Author Topic: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)  (Read 11511 times)

Offline gtermini

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Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« on: August 28, 2019, 10:29:39 AM »
So I got a call from a friend of mine yesterday afternoon that his neighbor's boat could be had cheap (I know, no such thing). So I went and looked at it and made the retarded decision to gamble on it. It's a 1991 17' Alumaweld Sea Dory center console similar to the one shown in the picture. He religiously salmon fishes most of September and October. On Saturday he had used the boat, docked it in a slip and drove home for the night. On Sunday morning it had 8" of water in the bottom. After the standard fire drill of check the plug etc, he pulled it out, took it home, and tore out the floor boards. The whole bottom showed pitting pretty bad. He took it to some shop where they did a hack job cutting out a piece about 12X24 where the bottom begins to sweep up. After failing to fully weld the poorly fit piece in, they informed him the entire bottom was junk and it needed a full replacement @ astronomical cost. He ceased further work, took the boat home, and promptly went and bought a slightly used, new boat roughly the same size & style on Monday.

Que me entering the scene. I basically bought the trailer, new depth finder, and 100HP Merc w/ jet lower-end at fair price and got the boat for $100 additional. I figure if I can resheet the bottom for under $2k in material, I will be OK vs buying a operational boat. I have a cobramatic push-pull feeder and have run a tiny bit of aluminum weld in my life (maybe 20 lbs of wire total vs well over a ton of steel hard wire). I think right now I'm going to just try to goober the bottom problem areas up with flex seal or something and go crabbing in September, then worry about the whole job later.

Thoughts? Criticisms? Guesses? I think just about any random person has about the same knowledge of aluminum boat repair as I do (zilch).   :))

TL;DR I'm an idiot.


Offline goodfellow

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2019, 10:37:30 AM »
Depending on the alloy, this should be relatively easy to weld. I welded a small patch onto a pontoon one time and had a heck of a time. Come to find out later that it was a cheap imported sheet alloy that was notorious for being dirty and porous. Good luck!

I'd fiberglass the tough spots with KittyHair for added strength and water resistance, and then flex seal the outside to the waterline -- then use it and forget about it.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2019, 10:42:47 AM by goodfellow »

Offline jabberwoki

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2019, 11:47:59 AM »
 :o
Is the need enough? Or does the want suffice?

Offline bmwrd0

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2019, 12:59:26 PM »
So, are you in the market for a bridge? I have one back east I would let go for a song...

Offline gtermini

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2019, 02:34:17 PM »
There is no shortage of dirty and porous where the new floor will attach. I'll put up a picture later on. I have a feeling I'm going to burn up a bunch of roloc discs and stainless toothbrushes.

Offline slip knot

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2019, 05:18:42 PM »
if its anything like the gulf coast boats you will find TIG is the way to go. A buddy does lots of weld repairs on al boats and tells me that the corrosion is in the metal and you can clean all you want and its still there. You gotta work it out as you weld it. I've watched him and sure enough as you melt in you can see the globs of crap come to the surface.

I'm just not co-ordinated enough to get the hang of tig. after I arc onto the rod a time or two I'm done for the day. :o :o

Offline muddy

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2019, 07:49:35 PM »
Looking forward to seeing the repair


Sent from the twisted mind of the Mudman


Offline jabberwoki

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2019, 07:57:27 PM »
So what caused this? shitty metal?
Is the need enough? Or does the want suffice?

Offline DeadNutz

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2019, 08:41:01 PM »
I say transfer the gear to a seaworthy hull and scrap that one. If you are talking crabbing the ocean is a very unforgiving mistress even in good equipment.

Offline gtermini

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2019, 02:33:29 PM »
I spent some time with a wire wheel underneath. I don't feel it's 10% as bad as the guy made it out to be. There was less than 10 punky spots that opened up, all in one general area. The biggest game to beat was the "patch" the shop started and quit on. I got my hands on a tig welder and welded it in on Saturday. Their filler had cracked right down the middle of the beads and had to be completely ground out. It's like they'd had the wrong shielding gas or something.

The bottom was a little stressed from sitting on the trailer bunks nearby, and would move like crazy as soon as the heat from the weld spread out. So it was weld an inch, move to the other side, weld another inch, let it cool for 5 min, and repeat.

Not my prettiest welds, but I'm confident in them. Welding on your back overhead with the wind blowing isn't ideal fine tig conditions either. I used 5356 filler. The bottom it 6061-t6 and I'd guess that's the same garden variety sheet they got for the patch. Thank god for new inverter tig welders. Being able to adjust the arc characteristics and  having a nice cone arc off a pointed electrode made it easy to use just enough heat. I ended up at 160A on the meter, about 3/4 pedal used. 88% DC+ @ 110A and 165A DC-, 275 Hz, no pulse, 3/32 pink ring thoriated tungsten, #7 gas lens.









I have never been able to get that cobramatic to run very well and am having problems with plugged cooler lines, so I decided this scow was good enough justification to upgrade a little. Just happened to see this on CL Friday afternoon. New in the box for right at half of new price. I had to order a WC-24 so it can play with the XMT304 or Trailblazer. If the right deal on an Optima pulser comes by, I'd grab it to do pulse spray, which is the only way to fly running alum wire. I will upgrade it to the centerfire contact tip/diffuser/nozzle as soon as the tips that came with it get burned up.



Offline goodfellow

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2019, 02:39:14 PM »
Great work!!! -- and some nice new toys.

Offline jabberwoki

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2019, 03:15:15 PM »
That Boat does not look that bad Gilligan.
Is the need enough? Or does the want suffice?

Offline pep

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2019, 08:06:50 PM »
FLEX TAPE >>>>>>>>>ROTFLMAO :D

just kidding

Pep
1776 ................... what happened!

Offline slip knot

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #13 on: September 10, 2019, 08:33:36 PM »
looks good for overhead ;D  Us South Texas rednecks would flip that boat over and weld it.

Offline DeadNutz

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Re: Bring. Out. Another. Thousand. (Boat Insanity)
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2019, 09:00:34 PM »
That weld bead will probably cost you 10 knots of speed with the drag and may make the boat wander a little. ;D
So when is the maiden voyage?