broken seal on boat

[noURsnagged]

hey forum members im trying to get some advice,, I have small aluminum boat that may have a cracked or broken seal, last time out fishin I was taking on a little bit of water. One problem is I somewhat remodled my boat by putting a floor down over the aluminum. So its almost impossible to see where the water is coming in from.. Any advice on finding and fixing the seal, or other possibilities to check would be appreciated ,, thanks all
matt

[andracke]

Check to make sure you didnt pop a rivet. Somehow that happened to us and we used some epoxy filler we bought at Daves Outboard in Hayward.

[Hookm49]

I agree with andracke. I had an aluminum boat that everytime I fished the Flowage and hit big waves I always popped the head off a rivet. The epoxy filler "in stick form) that you heat and apply is the best especially when you have a floor down. If its not a rivet you might have to take the floor up and investigate further.

John

[blarney]

If you can't see a damaged area you may want to run some water under the new floor. If water is coming in, it should go out as well. Make sure your boat is level when you do this.

Good luck and I hope you don't have to remove the floor.

[danimalw]

Have the same problem with my boat, which happens to only be a 4 year old Lund. Yeah, it's under warranty, but you still have to get the boat back to their plant in northern MN and pay for the labor to remove the floor. I filled the boat up with water in the driveway, found the leaky rivets, drilled them out, and replaced them. None of the rivets were missing, they were just loose, and a couple of them really leaked bad. If a loose rivet leaks that much from a hose, imagine how much water it will take on when the added pressure from floating on water or driving.

You can buy an aluminum closed-head pop rivet (rivet head has no hole). You can do the entire thing from the outside of the boat without removing the floor, and then you have tight rivets again. I also used silicone to seal the rivets better. They haven't leaked yet. Lund uses 3/16" rivets.

I've heard good results from the heat sticks that you can get from cabelas for cheap, but I don't know if you would be able to drill the rivets out good after doing this, if that solution doesn't work.

I'd also be sure that your custom floor isn't bouncing around on any rivets causing the problem.

[Nick Kanauz]

I had the same thing happen to my Smokercraft after it bounced all night on the cedar logs by the dock.
Called Smokercraft, and they actually had one of their techs walk me through the fix. And using this method, I have had no further problems with leaking rivets.
Knock the head off the leaking rivet, and drill out the hole. Take a half inch long stainless steel self tapping screw and run it into the hole with a glob of epoxy over the hole when inserting it. Let it dry after setting the screw tightly against the hull. Mix up some JB Weld, and smooth it over and around the head of the screw including the hull. It will look rather ragged, but it drys smooth. They said they could reset a rivet, but once they are broken out, they do not seat the same.
I did this two years ago, and have not had a problem since. If you want the rivets replaced at the factory, you have to take it there, they will tear out the whole floor, gas tank etc, to use the rivet machine that exerts the proper pressure that you can't get by using a pop riveter. This way I didn't have to take the time to drive down to Indiana, and wait around all day while they do the work.
Took me about a half hour to replace the five rivets that were loose, and seal the free board where I thought it might take water due to some separation. By the way...when JB Weld is dry, you aren't getting it off easy.
Hope this alternate fix helps!
Nick