Patching holes and corrosion on a Star craft Mariner

[john92673]

Hello everyone I purchased a star craft mariner 160 last year. It had quite a few nasty suprises underneath the paint. It looks like the preivious owner did a bad job covering the hull with fiberglass bondo trapping water inbetween the hull and the bondo causing corrosion issues. I was going to try and cut my losses and get somthing new but I couldnt get any hits on selling it plus I think buying another boat would be Ill advised as ive never had one before and dont know how much use it will get. Im in the process of stripping all the paint off now. The problem is the hull is pretty leaky. Theres a bunch of minor pitting all around the hull it isnt pitted through except for one small area. There are quite a few pin holes ranging between 1/16 to 1/8" There is one area where it looks like the previos owner hit somthing with a couple holes that are probably 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. Whats my best route to fix this. I cant weld and by the time I rip the deck off pull the foam and weld it it would just be better to get somthing else. I would think the same issues apply to brazing. I heard jb weld wont work because the hull flexes to much and causes it to fail. I was thinking of cleaning up all of the holes with my grinder, filling the holes with marinetex epoxy. Paint over the filled areas with coat it, and finally painting over the the coat it with alimihawk paint to protect against uv. I was trying to avoid painting the whole hull so I can moniter corrosion and make sure my patches hold up. Does anyone have any experiance with long term marine tex patches? If it helps the bilge pump would easily be able to keep up with the ammount of water comming in right now, I just dont like the idea of taking a leaky boat out on the water.

 

[john92673]

For the second picture, I was thinking about pop riviting a plate over it with 5200 sealent. Does it make sense to epoxy in the holes first?

 

[FuzzyGrub]

I have never used marinetex in that manor, ie bottom coating. That hull looks pretty bad and suspect you will find more as you go. As much as it hurts, I’d probably sell it for scrap aluminum and find another hull.

 

[john92673]

I have never used marinetex in that manor, ie bottom coating. That hull looks pretty bad and suspect you will find more as you go. As much as it hurts, I’d probably sell it for scrap aluminum and find another hull.

Thats an old picture before I got most of the paint off. I also think the pictures make it look a lot worse than it is. Theres sone white lite surface corrosion that has been comming off very easy with the grinder. Front half of the boat looks untouched its mostley in the back. Id rather give the epoxy a shot before I give up since I spent so much time removing paint. It doesent seem like it would take much time to patch the holes.

 

[LDUBS]

For the second picture, I was thinking about pop riviting a plate over it with 5200 sealent. Does it make sense to epoxy in the holes first?

I would not epoxy first. The patch buttered with 5200 should work.

Based on the pic's I would agree with FuzzyGrub. Your other post reminded me about your intended usage in potentially very rough conditions.

 

[john92673]

I would not epoxy first. The patch buttered with 5200 should work.

Based on the pic's I would agree with FuzzyGrub. Your other post reminded me about your intended usage in potentially very rough conditions.

Deffinitly wouldnt do anything like that right away. Figured I would start out on some small lakes and go from there.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

Most epoxy coatings can seal seam or rivet leaks but not meant to bridge holes. Most are for applying inside the hull. The outside ones are more for a wear coating. My guess is this boat was left on the ground and partially filled with water, and sat for years. The prior owner did the bondo to hide it. Most of the foam is probably waterlogged. If you are going to attempt this kind of fix, recommend getting to both sides.

 

[john92673]

Most epoxy coatings can seal seam or rivet leaks but not meant to bridge holes. Most are for applying inside the hull. The outside ones are more for a wear coating. My guess is this boat was left on the ground and partially filled with water, and sat for years. The prior owner did the bondo to hide it. Most of the foam is probably waterlogged. If you are going to attempt this kind of fix, recommend getting to both sides.

Yea I was planning on removing atleast part of the deck down the road. I just have a hard time convincing my self to do it because its not rotted yet. Im a little confused about why the epoxy wouldnt work though. Isnt filling a 1/8 or smaller hole in the bottom the same as someone filling in a screw hole? If I was confusing in my first post all of the larger holes are in one area and are getting patched with an aluminum plate. Anyway I got the bulk of the paint off now. Put smart strip pro on last night and left it overnight to strip the middle of the boat. Got the bulk of it off but need to do some touch up work. The front 2/3rds of the boat is clean aluminum. All of the issues are in the rear. I put more paint stripper on the outside of the bunks. Going to go remove that tomorrow. Im going to stick it out as long as I can and keep this updated. At the very least I learn how to work on boats.