Preferred way to fill rivet holes from wood floor in aluminum Starcraft

[mfelthousen]

I am replacing the floor in a new-to-me '78 Starcraft Holiday '18. I'm thinking that I should fill in the old rivet holes in the ribs before riveting the new floor down, since I don't see a good way to 'find' then when drilling new holes in the replacement panels (the old floor won't serve well as a template). Do people weld these, or would something like JB Weld be adequate?

Thanks in advance. It's my first boat, and this forum has been a great resource.
Mat

 

[Tnstratofam]

JB Weld will work fine. However unless the ribs look like swiss cheese already I wouldn't worry about filling the old rivet holes.

 

[GA_Boater]

Welcome aboard.

No offense Dave, but JB Weld isn't the right thing for the old holes in the ends of the ribs. JB doesn't have the strength when a new hole is half in and half out of an old hole.

What some have done is make some curved "caps" that straddle the rib ends and pop riveted on the rib sides. The "caps" were about the same gauge as the ribs and gives the tooth to hold the rivets in new drilled holes. The deck isn't raised enough to matter about shimming the stringers.

When I replaced the deck, I marked the rib locations on the hull with a pencil so I could locate the rib ends by drilling new holes the same distance in from the hull side as the old deck. I didn't pre-drill the deck cuz I knew that was a losing proposition.

For the stringers, I laid the new wood in place, marked the center line of the stringers, closed the gap between the plywood sheets then used a string to show where to drill the new holes.

Hint - Use a stop on your drill bit or a piece of tape. You don't want to drill through the hull like someone I know, but I only did one. :blue:

 

[Tnstratofam]

No offense taken. I wasn't thinking about the new rivets possibly ending up close to the old holes therefore causing problems with the new rivets holding.

Sorry for the bad info mfel Ga has you steered right.

 

[mfelthousen]

Thank you both. The ribs aren't in bad shape. At most I think the floor has been replaced once before. I am starting to think that I can get away with drilling slightly further inboard to avoid the old holes. The rivets I have are 1", and I am only putting 1/2" marine ply down (same as what I'm replacing). I'm thinking I probably have more leeway than I originally thought, since the wood will flex a bit to match the curve.