tracker jon boat repair

[bigBone]

I was wondering if any of you fellas might have a little information on aluminum repair. I notice more water than usual in my 14 ft jon yesterday. So I brought it home an filled it with water to locate the leak. I have a whole row of rivets that are leaking. The back row that atttaches front bench. I also notice stress cracks around the rivets. Would my best be to drill out leaky rivets an replace with next size up. Or would it work to try an tighten old rivets and put jb weld or some kind of epoxy on them. This is my first go around on a project like this so I just need to be lead in the right direction. Thanks for your time.

["G"]

Tighten the rivets up and then take to a aluminum welder and have them all welded around.

[bigBone]

Thanks for the tip G I believe that's the route I'm gonna go.

[Crappie Reaper]

Tighten the rivets up and then take to a aluminum welder and have them all welded around.

I wouldn't go that route.

Most leaking rivets can be reshot to tighten things up and stop a leak. But if you have stress cracks close to the same rivets, a weld will be a temporary fix until the area stresses again.

I used to work at Raytheon Aircraft building Jets, hired as an outside contractor to repair the direct employees mistakes. Aircraft and Boats that are riveted are built to be able to "Flex". As Aircraft goes, you'd never see a weld used as a repair. The proper way to repair the particular area on your boat is to drill out the rivets in the area of the "stress cracks". Try NOT to go one size up, but it won't kill ya. There's a way to drill a rivet without expanding the hole bigger. Working from the inside of the boat, you want to fabricate a "doubler" that is about a 1/2'' longer than the two end rivets and make sure it's wide enough to cover the entire stressed area. Fit the doubler so that you incorporate the original rivet holes into the doubler, using the original size drill bit. (Now you're just going to use a longer rivet in those areas.)

Along the other three sides of the doubler, drill more holes for NEW rivets using the same spacing between them as the boat has them. Once the doubler has been built and fit, you will seal the doubler to it's new location and shoot the new rivets into place. If you're close to Talala, I can help you with all this as I have all the tooling.

A weld is just going to crack out on you unless a doubler is welded on. The material in the area is fatigued and just needs a little help to get many more years out of her. PM me if you would like to talk.