replaced. After that the new floors are going in and the whole thing is getting sprayed with light tan 2-part bedliner. I am looking forward to being able to hose the thing out on the inside after every trip!

Sold Pending Payment/Pickup

I have a few loose rivets, and short of bucking them home it looks like these are the next best solution: http://www.rivetsonline.com/rivets-en/b ... ivets.html Does anyone know where I can get a pop rivet tool that will handle a 1/4" rivet in the rochester area?