leaking riveted starcraft ('82 MR180)

[redneck joe]

I know a guy that wasn’t terribly concerned about speed and just peened all the rivets and then coated the bottom with truck bed liner.
He’s been leak free ever since and has no concerns with beaching the boat.

I'm already less than 50% on the horsepower but would not be opposed to that should I find a bigger.

 

[redneck joe]

Just thought of something. My wire wheel is steel, will that be an issue?

 

[redneck joe]

Brass is ok, no?

 

[redneck joe]

NM, they are all coated brass.

 

[airshot]

I would use SS.....brass is ok as long as all the strands are removed....brass and aluminum are born enemies.

 

[redneck joe]

think i'll go with this one if no objections

Amazon.com

 

[redneck joe]

The lines under the boat shout not be a seam, correct? And the keel?

 

[redneck joe]

borrowed a friends creeper and just spent a good hour under there. Been about 5 different sealants applied to fix this issue.

Previous post i asked about the inside hull chines and keel about being seamed above the chine/keel/ I took y screwdriver to the weep holes and feels the hull is stamped and only joint is the outside chine to the sides of the boat?

found a couple more missing rivet heads but no flex in them, i will blind rivet anyway

the hull at transom appears to have had the boat launch onto the ramp a couple three times. One non flexing missing head and about 20 chewed up heads. I'm prob going to flexseal that to see what happens as well as sika caulk up the outside chines. I've got them brushed clean. I think i'll do the siki first, run and see if any positive results before I flex seal. I kinda want to know where prior to pulling the floor sometime in the future. Headed for another surgery in Dec so floor project is not happening soon.

 

[redneck joe]

Never got a response on the keel being a seam or stamped sheet but I did find some damage at that area about under the helm so that got a good dose of sika 291. I also did the seam where the bottom meets the side. All was stripped to bare aluminum with the stainless wheel. Same with transom seam but as I take on water when running that should not be it but I was in the groove. Quick spray of flex seal and the keel under transom. I also found a couple rivets up front with popped heads studs seemed solid but fixed anyway.


I know I need to pull floor and Yada Yada but now I not the time. Life has different plans for me so trying to stem the flow.

 

[redneck joe]

Well, nonr of that worked... guess I'll just have to wait until I swap the floor out.

 

[redneck joe]

Well, I jumped the gun and hit the ramp this morning. Beautiful, 60 degrees and sunny, only four boats at the ramp. I love my lake.

Didn't have all the foam out I wanted but could resist. A beer an a tuna sandwich with ruffles.


So, it appears the leak is under bow floor. I was not wanting to take that up as it is in perfect shape but I guess what's another couple days of work...

Also did a bunch of pressure washing for all the crud that has blocked the drain pathways. They are not large to begin with. That explains some variable timing of excess water showing up. When I launched water was already up front but as it took on more I could see the cruddy water moving to the stern.

The pressure washer is also good at getting the foam off the rivet heads.

 

[redneck joe]

All that, but what I still can't wrap my head around is why it won't leak out when on the trailer. When I got home I dropped the tongue to the ground and filled up until it reached over halfway to the stern. Sat for an hour and only a couple drips from the keel drip hole. The water would have been maybe halfway to the bow eye, yet no drips. I have found a couple three broken rivets but the head on the underside intact and no dripping.

 

[redneck joe]

mystery solved.


Got the bow deck off and all the gunk right there. I assume it was holding back water from dripping out when on the trailer. When underway it allowed to push thru.

 

[redneck joe]

then it took about two minutes with a paint scraper and a pair of pliers to remove this coating that was supposed to be sealing off.

 

[redneck joe]

which leaves this to clean up and re seal

 

[redneck joe]

so the keel chine has a couple drain holes in it. It also starts ahead of where the bow keel guard thingie starts so what appears to be happening is the water is being forced into the drain holes for the keel guard then back up to the bow seam So all my sealing form the outside at the bow was not doing anything. Now that i've cleaned up the gunk and the 'sealant', water pours out of the weep hole when i put water into the hull. Previously, like this morning, i was just getting maybe a tablespoon or wo and i just took that as residual water in the keel chine just draining out.


Good news is i've found about 18 rivets that need replacing (not leaking but I'm sure will eventually and everything else is solid as I expected (hoped?). Will still gluvit everything of course since it is all open.

Whichever boy inherits this thing will thank me at my gravesite...

 

[redneck joe]

guess i should ask, is gluvit the way to go? Or?

 

[Scott Danforth]

gluvit on tinnys...... there is also the stuff you can supposedly spray on a screen door

 

[tphoyt]

Love Gluvit. A buddy of mine had a 19040’s 30 some odd foot Wheeler that was only afloat because of Gluvit. It’s the original screen door skiff sealer.

 

[jbcurt00]

Yep lift the stern and pour glu-vit into bow crease so it puddles where the brown smeg was...