my take on foam or no foam

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:LOL2: I was'nt that bad, but close at some points and no explosions either [-o< I guess I might consider myself lucky :LOL2:
 
fool4fish1226 said:
I know one thing for sure about two part pour foam, I sticks to your skin like theres no tomorrow. :LOL2:

yeah, I found that out several years ago, with the expanding foam in the cans. There wasn't a solvent that would take it off, at least nothing that I found. I think I wore that crap for about 2 weeks. LMAO
 
FuzzyGrub said:
I have seen bad pour in foam work in both alum and fiberglass boats. It is not unusual to see the main drain channels plugged. While JnG's are clear, the pictures don't show how water would drain toward the center, from the sides. Some mfgs must think that water will never get in there. Water will always find a way! ;)


Yeah, those pictures of jigngrub's boat, is probably the first time I've seen foam where they left a gutter open for drainage. That's how it's supposed to be done. Not sure how they have the rest of the gutters set up for drainage, but at least that center one is clear, and since the center V is the lowest point in the boat, this allows the biggest majority of the water to drain out. And THIS is part of the reason why it's a 15 year old boat that doesn't have water-logged foam.

Every boat I've ever taken apart, the foam was jammed in all the gutters, even the center one. Take a boat like that, 15 years old, cut it open, and see what's inside. Guarantee you it won't be dry like the foam in jigngrub's tracker....it will be like the wet spots I found in my Triton I've had for 2 1/2 years, and like the waterlogged foam a lot of people find when they start cutting into their decks and platforms.

Again, proper drainage layout from the factory, along with a little bit of preventive maintenance, is the key to keeping the foam dry.
 
Agreed. Remember that a v hull boat obviously drains different than a flat bottom. The two outside channels that run the length of the floor, run directly into the foam boxes. The foam sits on the floor thus trapping the water. My boat is a 1988 Lowe husky boat, this is the first problem I have ever had with the hull
 
skinnywaters said:
Agreed. Remember that a v hull boat obviously drains different than a flat bottom. The two outside channels that run the length of the floor, run directly into the foam boxes. The foam sits on the floor thus trapping the water. My boat is a 1988 Lowe husky boat, this is the first problem I have ever had with the hull


It doesn't matter what you put back in there, you'll still get the galvanic corrosion unless you paint the aluminum. I suggest a couple coats of aluminum primer and then caulk the water entry points with 5200 to make it as watertight as possible, then put the sheet foam back in for floatation... or were you thinking these would make better storage compartments?
 
As for the paint to use in bilges, etc, to prevent galvanic corrosion, use interlux interprotect, and then a coat of interlux bilge-kote. The interprotect by itself will do a good job, but the layer of bilge-kote makes it even better.
 
Thanks for the tips on paint guys, that is the plan. I thought about using gluv it on the bare aluminum then primer and paint, what do you guys think? Also, I have some corrosion pits in there, someone mentioned using a vinegar water mix. Let it sit and then flush the area with water. Then go ahead with the wire wheel. Any suggestions would be great.
 
skinnywaters said:
Thanks for the tips on paint guys, that is the plan. I thought about using gluv it on the bare aluminum then primer and paint, what do you guys think? Also, I have some corrosion pits in there, someone mentioned using a vinegar water mix. Let it sit and then flush the area with water. Then go ahead with the wire wheel. Any suggestions would be great.

Vinegar and water should help some. The commercially available products are Zep-a-lume or Alumabrite, but they are fairly dangerous in concentrate form (they are the phosphoric acid PSG mentioned).

The whole goal is to acid etch the metal. The acid starts eating away at what is there. I've heard of folks using just about any acid available, with varying results, so the vinegar, while not as powerful as the commercially available products, will likely yield decent results. With a short soak (10 minutes or so), the acid only gets to the very surface layer, ie the corrosion flowers, and leaves fresh, clean metal underneath.

I personally would use a maroon or brown 3M Scotchbrite disk in a 4" grinder instead of the stainless wire brush. Same concept, but the Scotchbrite will yield a more uniform surface, and be a lot quicker as well.
 
Thats pretty much exactly what I needed to know fellas thanks. Also i do have one place that corroded all the way through, what would be best to seal it. Would marine tex work? Then once the corrosion is gone do I skim coat the divets with anything? That's where I figured the gluv it would come in handy, its pretty much just like steel flex.
 
bassboy1 said:
skinnywaters said:
Thanks for the tips on paint guys, that is the plan. I thought about using gluv it on the bare aluminum then primer and paint, what do you guys think? Also, I have some corrosion pits in there, someone mentioned using a vinegar water mix. Let it sit and then flush the area with water. Then go ahead with the wire wheel. Any suggestions would be great.

Vinegar and water should help some. The commercially available products are Zep-a-lume or Alumabrite, but they are fairly dangerous in concentrate form (they are the phosphoric acid PSG mentioned).

The whole goal is to acid etch the metal. The acid starts eating away at what is there. I've heard of folks using just about any acid available, with varying results, so the vinegar, while not as powerful as the commercially available products, will likely yield decent results. With a short soak (10 minutes or so), the acid only gets to the very surface layer, ie the corrosion flowers, and leaves fresh, clean metal underneath.

I personally would use a maroon or brown 3M Scotchbrite disk in a 4" grinder instead of the stainless wire brush. Same concept, but the Scotchbrite will yield a more uniform surface, and be a lot quicker as well.

Vinegar and water work OK for fairly clean aluminum, like a diamondplate toolbox.

But if you're dealing with 'sugar' on aluminum, staining, or bad oxidation, ospho is what you should use. Yep, it's a little caustic, but nothing like muriatic acid, which, I wouldn't recommend, it's likely to do TOO good of a job at eating the aluminum! Ospho will not harm the aluminum's integrity, even when used at full strength (I use it like this all the time)

Just be sure to wear safety glasses, mask and rubber gloves, and try not to breathe any of the mist or get it on you, and keep a waterhose handy in case you do get it on you. Unless you get it in a cut, you won't really notice it on your skin...at least, I don't.
 
skinnywaters said:
Thats pretty much exactly what I needed to know fellas thanks. Also i do have one place that corroded all the way through, what would be best to seal it. Would marine tex work?

I'd try fiber bond (fiberglass reinforced bondo) Be sure to clean the area VERY thoroughly with a wire wheel, then wipe with acetone, before applying the fiber bond. Another product that works well, but is pretty expensive, is called "Ce-Ram-Grout"...it's a 2-part ceramic grout that is used for repairing metal storage tanks and such. It's also sometimes used to fill bad pits or corrosion on aluminum boats.

Then once the corrosion is gone do I skim coat the divets with anything? That's where I figured the gluv it would come in handy, its pretty much just like steel flex.

It would be good to seal the pitting with something. Interlux Interprotect will fill voids like this pretty good, and it's a very durable primer coating. It's what is used to prime an aluminum boat before bottom paint, to act as a corrosion barrier.

It also depends on how deep the pitting is. If it's more than 1/3 the depth of the base metal, you might need to go ahead and fiber bond or ceram-grout these areas as well.
 
If it was me, I'd hit it with the wire wheel or cup, clean up, wipe down with lacquer thinner (as per Gluvit directions), skim the pits with JB weld, then throw the gluvit to it. It doesn't have to be that fancy if it's just going to be the inside of a foam filled floatation pod that's going to be sealed up and never seen.

The Gluvit would only be applied if I had some leftover from another project, that stuff is pretty expensive. If I didn't have Gluvit on hand it would just be the $5 a can aluminum primer and that would be it. If you make it too fancy inside, you're going to want to use it for something other than what it was intended for.
 
Not much got accomplished due to the hurricane like wind and pouring down rain. I did however cut the other foam box open and dug down to the floor. Pretty much more of the.same. although I did find two more corrosion holes. Who knows how long they have been there and how much water was coming in. The original hole that started all this was outside the boxes. Not much longer I hope because the fishing has been on fire .lately.
 
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