Need some advice please!

[ifishhard]

I have a few "hooks" in the pad of my boat. It is an Xpress bass boat (aluminum boat), and the "hooks" AKA dents are not allowing me to get on my pad correctly. I want to fill them in with some type of epoxy then sand them down level and paint them. What is the best epoxy to use with aluminum....Now FYI, these dents that will be corrected with epoxy will have a force of water on the at speeds over 55+mph. I need an epoxy that will hold! Thanks for any info!

 

[sschefer]

Re: Need some advice please!

I have a few "hooks" in the pad of my boat. It is an Xpress bass boat (aluminum boat), and the "hooks" AKA dents are not allowing me to get on my pad correctly. I want to fill them in with some type of epoxy then sand them down level and paint them. What is the best epoxy to use with aluminum....Now FYI, these dents that will be corrected with epoxy will have a force of water on the at speeds over 55+mph. I need an epoxy that will hold! Thanks for any info!

Not enough info.. Are these hard hit's where the aluminum is extruded (stretched) or are they soft hits where the aluminum is just pushed in.

The more filler you use the less likely it is to stay put. If these are minor extrusions you're going to need to heat them to 400 degrees and gently work them out. If they are major, you'll need to cut a relief in the extrusion before you heat it and work it out. That relief will need to be tack welded and then patched.

However, if it's just indentations and there isn't any extrusion you can usually just heat the entire area to 400 degrees and then hit it with a wet rag. The aluminum should try to go back to it's original shape. It may take a few trys.

The trick is to never exceed 400 degrees. I use a Bosch LED Heat Gun, it works great. Most repair shops use a MAP Gas torch with a rosebud tip because it's faster.

The reason boats are such a pain is because they are built using hardened aluminum. If you over heat it, it will temper and crack.

 

[ifishhard]

Re: Need some advice please!

Not enough info.. Are these hard hit's where the aluminum is extruded (stretched) or are they soft hits where the aluminum is just pushed in.

The more filler you use the less likely it is to stay put. If these are minor extrusions you're going to need to heat them to 400 degrees and gently work them out. If they are major, you'll need to cut a relief in the extrusion before you heat it and work it out. That relief will need to be tack welded and then patched.

However, if it's just indentations and there isn't any extrusion you can usually just heat the entire area to 400 degrees and then hit it with a wet rag. The aluminum should try to go back to it's original shape. It may take a few trys.

The trick is to never exceed 400 degrees. I use a Bosch LED Heat Gun, it works great. Most repair shops use a MAP Gas torch with a rosebud tip because it's faster.

The reason boats are such a pain is because they are built using hardened aluminum. If you over heat it, it will temper and crack.

I would say that they are inbetween soft hit/hard hits......

 

[sschefer]

Re: Need some advice please!

I would say that they are inbetween soft hit/hard hits......

O.K. so it sounds like you have some stretch going on there but not so much as to need relieving.
You'll still want to use the heat gun to raise the temp of the metal but you can usually get pretty good results by setting up backer blocks underneath the boat and then placing a piece of hardwood on the inside and striking it with a single jack (3lb sledge hammer). YOU MUST GO SLOWLY or you'll push it out and reverse the dent. If that happens you're pretty much screwed. Just beat it out until you'll have to use less than an inch of filler to make it flat and then stop. DO NOT TRY TO MAKE IT PERFECT.
Once you have it close, remove the paint from the area with 80 grit sand paper and then lightly scuff with 36 grit. You just need to scratch deep enough to give the filler something to hold on to.

To fill it, I like to use 3M's marine filler for metals. It is underwater rated and will hold up under pressure where most others won't. It's the stuff in the green and white can with the blue catalyst.

You'll also want to use a barrier coating primer such as Interlux 2000e over the area before you repaint. This will thwart off the hydraulic effects.