24 foot forester getting little holes in bottom of pontoons

[davidwjacob]

Hello All,

I have a 24 foot pontoon , that i got last year. the guy i got it off of had it in salt water for 20 years pretty much. this was my first pontoon and didn't think anything of it. i have it in fresh water now, but 3 weeks ago i had a whole about the size of a screw that we patched with aluminum welding rod. now i just had to pull the boat again Monday cause now there is a pin hole in the other pontoon. have not fixed it yet. but i think the pontoons are going to start getting little holes all over from deterioration.

is there something like a sealer or coating i can paint on to help seal it up?

what would you all suggest?

I just got a 92 harris flote pontoon to replace the forrester, it has a blown 75 hp on it, so ill move my motor on to this boat, but still would like to seal the other pontoons to maybe use as a dock or something.

Thanks
Dave

 

[jeeperman]

Re: 24 foot forester getting little holes in bottom of pontoons

were the holes on the very bottom where the toons might have been resting on trailer or boatlift bunks?

 

[The Rooster]

Re: 24 foot forester getting little holes in bottom of pontoons

Hey David, like "jeeperman" said, sometimes the pressure treated bunks on trailers cause a bad reaction on the bottom of pontoons, even through the carpet, and can cause small holes. The dealer we bought the Southbay, and Bentley barges from always orders the pontoon trailers with the bunks covered by a semi-hard, moldable plastic covering, light grey in color, due to this very issue. As far as a fix, you might send a "PM" to (5150ABF). He's about as close to an expert on that as you will find on the forum. Good luck.

 

[BatDaddy1887]

Re: 24 foot forester getting little holes in bottom of pontoons

...open the pontoon vent holes and squirt a couple of cans of fix-a-flat in there..........just kidding! When you finally get the holes welded, one option is to paint the bottom of each tube with bottom paint made especially for aluminum...ask others on this forum or search paint and you will find the right combination of paints to use. Good luck.

 

[papaz]

Re: 24 foot forester getting little holes in bottom of pontoons

Do a search online for a product called Steelflex epoxy. It is a 2 part epoxy that works great on sealing holes in aluminum as long as they are not too big. I just finished a 14' aluminum boat that had several small holes in the bottom from oxidation just as you are describing. It worked great and no more leaks!! The company I bought it from was Fasco. I used a version called steelflex superslick with teflon, it was made for airboats to make them slide on the sand and mud but it works great on my little boat and i'll soon be painting the bottom of my pontoons with it.

 

[5150abf]

Re: 24 foot forester getting little holes in bottom of pontoons

I have seen similar problems and don't know that there is a fix other than welding all the holes shut, had a boat in that had thousands of little whilte pillars on it from electrolisis, if you are just using it for a floating dock Gluvit may do the trick but wouldn't stand up to being run.

As far as a welding solution I think the metal would be too thin to weld anymore but don't know without looking at it.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: 24 foot forester getting little holes in bottom of pontoons

Instead of trying to weld up each individual pinhole, could you not "re-skin" the lower third of the toon lengthwise?
Weld a similar strip of toon aluminum directly over the bottom area of the toon.
Don't even bother to cut out the bad area.

 

[5150abf]

Re: 24 foot forester getting little holes in bottom of pontoons

Um, No, that is vitually impossible to do and would be really expensive.

You would have to cut off the keel and grind down the welds then get a peice rolled that exactly matches the tube then weld around the entire cirumference of it and replace the keel, I would geuss about 3 hours per tube after you removed them from the boat, not sure what our shop rate is but it would be close to what a new tube would run once you through in the aluminum.