What is the best way to repair this type of corrosion? Would the best way to just cut it out and weld new aluminum in or clean it up and fill in the holes? Will have to disassemble the boat because of styrofoam behind the aluminum. Any ideas on dealing with the corrosion? I have welded aluminum before , but never with this much corrosion.
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Aluminum boat corrosion
- Thread starter Nutfarmer
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
- Messages
- 1,579
Corrosion will have to be cut out to weld new patches. Tig will be best.
We had an old Simpson Sears aluminum boat as a kid. It had patches pop riveted on with roofing tar I believe. This was from a mishap with a rock. Never leaked in my time with the boat.
Martin
We had an old Simpson Sears aluminum boat as a kid. It had patches pop riveted on with roofing tar I believe. This was from a mishap with a rock. Never leaked in my time with the boat.
Martin
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2015
- Messages
- 9,948
I have successfully used a riveted patch to repair a stress crack from an improper support on the boat trailer. The PO had welded the crack only to have it fail again. I cut out the bad area and applied a patch from the inside,sandwiching a thin neoprene gasket between the patch and the hull. The patch is in a spot that takes a lot of pounding when on plain in rough water but the boat remains totally dry after 18 years. The patch is on the starboard side in the second photo and is about 6" square.
The choice of repair will depend to a great extent on the nature of the failure. For small areas, welding may be the most effective solution but if the corrosion covers a larger area, I would think a patch would be best.
The choice of repair will depend to a great extent on the nature of the failure. For small areas, welding may be the most effective solution but if the corrosion covers a larger area, I would think a patch would be best.