leaks in 12 foot aluminum boat

Post by **lenb12** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:16 am

Hi Everyone :

I have a few leaks in the rear of my 12 foot aluminum boat. The leaks seem to be small cracks in the welds, and might be around the rivets. All leask are on the underside of the boat. I filled the boat full of water on a hot day recently to find the characteristics of the leaks.

Anyhow, is there any simple way of repairing these leaks ?

Len

Post by **Jasonb** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 10:11 am

i would suggest a product called JB weld... its an epoxy steel hardener, works great on aluminum A/C lines and radiators... but it would have to take some time to cure to the metal... thats my thoughts anyways

JaY

Post by **cprince** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 11:12 am

I just bought a quart of Gluvit from the Chandlery in Ottawa. (about $50). This will do all my seams and rivets under the waterline. I will apply this on the inside of the boat. This should be done only after using a wire wheel on my die-grinder and getting the spots down to bare metal. After that I will wipe it down with a strong vinegar solution.

Oh yah... I will also give most of the rivets a good peen shot on one side while someone holds a mallet on the other side to tighten the rivets.

Next year (Or this year if I get another boat to use while I work on this one) I will coat the outside bellow the water line with a product that I order specially from FLA called Fasco 9X SteelFlex (http://www.fascoepoxies.com/ ).

It is the best thing in the world (IMHO) for drift boats or any boat that will get beached a lot. It will help you glide through the water lickety split.

There is also another product called Frog Spit that I have no experience with but have heard good things about.

You can add pigment to SteelFlex and Gluvit, but they need to be Epoxy friendly...

Oh yeah... If you go with SteelFlex, make sure you take care when putting on and off the trailer... it will slip off if you are not careful!! Seriously...!!

Post by **Aciddrop28** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 10:35 pm

What I did for mine which seemed to work great in my case was get a couple cans of rubberized undercoating for cars and spray the seams both inside and out...put a couple coats on and haven't had a leak since, also did an entire fibreglass canoe that was in fairly rough shape, gave it 4 coats (cost about $20) and didn't let a drop of water in after the fact, also covered up alot of the defects.

Post by **troutnmuskiehunter** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 7:54 am

My 12' backwoods tinny had a few leaks at the front of the boat from years of wear, tear and abuse being dragged around over boulders.....I used "Mightyputty" and it stopped all 3 leaks for the past 2 years now.....I keep a tube of it in my tackle box because of the ease of use and strength of this stuff....it hardens to a cememt like finish!!....you can apply it to any wet surface and it actually stops the leaks immediately!!

https://www.mightyputty.com/flare/next