First boat, help!

[Lil Ronnie]

My father in law gave me an old fisher marine aluminum flat bottom the other day. Brought it home and started cleaning it up and found out the transom was completely gone, nothing left, after removing all the leaves and trash. Have been reading a lot the past few days and I know how to build a new transom, but my question is how do I fix the pitted aluminum hull that's behind the transom? There are about five small pin holes. Also where the bottom of the boat turns up towards the front it looks like some one patched some holes there in the creases, doesn't seem to be too good of a job because I can see the sealer cracking. What would be a good fix for this area too. I don't want to put a lot of money in this boat either, just want something my son and I can just fish out of in some ponds or small lakes.

 

[Grub54891]

Re: First boat, help!

Welcome to I-Boats! We would like to see some pic's of the pitted/damaged area's to better help ya out. There is alot of knowledgable people here,but as they say,a picture is worth a thousand words. Usually if pitted to badly a complete section can be cut out,and new welded back in,cost might not be worth it. Keep the questions coming.
Grub

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: First boat, help!

Post some pix of your boat & the patch sealer that's cracking.

The transom pitting can be skimmed w/ JB Weld, sanded smooth, primed & painted before the transom wood goes back in.

Might ask to have this thread moved to the resto forum, any moderator can do that for you.

Even though your rig is a flat bottom 'jon' boat, there's lots of good info about tin boat rehab over in the Starcraft forum. Read thru some resto's, pretty much all of them have similar problems you'll face on your tinny...

Starcraft Boats




Starcraft Rebuilds and Restorations, they're all here!

BTW: Not sure where you're from, or how old your son is, but an 11year old just broke the Maryland state largemouth bass record: 11+lbs, 26+", from a farm pond.

Hopefully he'll remember working on the boat as much as the fishing

Welcome to iboats

Good luck on your project.