Question:
I have a 12' Meyer's Pro 12 aluminum fishing boat that has suffered some
salt water corrosion where it set on trailer pads (bunks) and some leaking
is occurring. Is it possible to fibreglass the bottom of an aluminum boat
such as that? Are there written instructions available somewhere that I
might be able to get my hands on?
Answer:
-Have you thought about having a local aluminum welder fix it for you? Cut
out the bad areas and weld in new?
- Fix it right and be done with it. You may even be able
to have the leaks plugged with a few spot welds. Then find something to
cover the trailer bunks that will not hold water against the aluminum.
-In fact I had 2 4" x 42" strips of heavy-gauge aluminum welded in and it
leaks worse that it did originally. It's going back to the welder today.
-I recently saw a similar thread over on the iboats.com boating forum, and
someone had mentioned that they had similar problems - and that they paid a
third party to fiberglass the outside of the hull. Said that it worked
wonderfully - however - be sure that you use epoxy, and not polyester resin.
For smaller leaks - like pinholes - or smaller corrosion & pitting, you can
use JB Weld - which is simply a 2-part epoxy with some metal in it. I
turned over the boat, and used a wire disc brush attached to a drill to
clean off the powdery oxidation, and to reveal where the pitting has gone
thru the hull - then JB-welded the pitting... Then I used exterior house
caulk to fill in all the rivets - "just in case" - because I had noticed
some of the rivets would actually spin in place - so inevitably will be
letting water in....
