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Fixing Up an Old Aluminum Jon Boat

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Hey Guys -

I just bought an old "fixer upper" 10' aluminum jon boat at a garage sale last weekend. Thought it would be perfect for some pond fishing. It has a few stress cracks on the hull and to be honest, I can tell this isn't exactly a "high quality" boat. The aluminum seems real thin and the seats just flat out scare me. But for 30 bucks I figured what the heck! I thought about fiberglassing the entire hull but after skimming through some message boards on the net, I concluded that fiberglass just won't last. I've got a friend that can do some welding for me but I want to "beef" this thing up. If anyone has any experience with this type of stuff I'd sure appreciate the help!!

~Ryan

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Not sure if this will help your or not, but here's what I did with my old Alum boat. I flipped my boat over and sanded down the outside roughly. I went to K-mart and got the Herculiner Bedliner for Truck beds. Rolled that out on the outside of the boat. I've had the boat for 4 yrs, not even a scratch on the liner and no more leaks in the boat. The guy that has the boat now is still got in and it's still holding up.

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I was around $100 a gallon, but you just can't beat it... It rolls on easy... and really goes a long way. Just make sure you do it all in one Shot! If you don't it might not be good when you open it back up. The air is what makes them stuff hard.

Mine was a 14 foot Wide bottom boat and had 4 coats on it. I was left with just under 1/4 of a gallon.

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WHEW! I was thinking it was around that price range. I've seen Rhino Liner before and I think it ran around 100 bucks too. I guess the only reason I'm hesitant is because I only paid $30 for the thing! But thinking about it, I know that stuff would do a great job of preventing any leaks! Let me ask you this: What about carpet and plywood? Have you ever messed with installing the stuff in a jon boat? I was planning on making the trip to Home Depot and buying some cheap carpet to put in it. Just not sure of what type of glue to buy. Need something that's gonna HOLD!

Thanks for the tips Cobra, I appreciate your help.

Ryan

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Ryan,

Do yourself a favor and don't buy cheap carpet. The better carpet is not that much more and will last a lot longer.

I have recarpeted two boats and used contact cement to bond the carpet down (as per recommended by the boat manufacturer). It holds great. Apply it with a paint roller to both the carpet and the boat, let it dry, and install it. Make sure that you have the carpet where you want it when you lay it down on the boat because it bonds instantly.

Gene

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Guest Anonymous

Dont know if this will help, but I had a similar boat and drilled out all of the rivets (most were bad) and replaced them with SS aircraft screws. Might seem heavy but it was'nt. Big difference in the strength.

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