Marina That Can Replace Rivets

[Cast-Away]

Hi Folks,

 

Can anyone recommend a good place in the GTA that can take apart the decking on my boat and replace 7 missing rivets? They might also need to place some of the floor boards.

 

I am willing to drive a couple of hours if necessary in order to have a good job done.

 

Thanks!

 

Warren

[porkpie]

Ron Bankes marine in Port Rowan.  Not cheap but they have been building and repairing boats for a long time.  

[jimmer]

52 minutes ago, Cast-Away said:

Hi Folks,

 

Can anyone recommend a good place in the GTA that can take apart the decking on my boat and replace 7 missing rivets? They might also need to place some of the floor boards.

 

I am willing to drive a couple of hours if necessary in order to have a good job done.

 

Thanks!

 

Warren

I am going to be running into this myself shortly.  I need to replace my floor, but the bench seats, livewell and storage are all riveted to the sides and will have to be removed to do the proper floor replacement. The thought of removing rivets has been scaring me for two years now.

[Hack_Fisherman]

Not sure of the nature of your repair but if you want to tackle it yourself, you can get closed end blind rivets. I’d drizzle a bit of 3M 5200 on it and over the head for good measure. I just replaced about 100 on my starcraft. None of the replacements leak

[Hack_Fisherman]

2 minutes ago, jimmer said:

I am going to be running into this myself shortly.  I need to replace my floor, but the bench seats, livewell and storage are all riveted to the sides and will have to be removed to do the proper floor replacement. The thought of removing rivets has been scaring me for two years now.

See my post above yours. You can also go solid rivets route but it’s a bit more involved. Toughest thing I found with it was getting the old rivets out nicely. Took me a few dozen to get the trick, but now it’s pretty easy. 

[jimmer]

37 minutes ago, Hack_Fisherman said:

See my post above yours. You can also go solid rivets route but it’s a bit more involved. Toughest thing I found with it was getting the old rivets out nicely. Took me a few dozen to get the trick, but now it’s pretty easy. 

So, did you drill them out or grind them off?

[Hack_Fisherman]

Drilled. I was dealing with solid rivets. 

 What I found work best was to centre punch the rivet head on the underside of the hull.  Then I drilled slightly larger drillbit than the rivet size itself so 1/4” for 5/32 rivet.  Before I got too deep I used a small cold chisel to knock the rivet head off. It won’t budge if it’s not ready 

 At the point of head removal, I switched over to a 5/32 Drill bit and drilled until I just got past the outer skin. Then I used a short shaft 5/32 punch to drive out the rivet (was about 10 bucks at the Brafasco. Much better than the craftsman/Mastercraft long straight punch)

 Sometimes they were stubborn but for the most part they popped the remaining rivet out in about 3 to 5 blows of the hammer. 

Trying to drill the rivet out right through proved to be a little sloppy in some cases and driving with the rivet out was much cleaner.  If you don’t drill partway through the hull, you can’t often drive it free due to the swollen part of the rivet that may have expanded between the rivet and the rib  if there was any gap. 

I don’t recommend using a grinder.  It will be hard to see what is rivet and what is hull once the head is gone and aluminum plugs up your discs/grinding stones

Drizzle a fair bit of 3M 5200 around the rivet pin and rotate to drag it into the bore for good measure. ( pop rivet or solid)

Edited July 23, 2019 by Hack_Fisherman

[Old Ironmaker]

Jimmer go to the website iboats.com. There is a myriad of good people there to help you do it yourself, step by step by step. I have been a member there for about 10 years now and have saved big bucks listening to these guys when I had a problem. At any given time there can be 10,000 members and 100,000 guests on that site, yep one hundred thousand. If the members don't know the answer to a problem there is not an answer, yet. They have threads on anything boating, and may be specific to the make and model of a boat from canoes to Yachts. I can't give you any better advice but to ask there. This a fantastic site but for boats go to iboats.com. Good luck.

iboats.com. 

[Cast-Away]

I think I found a place called Heritage Marine in London. Anyone ever deal with them for  a repair or upgrade? The owner's name is Jim Ward.

[DanD]

I haven't personally dealt with them for repairs; but I know people who have and they didn't have anything bad to say? I've purchased parts there in the past and they were every helpful getting the stuff I needed. They're only like 10 minutes away from my shop.

Dan.

[Cast-Away]

Thanks for the feedback Dan.

[Shloim]

I just did 28 loose rivets on my boat, a couple need to be redone but it was very easy.Spae nar in kitchener ships the rivets and can tell you what thickness to order and I used the 5200 from CDN tire. Worked like a charm! took 2/3 hours

S

[super dave]

what size rivets are used for aluminum boats?