My Walleye Project - 70's Sea Nymph SS160 1668

[jvanhees]

The large red circle is the main crack, and will be tig welded. The small red circle is the other crack I found...much smaller but will still need welding. The green circle is to show the that riveted seam..and it leaks alot across the whole seam..even with the junk from the PO.

The blue rectangle shows the main problem area....how would you fix this?

1) Do I weld the 2 cracks, replace each rivet and seal with steeflex over top of it all? Will that be enough?

2) Weld the entire seal where the rivets are now all the way around the rectangle piece of aluminum(edge where marker lines point to), and also replace the rivets inside the welds...then steelflex?

3) Form a new piece of aluminum to go over what is currently there, extend wider by an inch on each side, and fully weld it in...covering over the entire area with a new peice of metal.

Need some advise here! :?

 

[Flat Bottom]

Hey man, as far as jb weld is concerned, if you do it right it will probably outlast whatever its on. Huge chunks of the cavitation plate on my 140hp suzuki was busted off when I got it, I rebuilt it with an alluminum plate bolted to the underside and jbweld formed and sanded to near factory on the top, that was about 3 years ago. All the rivets on the underside of my 14ft jon weredone about 3 or more years ago still no leaks. A hole in the head plate of my 15 horse mariner was plugged and about a 3inch broken piece of the block on the same engine was re-molded a year or so ago and still working great. It really is amazing stuff so long as you take your time and let it set.

 

[walleyejoe]

Looks like you have your work cut out for you. Its hard to say what the best thing to do is .Its probly gona take a little trial and error . I think I'd try to weld what you can and reset and seal the rivets .

 

[jvanhees]

Thanks Guys!! I will have to give that some thought, and also see what some others have to say as well. Was there a special type of JB weld to use FB?

 

[Wayloncash]

I don't know if this will help, but i thought it was really cool. My buddy gave me a 15 ft v bottom i dont know the manufacturer or any of that. The rivets dont look great you can see where there could be potential leaks. They dont look awfully bad either, BUT... he rhino lined the inside of it you know spray on bed liner. Man it looks sweet get some pictures up this weekend. AND not a single leak whatsoever. I thought that was a really cool idea.

 

[Flat Bottom]

Thanks Guys!! I will have to give that some thought, and also see what some others have to say as well. Was there a special type of JB weld to use FB?

I use regular jb weld, they have jb kwik that dries faster, and water weld that can be applied wet or under water... the regular stuff is the strongest. It takes a while to set, check out their website, they have a lot of great info on there

 

[jvanhees]

Well been tearing into the hull a bit this week. Removing leaking rivets, prepping weld areas for the welder, and trying to clean off the rest of the hull for primer/steelflex eventually...but having a hard time. Been using heat, grinder/wirebrush, scrapers, acetone and none are working to well. Thinking of trying a stripper next. I want it to be all bare aluminum before I put anything down....

Whatever epoxy stuff was used all over the boat is a bear to get off... Wirebrush barely doing it(just turns it black)
Some JB weld all over this rear seam... Which is holding up nice. I think you may be onto something FB...may use this more before primer on rivets in the rear here

 

[simbelle]

Do yourself a favor ( and I don't mean to be-little anyone else s opinion); But if your planing on keeping that boat for any time; Lay off the JB Weld. It will hold for a while, but I guarantee it will eventually fail in this application. The Cracks if yo don't want to pay a welder, use aluminium patch, rivets and a good amount of 5200 and you'll never have another issue with it. The bottom of the transom is fine I guess with the JB Weld on the outside since your going to Steelflex over it (I just hope with the cold waters you run in it doesn't just pop /crack under rhe flex but I really don't have any idea since I'm a Southern Boy.) I used 5200 from the caulking gun on my inside Transom seam waited 3 days covered it with Gluvit and then truck bed liner. It's hard as rock on the outside but I know it's still pliable
underneath,( you can omit the Gluvit). dip your rivet in an epoxy sealant before filling the holes ( West Marine G-Flex would work well, but I'm sure even 5200 would work if covered with Steelflex later.

I am no expert as you can tell by my amateur advise, just hate to see you get your feet wet or loose fishing time.

 

[jvanhees]

Great info! Thank you... I appreciate any and all opinions and experiences!!!

 

[smackdaddy53]

Try a wire wheel on a grinder for prepping for welding and generally for cleaning up areas that are tough to get to (around rivets, in tight corners etc)...lookin good!

 

[Flat Bottom]

Looking good so far!

 

[jvanhees]

After about 3 hours of grinding/drilling with wire brushes, I have the bottom done. I still need to hit each rivet again with a cup brush to be safe... This was zero fun but hey it's almost over...just need to do the sides yet and it's on to primer. My HF grinder didn't make it through the night ...surprise! Shoulda paid the extra 10 bucks for the warranty...

 

[walleyejoe]

After about 3 hours of grinding/drilling with wire brushes, I have the bottom done. I still need to hit each rivet again with a cup brush to be safe... This was zero fun but hey it's almost over...just need to do the sides yet and it's on to primer. My HF grinder didn't make it through the night ...surprise! Shoulda paid the extra 10 bucks for the warranty...
View attachment 2View attachment 1

You burnt your grinder up :shock: What brand was is ? They should stand behide it if you had just bought it .. Also I found out you only need a light coat of self etching primer . Don't put it on to heavy It's pretty gritty. I'd love to come up there fishing But ive got to many other trips plan for now . Going up to Lake Mich Salmon fishin next month . Crappies r startig to bit here . :fishing: :mrgreen:

 

[jvanhees]

You burnt your grinder up :shock: What brand was is ? They should stand behide it if you had just bought it .. Also I found out you only need a light coat of self etching primer . Don't put it on to heavy It's pretty gritty. I'd love to come up there fishing But ive got to many other trips plan for now . Going up to Lake Mich Salmon fishin next month . Crappies r startig to bit here . :fishing: :mrgreen:

Chicago Electric - was 28 bucks, and they offered a warranty.... It always ran hot, but this time it didnt turn back on :roll:

Where are you going out of for Salmon?

 

[jvanhees]

Just got off the phone with Jerry at Fasco Epoxies (steel flex), what a great dude. VERY helpful. =D>

No need for primer. I just need to have the areas welded that need welding, and order the SF, then I will be almost done on the bottom. Going to replace some rivets and leak test once more after the welds.. but before SF for any significant leaks.

 

[walleyejoe]

You burnt your grinder up :shock: What brand was is ? They should stand behide it if you had just bought it .. Also I found out you only need a light coat of self etching primer . Don't put it on to heavy It's pretty gritty. I'd love to come up there fishing But ive got to many other trips plan for now . Going up to Lake Mich Salmon fishin next month . Crappies r startig to bit here . :fishing: :mrgreen:

Chicago Electric - was 28 bucks, and they offered a warranty.... It always ran hot, but this time it didnt turn back on :roll:

Where are you going out of for Salmon?

Mich City.

 

[PitFishin']

looking good!

 

[Flat Bottom]

I burt up a chicago electric grinder in about 5 minutes when I was scuffing my boat up lol

 

[tcampbell011]

Hey did you get a price on the steelfelx? I'm going to be ordering some soon and was wondering how much it costs.

 

[jvanhees]

I burt up a chicago electric grinder in about 5 minutes when I was scuffing my boat up lol

Sounds about right....darn

Hey did you get a price on the steelfelx? I'm going to be ordering some soon and was wondering how much it costs.

$46/gallon plus $8 colorant for the basic steelflex I am doing.

I finished up wirebrushing thursday, and now the boat has some oxidation? all over it...not sure if I have to polish it all up again before I SF, but it is a coat of crap over the aluminum now...is that a big deal?