Advice on Boat Purchase - Electrolysis Issue

[hoosiercanuck]

Forum - looking for some advice. Looking at purchasing a Starcraft that has/had an electrolysis issue. The boat has never been in salt but was caused by owner leaving the batteries on trickle charge thru the winter while being covered up. The gases/fumes from the batteries caused some electrolysis on the hull. The owner cleaned it out, treated with JB Marine Weld and Marine Tex epoxy. So my question is - how concerned should I be. He repaired it from the outside, not thru the floor. Looking for some honest advice as to is this problem going to pop up again, things that could be done to mitigate it if it does, etc...

 

[Watermann]

Welcome aboard hoosiercanuck :wave:

Where exactly is the corrosion damage and do you have any pics of the area? If the seams are affected it's a much more difficult repair job. Without the repairs being done on both the inside and out, it will rare it's ugly head again that's for sure since that's where the corrosion got started.

 

[hoosiercanuck]

It's on the bottom of the hull - you can kind of get an idea for how it's sitting on the trailer where it's at

 

[hoosiercanuck]

No seams in the area. Don't know if you can easily get to where it is at without ripping up the floor. Owner had just had it recarpeted which is why he came from below.

 

[Watermann]

What year is the boat?

You can stop up holes from the outside for a while until it continues to corrode out from under what ever it is you used to patch the area. The deck has to come out for the damage to be properly repaired and stopped for good. I would imagine the decking was messed up too so he doubled it up doing a new deck over the old one.

My advice would be to keep on looking and find a boat that isn't going to have such a huge issue right off.

 

[hoosiercanuck]

The boat is a 2006 - other than this it's in phenomenal shape - that's why i'm torn

 

[mjf55]

I am not an aluminum guy, but it seems to me a proper repair has to be done. It does not seem to be a large area, so if the price is great, reflects the required repair and is in the condition you say it is, make plans to buy and repair correctly.

 

[alldodge]

JB Weld is some real good stuff and will hold, but (the big BUT) it has to be prepared and applied correctly. From the looks of it, the PO just dabbed some JB on it and did not wire wheel or sand. If it was doing it, I would clean, acetone, and then apply a coat. Once dry, come back and add another coat which would come out further then the fist. May even add a third coat if it was deep. Would probably also do it on the inside.

To get a 100% fix, have an aluminum welder, weld a plate on the inside just for good measure. Don't necessarily think it would be necessary but I have not seen both sides

 

[drewm3i]

Why buy a boat with a major issue?

 

[harleyman1975]

Not just no but HECK NO! Keep looking there are thousands of boats for sale at any given moment.

 

[hoosiercanuck]

Thanks everyone for the input... After getting some more pictures and discussion with the seller I discovered there was one spot on the transom where the corrosion came thru. Almost 10' from where the major corrosion was. I passed after talking with a few other forum members that the only way to truly repair it was rip up the floor and treat everything.

 

[alldodge]

Sounds like a good move.

With the additional corrosion, I'm thinking he was using the boats hull as a ground and also let it sit in the water with a battery charger plugged in

 

[ezmobee]

Yeah good to walk away. There's plenty of even older aluminum hulls out there with little to no corrosion and most of the ones I've seen with corrosion the owners just keep finding more and more as they dig into it. Not much kills an aluminum hull but that sure does.