Leaking rivets, any suggestions????

I have 4 rivets right together on the bottom side of my jon boat and they are leaking. But the weird thing is that they are all right together in like a 4x4 square. And thhey are leaking pretty bad so, any suggestions????

Bass Pro and Cabelas sell a repair material that looks like a green hot glue stick. You sand around the rivet to clean/rough up the surface, heat the metal with a butane torch and then melt some of the stick on the rivet. I have patched several rivets and the stuff is almost indestructible. It only costs a few bucks for two sticks and they will go a long way.

Joe

you can also use what they put in the back of trucks, the spray in liner. they have the roll on kind at your local auto store. myself I would sand the outside bottom of the jonboat and apply it to the bottom, that way if you fish the river a lot it will protect the bottom from wearinggoing through showls.

you can also use this on your bass boat for a kill guard

Man we drilled out the old rivets and put in new, put epoxy and paint on the bottom and it worked for a little while. We never did try the bed liner stuff?

I had the same problem and tried it all. None of it worked for long including the glue stick Joe mentioned. Your best bet - call Doug (onemorecast). He fixed me up several years ago (cheap) and I haven't had a problem yet.

Gluv-it works wonders, just follow the direction and it should be sealed for as long as you own the boat.

[url]http://www.discountmarinesupplies.com/Fiberglass_Epoxy_Resin-TRAVECO_GLUV_IT_EPOXY_SEALER.html[/url]

My fishing partner's Tracker has MANY rivets that are patched ... we used Knead-it, and also JB Weld. The bulk of the patching jobs were done over 10yrs ago, and they haven't leaked since.

... pappy

I used the green stick stuff from cabelas and it has worked great. I had about 20 leaky rivits on my jon and it is dry as a bone now. Make sure the surface is nice and ruff. Ware gloves when you put it on if it drips off it is like napalm and will burn and leave a scar. I speak from expierence.:eek:

I believe you can buy aluminum Welding rods that you just heat with a torch and weld the rivets if you like...Most welding supply stores carry them. If you can't find any I got a few from my uncle and you can have them if need be

Put the boat on its side. Get a chunk of scrap wood and have someone hold it against the rivet on one side. On the other side get another piece of wood against the rivet and hit with a hammer. I worked on mine.

Drill out the old rivets and replace.

Make a mark in the center of the dome shaped end of existing rivet with a punch to get the drill bit started in the right place. Use a bit slightly smaller than shaft of rivet. I used 3/16 inch bit. Drill through the rivet head to about where the rivet starts going through the hull. The rivet head should fall off or come off with some very light persuasion from a chisel. Go to a larger drill bit vs chiseling hard as that will elongate the rivet hole in your hull and the you may need to go to larger rivet.

I think they are called "buck" rivetsnot pop rivets.

Have the boat manufactorer mail you some new rivets. Rivets have different properties. some hard some soft-can't remember what you need--I think soft. You also don't wand anything that will set up a chemical reaction with your boat hull.

You will need a rivet tool--which is a heavy piece of metal with one end hollowed out the shape of the size Rivet head you are installing and the other end flat that you hit with a hammer. You also need a solid piece of steel about 1x1 inch square by maybe 4 incles long. You place the rivet tool on the head of the rivet and hit it with a hammer while another person is holdng the end of the piece of steel against the cylinder shaped end of the rivet. This pounding will flatten out the cylinder end ot the rivet and pull the two pices of aluminum together. When you initally put the new rivet in I don't think you want a tight fit. You want the ponding and flattening of the end of the rivet to pull the metal tightly together.

Stop by a place where they fix over the road trailers or airplanes and see if they will answer your questions if you have any if no boat dealer in your area fixes rivets.

Like anything else. Once you have the proper tools and know what dril bit to use etc. and do it once it is very simple.

*If you want to experiment maybe try placing two steel bars as described above--one on each end of the existing rivet (two person operation) and bang on one of them to flatten the rivet out some more. Don't think that can hurt anything. Seems like it would tighten it up.

Good luck
Peter

buy a roller and a gallon of the roll on truck bed lining. Works better than anything I have ever seen. The only down side, is that you have to pretty much paint the whole inside of your boat and what you don't want painted, have to tape it off. But it works great on alluminum boats