Help leaky bottom rivits

[elkhunter338]

I have a 1986 cheiftan and like the boat and use it many many hours each year ocean fishing. I noticed the other day some salt around a few rivits in the bottom after she sits on the trailer for few day to a week or so.
These rivits appear to be slightly loose and I assume leaking some. I do not want to have to remove the floor to fix this problem. The floor is less than 5 years old so I have no reason to do any floor or wood repair of anykind.
The hull basically looks good, but for a few rivits.

Any ideas on how to fix this problem from the outside?

My ideas so far are to remove the paint around the rivit, apply aluminox epoxy or lab-metal, then repaint.

Any ideas on a good bottom paint that would also act like an expoxy sealer for the whole bottom. Or is this just a bad idea.
I was thinking of coating the whole bottom with gluvit epoxy or lab-metal.
You can thin lab-metal and paint it on.

However this will require removing the existing bottom paint, Any ideas on how to quickly remove the paint.

I am sure this will generate some discussion, I am really interested in hearing from someone who has done a similar repair and if it worked.

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: Help leaky bottom rivits

Yhe only answer I can give you that I know has worked for a member from the outside is JB weld which EZ just did to his Jupiter before putting it in the water for a week straight while on vacation . He said it did the trick and there was no water in the boat at the end of the week.


Rick

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Help leaky bottom rivits

Yep. The not-too-attractive, half-assed, but completely successful solution is to slather some JB Weld marine around each of the questionable rivets.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Help leaky bottom rivits

Pulling the deck and re-bucking the rivets with a hammer and heavy metal object would be ideal...but I take it that doesn't sound like too much fun

Other than that I'd say that flipping the boat, using a wire wheel to remove paint, applying gluvit and letting gravity work it into the seams and rivets, then re-painting with marine would be the best strategy. Again not the easiest way to solve the problem but probably more long-term. Flipping the chieftain wouldn't be the easiest but it has been done.

I rebucked my rivets with great success and will be applying gluvit as recommended on this site. EZ's JB weld sounds like a reasonable third alternative too. I'm curious if that JB weld will ever need to be redone and how painting over it works also.

 

[elkhunter338]

Re: Help leaky bottom rivits

Huron Angle are you going to gluvit the inside or the outside of the hull?

I think I will plan on testing jb weld marine, evercoat(Aluminox epoxy stick), lab metal and gluvit on test pieces of aluminum to see what appears to stick the best and provide the most flex without coming off. Then spot paint the rivits and run the boat another year or two before I repaint the whole bottom.

Any additional ideas are welcome, I will not start my tests for awhile and will post my results as to what I find appears to adhere the best.

I bought the boat in nov. 2003 and was replacing the floor in Dec. without even using the boat due to some unforeseen floor rot. I did use marine plywood (3/4) and primed both sides and put a none skid coating on the walking surface which has proven to be a great idea. I hate carpet because it hold the fish smell.

I would have probably coated the whole inside of the boat with gluvit and filled below the floor with liquid foam like the new starcrafts. Along with some other changes that would have made the boat better.
All and all I love the layout of the cheiftain for a 21foot boat, I ran it 100+ hours this year and caught hundreds of fish.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Help leaky bottom rivits

Huron Angler are you going to gluvit the inside or the outside of the hull?

I'm going to use gluvit on the exterior and a few spots inside the hull where bare aluminum is still showing. You see in my pre-iboats ignorance I sprayed a bedliner material inside the hull thinking it would look great and add grip, noise insulation and a little more comfort.

Well it is just a big hassle since I can't really repair any rivets that are coated with the stuff. So I'm going to use it on the outside. I've already used a 3M product that is a green stick that melts with a torch to seal rivets and seams and it has worked well...not as good as gluvit would have from what I've read. Feel free to check out my thread to see what I'm talking about.

 

[APPALOOSA2]

Re: Help leaky bottom rivits

I would pull the floor not that hard to really do it right. Buck the rivets and then gluvit all the rivets and seams and then never worry about it again.

 

[Gnarly]

Re: Help leaky bottom rivits

Or you could get the correct size self sealing blind rivet , carefully drill out the existing rivet and install the blind rivet wet with urethane sealant, here's a link to a place here in Canada that sells self sealing aluminum rivets with an aluminum mandrel.
http://www.tec-n-tec.com/English/RiveTec/rivetsAN.htm
the sel tech rivets are the ones Im talking about and I'm sure you could find something similar in the states and even if you had to use the aluminum rivet with a steel mandrel as long as its sealed (from the outside as well) corrosion shouldnt be an issue, If the rivets had been installed wet with proseal 870 from the factory this wouldnt be the issue it is with these boats but time is money. Just thought I'd add that re bucking solid rivets is a great way to work harden and crack them, If its loose replace it solid or blind and use a 4x gun and set with a bucking bar not a hammer if you want any control at all.

 

[elkhunter338]

Re: Help leaky bottom rivits

I got the boat up off the boat trailer bunks and found only 3 rivits that need attention. Since the floor is new and I do not want to remove the floor. Did that 5 yrs ago. I am going to gluv-it the 3 rivits, paint the bottom with bottom primer and bottom paint and call it good. In the future I will look into the blind water tight rivits as maybe an option. Also as part of this project I am doing some trailer maintence due to rust. I found a product called rust-bullet, from the information I could dig up on it this appears to be some good stuff. Time will tell. I found it at summit racing.
Thank everyone for the tips I will try and post the results of my work after next summer to see how the repairs hold up through a seaon on ocean fishing.