Recent content by 508

I'm always impressed with how meticulous your work is. And I feel you about the weather, it's been brutal!

There's a chance the Coast Guard tag is under that carpet somewhere. Mine is on one of my bench seats.

@DaleH @Weldorthemagnificent thank you both, very helpful!

@gogittum @Weldorthemagnificent ah that makes much more sense. The aluminum channel is narrower than the old, curved piece, so if I can bend it up enough I'll still have to drill new holes, but that's ok. I already have the exact rivet tool you're both talking about but might have to do...

@DaleH the aluminum angle is 1.25" x 1.25". @maintenanceguy I'm pretty close to doing that, the rest of the boat is beat up so at least it would match. @Weldorthemagnificent it's 20+ year old cast aluminum, so I'm nervous about cracking it.

Finally getting ready to tie my transom replacement up and I could use some advice on reattaching the corner caps. I had to use narrower aluminum angle than I planned, and it's flat where the original was curved so it doesn't sit flush. One side is better than the other, but neither is ideal...

@DaleH I agree, and you gave a much more detailed reply than mine. I assumed my boat (early '90s Meyers Fisherman) used 3/16" but the original rivets were actually slightly smaller. It's a weird boat in a number of ways, though.

$11 will get you a caliper from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFFYCXS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_T6WFZGBSM7XMJAYFRZCG?psc=1) and you can make a guess based on the size of the mushroomed side of your existing rivets or measure the hole from one you've removed.

Thanks @zekepa and @BillPlayfoot. I'll try grinding down the least offensive one and see how it goes. Either way my plan was to drill out the rivet or bolt under the braze, just not sure how wise it is to try to grind off all the extra material.

@TN Squire what did you end up doing? I'm looking at a similar situation.

@CedarRiverScooter some of them are. My plan is to replace leaky rivets and seal everything with gflex. Not sure if grinding down the welds could cause more problems vs just using gflex on them. The other problem is they used stainless hardware.

The more layers I take off this boat the more messes I find. It looks like someone fixed missing/broken rivets with pop rivets and nuts & bolts with some real sloppy brazing to seal it up. Should I grind off the braze, or am I better off working around it?

Thanks!

Any non-mobile recommendations?

I see plenty of craigslist listings and mixed reviews for mobile marine mechanics. Is there anyone in central Mass who knows a good one?