1960's Sears Aluminum - Bent Floor

[JDH-GL]

Buddy picked a 60's or 70's Sears aluminum boat. After bringing it home we noticed that the back of the boat was a little lower than the from, almost as if someone had bent about 4 feet forward of the transom. I'll be posting pictures later, but we are looking to fix it up. I did notice that the trailer was adjusted poorly to the shape of the boat and I'm wondering if too much weight in the boat and tight straps may have caused this problem over time.

I look forward to posting here more - you guys really helped me restore my 17' Lowe deep V last winter. This winter my big project is rebuilding a 1987 221V Islander. I'll keep you guys updated on that a bit too. Looks like Starcraft threads are popular here.

JDH

 

[fhhuber]

One way to bend aluminum hulls is to hook straps to the middle of the gunwales and crank them too tight.

Sometimes you can bend them back... sometimes you break things trying.

You can expect rivets/seams to need attention after the attempt to straighten the hull.

 

[gm280]

Yes, we will need lots of pictures before we can make any realistic ideas or suggestions. JMHO!

 

[JDH-GL]

Looks like the previous owners already put a lot of attention into the rivets and seams. There are a lot of stainless nuts & bolts already replacing the original rivets.

Here are the pictures:

I tried to use the tags but it wouldnt embed the images?

Mod EDIT: Changed the urls to IMG codes

 

[Woodonglass]

Pretty obvious to me she's got a significant hook in the hull. With proper strapping and pulling,i.e. body shop style straightening techniques, you might be able to bend her back. No telling what the effect on the rivets will be.:noidea:

 

[jbcurt00]

In imgr, open the pix you want to post. In the top right corner of the screen theres a drop down menu, choose

Open image in tab

When it does, copy the web address for that tab and paste it into your post between the IMG codes

 

[jbcurt00]

If the ribs on the inside or the chines along the bottom on the outside of the hull are cracked, some look like they've been welded, you'll have to repair them while its pulled straight or it'll just go back to bent.

Got any more pix?

 

[JDH-GL]

Thank you guys for the advice. I don't have any more pictures right now. The plan is to take off or at least un-rivet the chines 2 feet on either side of the bend and maybe a few of the ribs on the inside. From there I was thinking we build a frame out of 2x4 and maybe some plywood to set the boat over (upside down). Then we will try and "pull" it into the hull using straps of some sort. We're only looking for a correction of about 1/2-inch max. I just need to figure out how to not put pressure on the sides of the boat.

 

[fishin98]

. I know this may seem like a OFF the wall idea...Why not place a 3/4" piece of wood forward and aft of the bend, get inside and JUMP up and down...

 

[fhhuber]

. I know this may seem like a OFF the wall idea...Why not place a 3/4" piece of wood forward and aft of the bend, get inside and JUMP up and down...

Not as awful an idea as it might seem... but instead (if it fits inside) one piece of ply across the bend going fore and aft a couple of feet each side of the bend. Then support the hull at transom with a 2X4 on its side. Now stand on the ply and stomp a few times.
Check the progress often. Adjust where you stomp.

The bend you have is probably from overloading, misfit trailer and dragging it over a 4X4 trail... or something like a tree limb falling on the hull while it was inverted on the lawn. (my bet is on the tree)

Actually, if you don't plan on going fast then just leave it bent and seal the holes.

 

[jbcurt00]

Jumping up and down on it seems excessive and likely to go too far, esp if the poorly repaired chines and ribs re-crack. Might do more damage to them and the hull

 

[fishin98]

The hull looks like a mid 70's Smokercraft Canadien...Smokercraft probably built the boat for Sears, trying to make repairs on a 40 year old row boat, thats worth maybe $200, is not exactly Rocket Science. Might as well try it the easy way...the rivets and chines are going to need resetting anyways.

 

[jbcurt00]

The easy way? As I suggested the jump up and down 'method' could simply make it go the other way and do more damage. Even make the existing problem worse...

That doesnt sound like the easy way.

From the limited pix, it appears the chines and ribs are against the out of shape hull. So unless the repairs are already re-cracked, any repair needs to address the chines and ribs too.

No, a rocket scientist isnt needed, but even if the boats worth less then 200, no reason to risk making the problem worse either.

 

[fishin98]

OK....In the early 70's I was a given a boat similar to this, with similar damage. Luckily my neighbor worked in the sheet metal shop on KI Sawyer AFB. This is what I had to do....Chizel off the heads on all the rivets on the ribs in the affected area, do the same on the hull chines, except all the chines had to be removed from the hull. Once that was accomplished, using a propane torch to heat the affected areas, using a wide headed body hammer pound the affected metal back into place. once that is accomplished, using the torch, rebend the chines and ribs back into shape, then re rivet everything back together while resealing. Took me and my friend about 2 months to get this done. That is the CORRECT way, not the easiest. My thoughts are since the metal is already stressed, just try bending it all straight again without going through all that would be the easiest. I wish the OP and his friend good luck on getting that boat straight enough to use.

 

[jbcurt00]

Thats the other far end of the spectrum from jumping on it, dont ya think?

No middle ground?

 

[fhhuber]

The middle ground is... the "bridge" of wood across the bend (so you are less likely to overshoot) and then using weight (you) + shock (stomp with those size 12's)

Jumping up and down from the inside, with boards meeting at the bend, you'll have little control of how far you bend the other way.

Expect the bent chine to fracture due to the compression followed by stretching. Use the typical (inexpensive) repair of a formed patch riveted on over the crack.

Expect some of the rivets and seams in the area of the bend to leak. Resetting the rivets might help.

************

But if you are just floating it along and rowing it or going on a trolling motor... just seal the leaks and leave it bent. That bend isn't going to be much of an issue unless you try to get it up on plane. At speed it could get interesting.

 

[gm280]

From just what I can make out of the pictures, I would drill out all the rivets on the chine ribs on the out side, and any ribs on the inside of the bent area. That should leave you with nothing supporting the aluminum sheet metal. Then I would have a machine shop make some replacement ribs or locate some premade ribs for the bottom section and start at one end and replace the rivets.

And as you will probably see, the bent area will work its way back out because the sheet aluminum doesn't have much opposition to flexing now. Does that sound logical? Well I bet it would work. Yes that is a lot of work. But if you really want to straighten that hull, that will do it. It isn't the cost that precludes doing that, it is the amount of time and effort. And jumping on the hull and trying to reshape bent things doesn't fix any metal fatigue presently there with the cracks and such. JMHO!

 

[JDH-GL]

I really appreciate all the ideas and comments. My friend and I will go over the options and come up with a plan - give us a month or two. I see three outcomes to the ideas here - I will either have a post about what didn't work, what sort of worked (what I'm hoping for), or WHAT NOT TO DO. If it's the latter - at least he already has a trailer!

-JDH

P.S. I promised a Starcraft Islander thread on my first post and that is still coming - but now it looks like I'll be working on 2 Islanders. I'm picking up a donor hull for the hardtop, radio antenna, transducers and a bunch of other goodies that might be broken beyond repair, or might save me quite a bit of money on my first rebuild.

 

[JDH-GL]

Time for an update! We place the boat on a concrete slab in the driveway and used an 8 foot tall 4x4 to pound the boat back into shape. It left us with quite a bit of rivet work to do, and we will probably create some patches on the existing ribs - instead of trying to weld.. It's not perfect, but we thing we will get it. The biggest problem is the previous owner put a lot of epoxy sealer on the edges of the ribs that we will need to remove. Not even sure why, there is not join at the ribs - so the only thing that could leak is the rivets. Oh well...

Pictures:

 

[Tnstratofam]

Looks better to me. One thing I'll mention is to make sure the bunks on the trailer extend past the transom a couple of inches. This will give the hull better support, and may help prevent the hook from reforming.