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Aluminum boat leaks


lureme

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What is a good way to find leaks in an aluminum boat with rivets? I filled it with water floor high and let sit but no leaks/ When sitting in water some is coming in from where ? Whats a good product to seal any leaks?

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Filling the boat with water will help with larger leaks but if it’s a tiny one (or multiple tiny ones), it simply would provide enough force to find it. The boat floating on water has more downforce pushing the water into the boat. 

 

Now, like Fisherman said, if you’ve got livewells, check the hoses and connections first. Then move to the bilge plug and go from there. 

My old boat was dry the first week I had it. The next week, water started coming in. I wasn’t happy because it was a welded Hull. In my case, a $5.00 bilge plug fixed the problem and luckily, it was the first thing I tried. 

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1 hour ago, lureme said:

What is a good way to find leaks in an aluminum boat with rivets? I filled it with water floor high and let sit but no leaks/ When sitting in water some is coming in from where ? Whats a good product to seal any leaks?

Gluvit is a great seep in epoxy sealer, but no good if you have a finished floor. 

How fast is it coming in?

do you have corrosion around rivets? Any missing?

3M has a good mini syringe epoxy applicator  that you can use around questionable rivet heads.

any OB connections (thru-bolts)@ Transom? 

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On my 14 tin with a finished flat floor I removed the entire interior and took it to the lake for a float. I had about 30 leaking rivets and the entire base of the transom was allowing water in. When I filled the boat with water I had no leaks at all. Re riveted the entire floor area and a new butyl gasket and rivets on the transom and its dry as a bone now.

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8 hours ago, lureme said:

I have a stupid questions but what is a bucking tool ? Or should I ask my wife, LOL

It’s a small hand held metal anvil with a dome machined in it to match the dome shape of the rivet head. It prevents the head of the rivet from being distorted by imperfect hammer strikes and keeps the contact pressure uniform 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sounds like my old tin can...Paid $150 for it and probably spent over $200 on various kinds of guck and muck and never did stop the leak...

Finally gave up and tried to live with it...Fashioned a portable bilge pump with an old motorcycle battery...

Not stable enough on my feet to go boating anymore (pontoon boats excepted) so I gave it to Motiv8tor...

 

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I would like to thank evryone's ideas about my leak, but now I feel sort of stupid. I bought a larger output capacity automatic bilge pump and installed it and no more leaks? So I was ready for any water coming in and could hardly wait to try the sucker out! But to my surprise no water getting in? So then I wondered what I did differently? I horsed up the drain plug tighter, DA!  So I examined the hole and was crudded up so I cleaned it, new plug and vowala! no more leaks! Now you all can have a chuckle on me!

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