# 12' Aluminum semi-V: my first boat (Restoration in progress)



## zackn (Apr 22, 2010)

Hi, just thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Zack, and I'm in Omaha, Nebraska.

I recently picked up a 12' unmarked aluminum boat for $125, and have just started the process of getting it into (reasonable) shape. I have no idea what make or year it is, but the previous person to have it registered listed it as a 1971 Alumacraft. But after viewing TC1OZ's recent post about his 12' Springbok, it almost looks like we have the same thing?

The really fun part is that some prior owner attempted to fix the leaking rivets by slathering the seams with an epoxy-based fiberglass compound. Needless to say it didn't fix the leaks. I'm having to use a wood chisel to chip it off, and I should be done by 2012.

Well, I'm looking forward to making use of all the great info here, so I don't end up at the bottom of the lake along with my leaky boat!


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## TC1OZ (Apr 22, 2010)

Welcome to the site! (look at the newb welcoming the newb)

I don't think you have the same boat exactly, but it looks like it was made around the same time! 

Your boat looks like its in much better condition than mine! I'm positive cleaning up and putting on some steelflex will definately be worth your time.

Good luck and hopefully you get your boat on the water before me! =D>


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## Loggerhead Mike (Apr 22, 2010)

welcome aboard brother get that thing cleaned up before prime fishing is over


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## zackn (Apr 22, 2010)

Man, I'm going to try... but having a toddler and pregnant wife seems to slow things down a little for some reason!!! :LOL2:


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## TC1OZ (Apr 22, 2010)

zackn said:


> Man, I'm going to try... but having a toddler and pregnant wife seems to slow things down a little for some reason!!! :LOL2:



#$(&$ Are you my twin from another country?

I have a toddler and a pregnant wife too!

Man was she pissed when I brought this thing home hahahaha.


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## zackn (Apr 22, 2010)

Wow, no kidding! Yeah, my wife was pissed too, ha ha. I said "hey, it only cost $125!!!" That didn't work at all.


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## nathanielrthomas (Apr 22, 2010)

Its not ugly, it just has a lot of character.


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## Brine (Apr 22, 2010)

Welcome aboard, and despite the claims of using steelflex to stop leaks, I would suggest you identify where the leaks are coming from, fix the leak, then consider using steelflex as a barrier rather than a fix. 

In your case, if any of the leaks are coming from a rivet, you want to buck the rivet to stop the leak. If any of the leaks come from cracks, I'd have it welded.

IMHO, steelflex is simply a bandaid on a wound that never heals, and as soon as the bandaid wears off, the leak starts again. If you fix the leak, then use steelflex, you've used it as a preventative (as I think it should be) rather than a fix. 

From what I've read, Gluvit is more appropriate for stopping leaks, and if it's applied to the inside of the hull, it probably won't get the same level of abuse the outside of your hull will.

Before I used either, I'd do whatever I could to stop the leaks first.


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## zackn (Apr 22, 2010)

Brine said:


> Welcome aboard, and despite the claims of using steelflex to stop leaks, I would suggest you identify where the leaks are coming from, fix the leak, then consider using steelflex as a barrier rather than a fix.



Thanks Brine. I'm definitely hoping to fix whatever I can before I try to apply SteelFlex or Gluvit. I'm hoping that just rebucking the rivets will do the job. I can't see getting into grinding off and replacing rivets (on this boat) unless there are only a handful of bad ones.

I'm thinking that once I get all the old caulk cleaned out, I'll rebuck. Then do a leak test and see how many are still leaking.

No cracks, luckily, but some of the seams appear to not be super tight. I've looked at DuraFix and Muggy Weld a bit. Not sure if those products would be good to run into the gaps in the seams?


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## bAcKpAiN (Apr 22, 2010)

Welcome aboard! Boat doesn't look bad at all, especially since the fish don't care what you are riding!


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## Brine (Apr 22, 2010)

Sounds like you're on the right track. Good luck with the project, and I look forward to watching it along.


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## zackn (May 6, 2010)

Well, I've been chipping away at this fiberglass epoxy compound for a couple weeks in what little spare time I have. It's really slow going... I'm about half done.







I've tried acetone and high-strength paint stripper, but nothing seems to really melt this epoxy. So I quickly went back to the chisel method.






So in the mean time (to cheer myself up from the drudgery), I picked up a soda blaster from Harbor Freight.






I haven't fired it up yet, but I'm hoping that it will do a decent job of stripping off the remaining paint after I get the fiberglass off. (I doubt it would have an effect on the epoxy, that stuff is like steel). I generally have pretty low expectations of Harbor Freight stuff, but I got a good deal on it and my curiosity got the better of me. Even with my low expectations, I was still amazed at how USELESS the instruction manual was for assembling the thing. There were no photos or drawings of the individual parts, just a list of text instructions which weren't very descriptive and left out some important steps. Luckily I got on the web and found someone who had posted the assembly process step by step.

I know I could have used paint stripping gel to get the paint off, but not too long ago I spent months stripping off all the lead-based paint off the woodwork in my 1929 home. I'm pretty burned out on that stuff, and anyway, I wanted to try a new toy 

--Zack


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## ober51 (May 6, 2010)

Did you try a heat gun? Worked on a previous build and it was a life saver. Just throwing some inexpensive ideas out there.


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## zackn (May 6, 2010)

ober51 said:


> Did you try a heat gun? Worked on a previous build and it was a life saver. Just throwing some inexpensive ideas out there.



That's a good idea, thanks. I have one I can borrow this weekend and I'll give it a shot. The only problem I ran into with the paint stripper (which just melted the very topmost layer) was that it created this epoxy slime that got all over everything, included the places I'd already gotten clean. It was a big mess. But it might save me some carpal-tunnel syndrome from this damn chisel!


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## flintcreek (May 6, 2010)

Nice find on the boat...I am anxious for your report on the soda blaster, I have thought I would like to have on...let us know if they are worth it...Flintcreek


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## ober51 (May 6, 2010)

zackn said:


> ober51 said:
> 
> 
> > Did you try a heat gun? Worked on a previous build and it was a life saver. Just throwing some inexpensive ideas out there.
> ...



Yeah, I had this too, but when I used the heat gun and let it heat up a section and worked slowly, it save me HOURS of pounding with the scraper.


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## Froggy (May 7, 2010)

Welcome. looks Ok to me, $ 125? the wife never spend that on anything I suppose....


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## alanbird_87 (May 7, 2010)

Great find on the boat! I have removed fiberglass before with a grinder, you just have to be careful though!!!! But if you want to try that it should speed up the process.


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## zackn (May 7, 2010)

Froggy said:


> Welcome. looks Ok to me, $ 125? the wife never spend that on anything I suppose....



Ha! Yeah, but seems like all her stuff manages to fit into the closet, while mine is in the backyard  I told her to think of it as a lawn ornament. She didn't laugh.


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## bobberboy (May 7, 2010)

alanbird_87 said:


> Great find on the boat! I have removed fiberglass before with a grinder, you just have to be careful though!!!! But if you want to try that it should speed up the process.



I wonder if a stiff wire wheel on a drill would do any good?


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## zackn (May 8, 2010)

bobberboy said:


> I wonder if a stiff wire wheel on a drill would do any good?



I think that could be a good option, except that this boat feels like the aluminum is pretty thin overall. I doubt it was that well made of a boat even when it was new... I'm nervous about doing anything that might eat away more at the metal. Some parts of the boat really have a noticeable flex to the hull when you push on it.


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## alanbird_87 (May 8, 2010)

A stiff wire wheel should work but could take a while!


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## zackn (May 10, 2010)

ober51 said:


> Did you try a heat gun? Worked on a previous build and it was a life saver. Just throwing some inexpensive ideas out there.



Ober, you were right on with the heat gun suggestion. I made more progress in an hour and a half yesterday than I did in all the time I'd worked up until then! I'm about 3/4 done with removing the fiberglass and epoxy now. You were right, the heat gun just softened up the epoxy so it could be scraped off, no problems with melting or goop running into seams like I had when I tried the paint remover.

Just one more afternoon with the heat gun and I should be ready to blast it down to bare metal.

--Zack


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## zackn (May 20, 2010)

I finally got all of the fiberglass and epoxy scraped off, with the help of a heat gun. Real pain in the butt, and I'm glad it's done.

So after I uncovered the riveted seams, I'm seeing evidence of why the fiberglass repair didn't work. There is ancient sealant hardened under the seams, and it's rock hard and cracking. Some of it might be additional epoxy that squeezed in there when the fiberglass was applied. But there's also old sealant of some kind that is totally dried out and brittle.

The frustrating thing is that in several places, the seam isn't tight at all, and it looks like someone squeezed sealant in there but never tried to flatten the seam out. So now it is only serving to keep the seams apart, and it's holding open some pretty wide gaps. I'm having a hell of a time trying to scrape it out. I'm using a scraper with an angled point on the side which works fairly well, but the further in I go, the more I knock loose. At the same time though, the further in I go, the more I widen the gap in the seam! I don't want to make the problem worse, but it seems crazy to leave all that old disintegrating sealant in there which could cause issues in the future when it's too late to do anything about it (like after I've coated with steel flex). 

What do you think? Should I get more aggressive trying to scrape it out? Or just get as much as I can and then rebuck the rivets and try to hammer the seams flat again?

(these photos look like it's all cleaned out, but if I were to run my scraper in there again, more powdered caulk would break loose from around the rivets)


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## zackn (May 20, 2010)

Also, take a look at this line of rivets... Does it look like someone added rivets to the seam? I thought it was really weird that they weren't lined up straight. Then I looked more closely and it seems like someone added new rivets in between each of the original ones. Not sure how many should be there normally, but they look really crowded to me, like one per inch. 

If someone tried this as a fix for the leaking seams, they sure went to a lot of trouble for no results!!!


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## ober51 (May 20, 2010)

Glad the heat gun saved you time, as it took me 3 days before my brother suggested it, ugh, lol.

Also, I would leave it now as it is. It seems like a great candidate for gluvit on the inside, and steel flex on the outside. You can try and tap the seam down, but not too hard. It would look perfect but with gluvit and steel flex, it would be waterproof in my opinion.


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## TC1OZ (Jun 9, 2010)

ober51 said:


> Glad the heat gun saved you time, as it took me 3 days before my brother suggested it, ugh, lol.
> 
> Also, I would leave it now as it is. It seems like a great candidate for gluvit on the inside, and steel flex on the outside. You can try and tap the seam down, but not too hard. It would look perfect but with gluvit and steel flex, it would be waterproof in my opinion.




I agree with this guy Zack, but then again I haven't put my stuff on yet!

I'll let you know how I fair, I updated my thread a few mins ago.

Hope you and the family are well!


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## wolfmjc (Jun 9, 2010)

8)welcome! just a thought here, i have heard that some seams in older riveted boats had like a rubber strip or seal? running inbetween the two layers.......I think a post here had a problem when they tried to weld a leak? just thought i would put 2cents in....


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## zackn (Jun 10, 2010)

Thanks TC, I'm definitely planning on steelflex and gluvit. Seems like I have a long way to go before I get to that point with how little time I have in a week to work. Wife is due with 2nd kid in August... for some crazy reason she thinks it's more important that I work on painting etc in the nursery! Not sure where she gets her priorities. Will check out your thread shortly.


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## zackn (Jun 10, 2010)

wolfmjc said:


> 8)welcome! just a thought here, i have heard that some seams in older riveted boats had like a rubber strip or seal? running inbetween the two layers.......I think a post here had a problem when they tried to weld a leak? just thought i would put 2cents in....



Thanks Wolf, first time I'd heard that, but it sounds like you might be right. The stuff that's crumbling out is way, way up in there. I guess I'll just get as much as I can out, rebuck rivets, and hope the steelflex does its job. Anyone know if it works to put 5200 sealant on the seams first, and then steelflex over everything? Or would the 5200 inhibit the ability of the steelflex to seep into where it needs to go?


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## zackn (Jun 10, 2010)

Well, haven't made much progress since I last updated, as I've been very busy with work and family stuff. But last night I had a couple hours to try out the soda blaster I bought from Harbor Freight.

Got it loaded and hooked up to the air compressor. Right off the bat it seemed to work okay (the attached photo shows the amount I got done in about a minute and half... pretty quick work. However, my compressor doesn't have a very big tank, and it was having trouble keeping up with the air flow. So I ran and picked up an 11 gallon secondary tank, and connected it with a t-joint to hoping to get a little more air in reserve.

Then I noticed that the soda blaster tank was only at 75 psi, and it can take 100. So I started adjusting the small plastic knob that regulates air pressure in the tank, trying to get it higher. It didn't seem to have any effect, so I kept turning. Without warning, the knob shot off of the regulator, and a few little parts went flying. By this time it was getting dark, and I could only find the knob and a spring. Now it doesn't go back on the tank.

(and then it started raining on me and all the gear... just great)

Good old Harbor Freight... of course the instructions don't say anything about not turning this too far, or even show a diagram of what parts are supposed to be in that assembly. So at this point, I'm thinking about bypassing the flow regulator unit altogether. I have an output gauge on my compressor, and a second pressure gauge on my reserve tank, so I'm not worried about going over the 100psi max. There's a water separator unit on there too, but I installed one at the output of the reserve tank. I'm thinking I'll put in a new line that goes directly into the tank at the top (which will also allow me to replace the crappy blue plastic tubing that ran between the regulator and the tank input, which leaks like crazy).

I wonder why I didn't just scrape the loose paint off and paint over top of it? Oh yeah, because I have to make everything I do as complicated as possible, heh.


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## Brine (Jun 10, 2010)

Steelflex doesn't do much "seeping". It's more like putting heavy duty saran wrap on with a roller. I think your project would be the right application for using Gluvit on the seams.


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## zackn (Jun 10, 2010)

Brine said:


> Steelflex doesn't do much "seeping". It's more like putting heavy duty saran wrap on with a roller. I think your project would be the right application for using Gluvit on the seams.



Should I apply Gluvit to both the inside and outside of the seams? Or just on the inside of the boat?


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