Aluminum boat floor paint and boat leaks.

[njdrt-rdr]

I sort of aqcuired my first boat (other than a kayak), I believe it's a mid to late 60's montogmery ward sea king. 12 foot.
It was left in my yard when my brother in law moved. I doubt he's coming back for it since he moved 3000 miles away, but it's still technically his. I was given the go ahead to use it if I want. However it needs some repair. I'm currently replacing the wood bench seats. I'm pretty much doing this on a shoe string. I had some 1x12 pine, so I cut that up for new seats, painted it with some leftover house paint and I have some leftover indoor outdoor carpet I was going to put on them for some grip. Eventually if I keep this thing and I actually become the owner, I'll buy some real seats in unless I find some for free.

When I look inside the boat, the floor of the boat was painted with what looks like some type of brown non skid type paint.
It's all flaking off so I was going to power wash it all off. Any suggestion on what to paint on it in it's place.

I thought about making a wood deck for between the seats, but the weight capacity of the boat is 500 lbs. MY son and I are about 260. Then figuring trolling motor and battery is another hundred, so I'm not sure I want to add wood flooring. I'm thinking of of just repainting the floor for now.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

ON another subject. How do you make sure the boat doesn't leak.
The only things I can think of are obviously to put it in the lake and see what happens or fill the inside of the boat up with water above the rivets and see if anything drips out.

Any other better ways?

PS took my son out kayak fishing in our tandem kayak for the first time last night and he really enjoyed it. So I'm thinking this boat will give us a little more room and even allow us to bring Mom if we like. I think we'd still be under the carrying capacity, my wife is pretty small.


Thanks,
Nick

 

[njdrt-rdr]

Re: Aluminum boat floor paint and boat leaks.

I was able to find some spray paint anti skid stuff on line at a marine shop. That should do the trick, just need to find out how to prep the metal.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Aluminum boat floor paint and boat leaks.

Any bare aluminum needs to be hit with etching primer. I used this:http://duplicolor.com/products/selfEtchingPrimer/ which I found pretty reasonably at Pep-Boys. Only a light dusting of it is needed.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Aluminum boat floor paint and boat leaks.

Welcome to iboats, sounds like a nice little project

I would HIGHLY recommend that you strip all the paint off the interior and apply some Gluvit, available here in the iboats store.

It will keep your rivets and seams from leaking for many years.

If you are missing any rivets, or have some that are damaged you should replace them prior to the gluvit. I'd just paint it with Rustoleum oil based, spray or brush.

Bedliner type products aren't the best for aluminum boats, I used one on the interior of my 12 footer and I wish I'd just painted it now. The stuff fades in the sun and is hard to keep clean.

I also built some removable sections of decking for the stern and middle areas. They are great since you can always leave them at home to reduce weight. Very easy to keep the boat clean too since you can just spray it with a hose with them removed.

Keeping weight minimized is a big deal on these little tin cans, glad to hear you already know that

Good luck to ya!

 

[njdrt-rdr]

Re: Aluminum boat floor paint and boat leaks.

Thanks. I didn't think about the floor being removable and taking it out if I had a heavier load. I think with just me and my son, there would be enough capacity to have some flooring.
I also never heard of gluvit, I'll check into it.

I took the boat to the power washer last night. It's been sitting outside upside down since probably 1983 when it was last registered. On a good note, I power washed the bottom first and made sure to spray the rivets, when I flipped the boat over, I didn't see any wetness inside. Then I power washed all the paint off the floor of the boat. A guy at work is bringing me non-skid marine paint today, something he had left over from a project. Should be enough for what I need.
The boat actually belongs to my brother in law(although he lives 3000 miles away now, I doubt he's coming back for it), it was his dad's boat who passed away many years ago. I just think it's cool for me to fix up and my son to fish out of his grandpa's boat even if he never met the man. My wife also used to cruise around the lake in this boat when she was a kid. I think it's a 1973. It's a Montgomery Ward Sea King.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Aluminum boat floor paint and boat leaks.

There's also Coat It. Same product but a little easier on your wallet.