14' Mirrocraft Deep Fisherman rehab

[nbw2019]

First post!

Came across this forum because I inherited my grand dad's '72 14' Mirrocraft Deep Fisherman. It's all original with Turquoise paint.

Seems in pretty good shape for its age. I'm looking at rehabbing it enough to continue to get a lot of use out of it on the lakes of NH, ME, and MA.

I took the seats out, cleaned out many years of debris that had collected in it (hadn't been used since '94) but had been garaged for all but the last year or so. Wanted to check for leaks so I put some water in it while its on the trailer. The only leak I spotted was a slow weep that seemed to be coming from the area of the bow where it starts curve up. Doesn't seem to be coming from a rivet but I think its from the seam. It looks like there is some sort of caulk applied in this seam and there's about a 1in section of caulk that is missing.

Any thoughts on what that caulk is? Seems to be from the factory. View inside with water:

Close up of damaged seam

Seam on other side with evidence of leaking

Other than that she was holding water. Thoughts on the best way to approach this?

Thanks!

-Noah

 

[dearl]

Welcome to Tin boats...

There's several ways to do this, the simplest way would be to do just as you said, clean it and use some sort of caulk to try and seal the joint again. Probably get some use out of it like that but you will be doing it again.
Best way and will probably last you many years, from the inside clean and dry the entire nose Keel strip joints with acetone, apply Gluvit to the seams and rivet tails. Once it cures, SE primer and paint if it will be in the sun, if you plan to deck and carpet it, you don't need to paint it. Gluvit will break down in the sun. The nose Keel has caused many leak issues on many boats, this is the usual approach to repairing it. Nice boat, enjoy the build.

 

[1960 yellowboat]

I've had excellent results using West Marine G Flex 65.
You can get it from them or amazon,
It is a two part epoxy.
You mix it, put it on the outside area and use a heat gun or propane torch on the inside. The heat draws the mixture down into the crack creating a forever seal. This is made specifically for aluminum boats. It's also great for leaking rivets. And the kit comes with a thickening agent that you can use as a topcoat to smooth out the repair.

 

[DaleH]

I've had excellent results using West Marine G Flex 65.

The correct name is G-Flex 650, it is a flexible epoxy, $20-$22 for the kit, and can usually be bought locally too. But LifeCaulk by BoatLife would also be an advisable fix; it is a polyurethane adhesive like 3M 5200, but is less expensive less than G-Flex too) ... and in my opinion a much, much better product than 5200! Tube ‘life’ is also measured in years ... not months.

Clean the area well, removing all traces of white corrosion/oxidation, then wash with vinegar and rinse, plus I would prime it w/ zinc chromate before applying any ‘goop’ to it. Prime as soon as the panels are dry, even heating/warming w/ hair dryer or heat gun on low.

On your boat, it was about a > 1” wide strip of ‘gasket material’ that was installed at the factory before riveting those panels together.