AL hard top

[cptbill]

Has anyone out there had this problem, the welds on joints the support for my hard top have developed stress cracks. It's a Wellcraft 270 Coastal 2002 so it's 17-18 yrs old any way the question is after I pull it off do I send it off to be rewelded or do you think I can braze it (using an AL rod of course)

 

[roffey]

beautiful boat...

 

[dingbat]

They all do that. I have a couple of cracks in my support structure as well.

Brazing is a band-aid to the problem. To be done right, the cracks need to be drilled, ground out and welded. The process will burn the anodize off leaving a pretty ugly repair. You would need to polish the area then keep a protective coating on the area to keep it from oxidizing.

A lot of guys use the excuse of a cracked weld to remove and refinish the support as part of the process. Either by having the part anodizing again or powder coated.

 

[Scott Danforth]

take it to a welder, have the cracks ground out and re-welded

 

[cptbill]

Well that's some great advice thanks all, Thanks Roffey, we picked it up almost a year ago and have been slowly redoing it