Aluminum boat repair

[FISHINMAN]

 

Was taking on some water at the launch. Pulled the boat and couldn’t find any loose Robert’s or anything like that.

Thought it was maybe a intake hose for the live well maybe had cracked from old age. Disconnected the hose and eliminated that from the list.

 

Finally found the problem was where I couldn’t see it.

 

Filled the boat under the floor with water at my house and dropped the trailer tongue and found water leaking out between the front edge of the bunk and the boat. Hoped it was a couple rivets but instead found this was the problem today🤬

 

So looking for someone that does repairs on these types of issues.

 

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated

 

Thanks, Tom

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[1 more drift]

need a couple more pics. If there is a strake {sp} on the out side its a little more of a repair. But from the one picture I would drill out the rivets 4 inches around the corroded area buff the are to be repaired and put a patch on it . There looks to be more corrosion below and to the right of the hole ,so make your patch large enough to cover that area also . To repair after wire brushing the area ]on outside] position patch over area  temporarily , on the outside of hull. Then drill a small hole  at the corner of the the patch and hull attach with a small screw ,then do same at other corners. Then drill holes at 1inch spacing along edges thru the patch and hull;   use either blind head rivets or 

truss head rivets when riveting . Now remove patch use 5200 to help seal and  hold patch.  Coat  patch reposition patch to the   hull  , screw to hull and rivet in place.

[Frogger]

Tom I would also try to find out (if it’s worth it) to see where the corrosion is coming from? Galvonic or some electrolysis from stray current. Something is eating the heck out of it from those pics. Not sure if you keep it in the water or you keep it on your trailer. You could put a meter on your negative side of your battery and touch your aluminum in different areas with the positive lead to see if you have any stray current. Start turning on your equipment one at a time to see if you see volts. Lights, depth finder, bilge etc.


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[chinook35]

Tom I would also try to find out (if it’s worth it) to see where the corrosion is coming from? Galvonic or some electrolysis from stray current. Something is eating the heck out of it from those pics. Not sure if you keep it in the water or you keep it on your trailer. You could put a meter on your negative side of your battery and touch your aluminum in different areas with the positive lead to see if you have any stray current. Start turning on your equipment one at a time to see if you see volts. Lights, depth finder, bilge etc.


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It looks like corrosion from contact with pressure treated lumber. Are your bunks pt? How about stringers ? You CAN’T use pressure treated in contact with aluminum. It eats it just like in your pics


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[lrg355]

Also it would be a good idea to turn off the battery when not in use.  Rewire automatic side of bilge pump to battery so it works with switch off.  If u have separate trolling motor battery, put a switch on that one also and turn off when not in use.  Wire downriggers and other external devices to be turned off with main battery switch, especially Cannon's as they are always pulling a few milliamps of current for the short stop when powered up. Only thing that should be powered is the automatic side of the bilge pump when sitting at the dock.