Welders - I need some advice!

[Eagle19]

So I just removed the rotted wood transom from my aluminum riveted boat. Bass tracker put like 30 rivets into the aluminum part of the transom that went into the wood. I’m going to rebuild the transom with aluminum rectangle tubing.

My question is what do you recommend doing with the back?

I’ve done enough aluminum welding to know trying to fill in all those holes with a MIG setup will most likely turn into a nightmare later on down the road.

So I’m thinking my options are to clean metal, cut a matching skin to layover and weld to seams. Then use the holes on the transom to spot weld old transom to skin.

Or should I just use new rivets and re-rivet those holes?




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[Dale Moser]

Paging Mike Berry...


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[MadHatter]

Fluxless brazing rod, and a torch.
If you have clean metal, it's as good as you can do in that scenario.

[12RingKing]

Why would filling it in be a nightmare later?

[randal]

Good luck, I have had multiple people try to weld stress cracks on my aluminum boat and it either doesn’t hold or they have burned all the way thru..

[Eagle19]

Why would filling it in be a nightmare later?

So it’s .075 aluminum. On a Mig welder I feel like that’s kind of thin. TIG would be no problem. In my experience, there is a high chance it would burn through or be so thin, the filler would possibly break loose and just fall out later.


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[Dale Moser]

Can you put the rectangle tubing in place, then through bolt it with all of those holes with stainless elevator bolts, and lock nuts?


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[Eagle19]

Can you put the rectangle tubing in place, then through bolt it with all of those holes with stainless elevator bolts, and lock nuts?


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I could, but I would think bolts would require a lot of maintenance and risk of leaks.

If it came down to it, I think I would rather rivet the holes and use silicone. In a sense of I wouldn’t have to have much upkeep on it later on.

But I’m almost thinking of welding another back on which would add additional support. Between rivets, old transducers, and everything else there will be like 36 holes in it.


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[bboswell]

Welders - I need some advice!

Careful welding to a riveted hull, excess heat from the welding can cause the aluminum to pull and move making rivets adjacent to the area leak.

With the thin crappy aluminum these are made of rig is really your only option.

I have a guy in the shop that can do you a bang up job if you drag it to New Waverly