Aluminum Floor Crack Repair Suggestions

[mattb]

I currently have an alumacraft 1448 that has a crack in the floor, where it meets the bow eye. The pic below is the opposite side of the bow eye, and essentially the layers from inside to out are the backing plate, the floor, the hull, and then the bow eye on the opposite side. I had a welder come by and he suggested not even welding it, but just drilling out the rivets, creating a larger backing plate and re riveting it all together.

I feel this is within my abilities, and I was wondering if cutting out those rivets, creating a new plate out of 1/8" x 2" aluminum, and re riveting the whole assembly together would work.

My main concern is the floor cracking, and my idea there was to either get a deep c clamp to push the cracked seams flush, jb welding it, and installing the plate over it would work, or should it be brazed with some kind of aluminum repair tool like blue demon. I have zero experience with aluminum brazing and if jb weld was sufficient I would prefer to use it.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[DaleH]

If it were mine, I'd use wood or King Starboard (or cut piece from a cheap Dollar Store cutting board) as the backing plate, of height that would fit that panel and then for width probably a good 10" to 12" wide to 'spread the load' of the pull. Then I'd bolt it all back together using 1/4x20 stainless steel hardware. Also drill at least an 1/8" hole at the end of each crack to keep them from growing. Sure, use JB if it floats your boat.

Insulate the tin from the SS hardware IF used in salt or brackish waters, like using adhesive-lined heatshrink on the bolt bodies and nylon washers under the SS bolt head and SS washer on the other end, with SS Nylok nuts to lock in place.

Simple, done ...

Even good ol' duct tape works as an insulator 'on the cheap'. I recall doing that once to a boat, sold it to a kid ... years later he's out front with a crack in the hull from hitting something. I tell him 'Sure leave it, park it around back and I'll fix it for you' (good kid). I pull apart some gear holders I had added with the el cheapo duct tape insulation ... and it was still intact with zero corrosion due to dissimilar metals, i.e., galvanic corrosion. I had wrapped the bolts bodies/shanks in tape and put a few layers of tape under the SS washers. And yes, he was using it in SW estuaries.