1985 Sears Gamefisher 1436

[kbkid]

I ran into a little problem this weekend with the Steelflex I applied last week.

If you remember, this is how each rivet was covered last week when the Steelflex was put on.

As you can see, the rivets appear to be pretty well covered with the epoxy. It pretty much formed a capsule around the rivet head.

Today I took the boat out and found that about three rivets have a leak still. Once I got back home, we flipped the boat over and found this:

It appears as though the Steelflex cracked around the head of the rivets. I'm not exactly sure how to handle the situation now. I'm thinking just putting a layer or two more of Steelflex over the rivets after rebunking them for the second time. I'm going to give Jerry a call this week and ask him about it.

The weather was high 70s last weekend when this was applied, so I doubt the weather had anything to do with the failure.

I just thought I would share with everyone the problems I've run into with it.

 

[cubanredneck]

put some 5200 around the rivets before applying the steel flex

 

[kbkid]

I'm guessing its a little late for that now.

What are my options now?

 

[Hydrilla]

Could you not sand it completely off the rivet and surrounding area, add some 5200 and then re-Steelflex? I have never used the stuff but I can't see anything you'd add over the top of it really working, unless just adding more Steelflex would do it.

 

[kbkid]

That's what I'm assuming my only option is. The Steelflex is pretty hard once it sets up, but I think I may be able to sand it down.

I would have never thought the Steelflex would have cracked in the first place though.

I may give them a call this week and seek suggestions from Jerry.

 

[Hydrilla]

Yeah, that's pretty disappointing. I guess it's not a cure all for leaky rivets, can at least be thought of as insurance but it seems like leaky rivets need to be addressed prior to Steelflex application.

 

[kbkid]

Thats the thing though, I rebucked the every rivet the best I could before applying the Steelflex.

 

[cubanredneck]

just apply the 5200 on the inside if you can reach the rivets whats happening is your getting flex and the steel flex is not sufficiently flexible but the 5200 will be .I had something similar happen on a piece of equipment I used the stuff on.My problem was caused by vibration

 

[kbkid]

I can reach the rivet, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to seal it up good enough with the 5200.

The rivet is what mounts the ribs running perpendicular to the boat. I could put it on the head of it, but I think under the rib it would still leak.

I'll have to get a picture to show what I mean.

 

[Rat]

Looks like shear forces cracked the steelflex. Most likely you have a rivet hole that is elongated, or wallowed out somewhat, causing the rivet to move along the x axis, cracking the steelflex around the head.

Because it is in the hull bottom and through the lateral rib, and knowing that you have rebucked it, it is proly the panel with the elongated hole and the rib hole is the right size (the rib being the thicker of the two), causing the barrel of the rivet to expand to the hole size of the rib, but not the panel, thus allowing it to move enough to crack the steelfelx. The hull panel is moving enough to cause the rivet to move. This is just a guess based on what I see and what you have said.

It may be as easy as drilling the hole out to the next size rivet and installing a bigger rivet. That's what I would do first before trying to patch it with 5200 or something similar.

 

[kbkid]

Had I read your message earlier Rat, I definitely would have taken your advice.

What I ended up doing earlier was sanding the Steelflex down around the rivets that were giving me trouble. Once I got it cleaned up, I rebucked them again. What surprised me was two of the rivets moved considerably. I was quite surprised that either I didn't get it the first time around or I missed this one entirely.

I then went ahead and reapplied the Steelflex to the areas I sanded down. I made sure to get it pretty thick on the rivets this time around as well.

 

[Jim]

Any update on this? Did you happen to talk to Jerry? How is it holding up?

 

[kbkid]

Update 03 January 2010

Today I spent a good portion of the morning beginning to build flooring and decking in the boat. It has been a few months since the previous update because I'm away at school most of the time. I figured I'd try to get some work done while I'm home for winter break.

I began with making a level floor behind the rear seat in front of the transom. This area will house the 6 gal. fuel tank and possibly a battery. I never knew how difficult it was going to be to get all of the angles right with the piece of plywood. Nothing has been square yet with this project. The transom and both sides of the boat are all angled, so I had to cut the ply at an angle as well.

I plan on coating all of the wood in Thompson's Water Seal before carpeting the wood.

My initial plan was to do as I've done as well as putting a piece of carpeted plywood on the top of the bench where I would have a hinged lid to have access to the fuel tank. I still may do this, but I would have to raise it up more than the 3/4" the plywood would give me because fuel tank sits higher than the seat.

I then turned my attention to the middle bench seat. After seeing asinz's and RBuffordTJ's build log, I decided I want to cut the middle bench out of the boat, which would open the boat up a bit more. I wanted to figure out a way to brace where the seat was.

My plan is to cut the bench out and add two 2x4 braces on both sides of the bench. When I took the photo, I had not cut the bottom portion of the brace, but I feel that the brace will prevent the boat from "tacoing" and it will add a little bit of strength in the middle and for the front flooring.

I plan on cutting the bench out in the morning and adding the bracing before I head to work.

From the rear bench to the middle bench to just past the middle, I'd like to have a rod locker on both sides of the boat. I'll try to sketch something up in paint or SketchUp to show how I envision the boat to be once completed.

 

[danmyersmn]

Update 03 January 2010

My initial plan was to do as I've done as well as putting a piece of carpeted plywood on the top of the bench where I would have a hinged lid to have access to the fuel tank. I still may do this, but I would have to raise it up more than the 3/4" the plywood would give me because fuel tank sits higher than the seat.

You could cut the bottom out of the bench and frame a box out of wood or aluminum to hold your fuel tank? That way you could drop it down to the floor and gain your needed clearance?

 

[kbkid]

Update 03 January 2010

My initial plan was to do as I've done as well as putting a piece of carpeted plywood on the top of the bench where I would have a hinged lid to have access to the fuel tank. I still may do this, but I would have to raise it up more than the 3/4" the plywood would give me because fuel tank sits higher than the seat.

You could cut the bottom out of the bench and frame a box out of wood or aluminum to hold your fuel tank? That way you could drop it down to the floor and gain your needed clearance?

That's a possibility, but I may also just raise the bench plywood up, that way I can have a little more support for the chair base.

I got a little more work done this morning, so my next post will have additional pictures.

 

[kbkid]

This morning I took the plunge and cut out the middle bench.

You now have a better idea how I am going to add bracing where the original bench was.

A plywood face will be cut for the outsides of the bench. On both sides of the boat where the bench is left, I'm going to enclose this space and hopefully have two 7'6" rod lockers. The top of the lockers will be just below the gunwales.

I used a scrap piece of plywood to show the flooring and the second picture shows how far up the second level flooring will go to.

The front of the boat I'd like to have the highest deck. I'll run it straight off the front bench and bring it back to the rib you can see in the previous photograph. Below this area, I'll have storage and I'm even thinking about putting a pedestal for the days when I am out by myself. Eventually I'd like to pick up a bow mount foot controlled trolling motor so this deck will give me enough space to cast and operate the motor. I didn't want to take the decking up any higher because I'm sure it would get far less stable.

The final photograph shows how far forward the front decking will reach as well as the top of the rod lockers. The rolling stool is 13" tall, which I figured would be able the height of a pedestal, minus a chair.

Bare with me, I'm no photographer. If anyone has any questions, or suggestions please ask away. I'm open for ideas and would appreciate any input or criticism.

 

[kbkid]

Also, does anyone know off hand what the footprint is for a MinnKota Edge bow mount trolling motor? What are the dimensions when the motor is deployed?

 

[kbkid]

Here are two additional pictures I took this after bolting everything together today.

Tomorrow, I will tackle trying to remove some of the foam from the rear bench in hopes of mounting a frame for my chair base to mount to. I'm also going to check my local Lowes to see if they have marine carpet, since I haven't found it on their website.

 

[dyeguy1212]

was there foam under that bench prior to cutting it out? If so, youre pretty good at cleaning up.. I never got all the bits and pieces out of mine

 

[kbkid]

Yes. The entire bench was a foam block. After I took the Sawzall to the bench, the foam came out in three pieces with minimal bits left over. I then took the shop-vac and picked up anything that was left behind.

Tomorrow, I'm going have to cut the foam out from the underside. I'm sure this will be much messier, but it has to be done.