12' Aluminum semi-V: my first boat (Restoration in progress)

[zackn]

I wonder if a stiff wire wheel on a drill would do any good?

I think that could be a good option, except that this boat feels like the aluminum is pretty thin overall. I doubt it was that well made of a boat even when it was new... I'm nervous about doing anything that might eat away more at the metal. Some parts of the boat really have a noticeable flex to the hull when you push on it.

 

[alanbird_87]

A stiff wire wheel should work but could take a while!

 

[zackn]

Did you try a heat gun? Worked on a previous build and it was a life saver. Just throwing some inexpensive ideas out there.

Ober, you were right on with the heat gun suggestion. I made more progress in an hour and a half yesterday than I did in all the time I'd worked up until then! I'm about 3/4 done with removing the fiberglass and epoxy now. You were right, the heat gun just softened up the epoxy so it could be scraped off, no problems with melting or goop running into seams like I had when I tried the paint remover.

Just one more afternoon with the heat gun and I should be ready to blast it down to bare metal.

--Zack

 

[zackn]

I finally got all of the fiberglass and epoxy scraped off, with the help of a heat gun. Real pain in the butt, and I'm glad it's done.

So after I uncovered the riveted seams, I'm seeing evidence of why the fiberglass repair didn't work. There is ancient sealant hardened under the seams, and it's rock hard and cracking. Some of it might be additional epoxy that squeezed in there when the fiberglass was applied. But there's also old sealant of some kind that is totally dried out and brittle.

The frustrating thing is that in several places, the seam isn't tight at all, and it looks like someone squeezed sealant in there but never tried to flatten the seam out. So now it is only serving to keep the seams apart, and it's holding open some pretty wide gaps. I'm having a hell of a time trying to scrape it out. I'm using a scraper with an angled point on the side which works fairly well, but the further in I go, the more I knock loose. At the same time though, the further in I go, the more I widen the gap in the seam! I don't want to make the problem worse, but it seems crazy to leave all that old disintegrating sealant in there which could cause issues in the future when it's too late to do anything about it (like after I've coated with steel flex).

What do you think? Should I get more aggressive trying to scrape it out? Or just get as much as I can and then rebuck the rivets and try to hammer the seams flat again?

(these photos look like it's all cleaned out, but if I were to run my scraper in there again, more powdered caulk would break loose from around the rivets)

 

[zackn]

Also, take a look at this line of rivets... Does it look like someone added rivets to the seam? I thought it was really weird that they weren't lined up straight. Then I looked more closely and it seems like someone added new rivets in between each of the original ones. Not sure how many should be there normally, but they look really crowded to me, like one per inch.

If someone tried this as a fix for the leaking seams, they sure went to a lot of trouble for no results!!!

 

[ober51]

Glad the heat gun saved you time, as it took me 3 days before my brother suggested it, ugh, lol.

Also, I would leave it now as it is. It seems like a great candidate for gluvit on the inside, and steel flex on the outside. You can try and tap the seam down, but not too hard. It would look perfect but with gluvit and steel flex, it would be waterproof in my opinion.

 

[TC1OZ]

Glad the heat gun saved you time, as it took me 3 days before my brother suggested it, ugh, lol.

Also, I would leave it now as it is. It seems like a great candidate for gluvit on the inside, and steel flex on the outside. You can try and tap the seam down, but not too hard. It would look perfect but with gluvit and steel flex, it would be waterproof in my opinion.

I agree with this guy Zack, but then again I haven't put my stuff on yet!

I'll let you know how I fair, I updated my thread a few mins ago.

Hope you and the family are well!

 

[wolfmjc]

8)welcome! just a thought here, i have heard that some seams in older riveted boats had like a rubber strip or seal? running inbetween the two layers.......I think a post here had a problem when they tried to weld a leak? just thought i would put 2cents in....

 

[zackn]

Thanks TC, I'm definitely planning on steelflex and gluvit. Seems like I have a long way to go before I get to that point with how little time I have in a week to work. Wife is due with 2nd kid in August... for some crazy reason she thinks it's more important that I work on painting etc in the nursery! Not sure where she gets her priorities. Will check out your thread shortly.

 

[zackn]

8)welcome! just a thought here, i have heard that some seams in older riveted boats had like a rubber strip or seal? running inbetween the two layers.......I think a post here had a problem when they tried to weld a leak? just thought i would put 2cents in....

Thanks Wolf, first time I'd heard that, but it sounds like you might be right. The stuff that's crumbling out is way, way up in there. I guess I'll just get as much as I can out, rebuck rivets, and hope the steelflex does its job. Anyone know if it works to put 5200 sealant on the seams first, and then steelflex over everything? Or would the 5200 inhibit the ability of the steelflex to seep into where it needs to go?

 

[zackn]

Well, haven't made much progress since I last updated, as I've been very busy with work and family stuff. But last night I had a couple hours to try out the soda blaster I bought from Harbor Freight.

Got it loaded and hooked up to the air compressor. Right off the bat it seemed to work okay (the attached photo shows the amount I got done in about a minute and half... pretty quick work. However, my compressor doesn't have a very big tank, and it was having trouble keeping up with the air flow. So I ran and picked up an 11 gallon secondary tank, and connected it with a t-joint to hoping to get a little more air in reserve.

Then I noticed that the soda blaster tank was only at 75 psi, and it can take 100. So I started adjusting the small plastic knob that regulates air pressure in the tank, trying to get it higher. It didn't seem to have any effect, so I kept turning. Without warning, the knob shot off of the regulator, and a few little parts went flying. By this time it was getting dark, and I could only find the knob and a spring. Now it doesn't go back on the tank.

(and then it started raining on me and all the gear... just great)

Good old Harbor Freight... of course the instructions don't say anything about not turning this too far, or even show a diagram of what parts are supposed to be in that assembly. So at this point, I'm thinking about bypassing the flow regulator unit altogether. I have an output gauge on my compressor, and a second pressure gauge on my reserve tank, so I'm not worried about going over the 100psi max. There's a water separator unit on there too, but I installed one at the output of the reserve tank. I'm thinking I'll put in a new line that goes directly into the tank at the top (which will also allow me to replace the crappy blue plastic tubing that ran between the regulator and the tank input, which leaks like crazy).

I wonder why I didn't just scrape the loose paint off and paint over top of it? Oh yeah, because I have to make everything I do as complicated as possible, heh.

 

[Brine]

Steelflex doesn't do much "seeping". It's more like putting heavy duty saran wrap on with a roller. I think your project would be the right application for using Gluvit on the seams.

 

[zackn]

Steelflex doesn't do much "seeping". It's more like putting heavy duty saran wrap on with a roller. I think your project would be the right application for using Gluvit on the seams.

Should I apply Gluvit to both the inside and outside of the seams? Or just on the inside of the boat?