How effective is Gluvit?

[RaftRat]

Ahoy mariner’s,
I’m restoring a older Starcraft Seafarer, and I’m really trying to make it nice. And I want to do it right. I’ve noticed it has a leak at the bow keel, and I noticed a few places that have sealant on them that’s now cracking and peeling, kind of looks like a type of silicone caulking. Of course I’ll be removing the old sealant. I also have some rivet tools ordered to reset the rivets. Anyways, I’ve seen a lot of advice for using Gluvit. But I was kind of looking for tips on using it or first hand experience/ reviews with people I trust over the average Googler. Thanks for any help.

 

[BWR1953]

Gluvit works great when applied correctly... from inside the hull.

Many of us have used it and Coat-it (a competitor) as well.

I used it on my Kingfisher project and just ordered some for my Chieftain project.

Come visit us over in the Starcraft subforum. Lots of great advice and info there!

Starcraft Boats

forums.iboats.com

 

[RaftRat]

Thank you for the link, I was looking for the Starcraft club . I will have to post my newer posts there regarding this vessel. So my plan was to clean off all the old sealant, float test at the lake to see where all it leaks, reset the rivets around the leaky areas, and Gluvit all the seams on the inside only, lightly sand to scuff and paint over. Also, do I need to remove the paint to bare metal where I apply the Gluvit? Or can it be applied over good sound paint?

 

[RaftRat]

Just an update. So I wanted to post some of my progress, and since I already had this thread started, I was just going to post here for now. I ordered and received the Gluvit, a couple-ish weeks ago. I removed most of the old sealant, and I water tested the boat yesterday to see where all it was leaking. So overall I feel better about the condition of boat than I had before. It leaked in more places than I had expected, BUT they were all very slow, creeping leaks. Pretty much on all the seams, but surprisingly none of the other rivets that fasten the ribs or the center keel piece leaked at all- I figured some of them would be loose enough to leak a little. But the seams were slow enough that even though it was in the water for 30 minutes, it wasn’t enough to puddle, and it was less water than I had expected. Next is resetting the rivets along the seams, but who knows when that will happen. Lots of stuff coming up this summer with a trip to Alaska. Anyways we’ll see how the resetting the rivets go.