Thread: making my alicraft watertight

when I get more rivets I will do a long strip of Ali under the rear tray and some flat parts under the bow. Hopefully get it strong enough to cast off or fashion up a spear gun rack or some sort of ladder.

Maybe some angle underneath the gussets and along the side of the hull from the stern to the front of the tray.

Anything more is probably diminishing returns and unnecessary/more chance of water leaks.

Now I hope that now we have fixed it up it doesn't cause another part to give up haha

We put flat piece of steel(actually an old flat steel warratah std type thing cut to length) under the motor mounts,so they tighten up onto it instead of chewing into alloy.also put small piece of plastic slip sheet on top of transom for same reason.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

We put flat piece of steel(actually an old flat steel warratah std type thing cut to length) under the motor mounts,so they tighten up onto it instead of chewing into alloy.also put small piece of plastic slip sheet on top of transom for same reason.

I will have a look at that. there was an an unholy amount of galv bolts and screws in the tinny!

Both bits live with motor when not in boat... While your playing at transom end.put a loop or similar so can padlock motor to the boat via the wingnut that tightens to hold motor on. My frypan has a small metal S to bridge gap between supplied hole and padlock through wingnut. Piece of mind as motor simply cannot leave boat no matter what if locked up.

No major updates. Found a broken shear pin in my 8hp suzuki so that explains why there was no forward or reverse. made a new one with a bit of stainless rod I had salvaged from a broken float switch.

it goes 13 knots with 3 men and the 15hp on the back so next step is to get new plugs as the old ones are rusty and carb cleaner. It has a fancy twin carb that I have no experience tuning so the easy options come first!

It also leaks more water than it used to so i'm sure there are more rivets that need attention and more marine silicone to apply

Try some higher octane fuel it will give you more top end speed.

Have to name it the sieve

Suppose its too expencive to put a thin coat of resin inside it?

Originally Posted by blip

Suppose its too expencive to put a thin coat of resin inside it?

Yikes - maybe if new and no corrosion in it...

This is the problem with these riveted hulls, once you start and tighten one bit up the next loose corroded bit shows it face. And they will all be suffering some form of issue either corrosion, working loose, cracking or just plain suffering movement due to everything around it being loose. You will get there, but it is truly a labour of love!

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

No major updates. Found a broken shear pin in my 8hp suzuki so that explains why there was no forward or reverse. made a new one with a bit of stainless rod I had salvaged from a broken float switch.

it goes 13 knots with 3 men and the 15hp on the back so next step is to get new plugs as the old ones are rusty and carb cleaner. It has a fancy twin carb that I have no experience tuning so the easy options come first!

It also leaks more water than it used to so i'm sure there are more rivets that need attention and more marine silicone to apply

Just saw the comment re the carb - there's a balancing kit that you need to get (or make not the easiest but doable if you can't find one but motorbikes etc used to use them as well).

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

No major updates. Found a broken shear pin in my 8hp suzuki so that explains why there was no forward or reverse. made a new one with a bit of stainless rod I had salvaged from a broken float switch.

it goes 13 knots with 3 men and the 15hp on the back so next step is to get new plugs as the old ones are rusty and carb cleaner. It has a fancy twin carb that I have no experience tuning so the easy options come first!

It also leaks more water than it used to so i'm sure there are more rivets that need attention and more marine silicone to apply

Try painting the boat inside and out from the keel to the waterline with something like this...... https://www.liqui-moly.com/en/nz/und...1442.html#6113
Turn the hull upside down when applying it to the outside so it can flow around/into the rivets/joins.

Originally Posted by Allgood

Try painting the boat inside and out from the keel to the waterline with something like this...... https://www.liqui-moly.com/en/nz/und...1442.html#6113
Turn the hull upside down when applying it to the outside so it can flow around/into the rivets/joins.

Again, I'd be reluctant to paint an older hull just from past experience (which was dramatically terrible - the coating actually created a lovely corrosion stop and the hull blistered under the coating in months). I would think you would need to surgically clean the thing and then etch prime it to get the coating to stick - and you may still end up with places where the coating just sheds like a snake skin. Ali is an utter pig to get paint and coatings to stick to, especaially when it's been around the block and contaminated for 20 years. It's bad enough brand new!

One of the issues with old ali that isn't sealed (like riveted dingy style designs) is the joints trap moisture and oil and crap and painting over the joints means that you've created a dissimilar metal contact point or to put it another way, a really inefficient battery which is really not what you want with a reactive metal like ali that gives up so readily in corrosive environments.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Try some higher octane fuel it will give you more top end speed.

I will try that once this current batch of 91 is used. probably 95 octane and see how it goes before trying 98.

Originally Posted by blip

Have to name it the sieve

Come on now. It has given me enough emotional damage already

Originally Posted by blip

Suppose its too expencive to put a thin coat of resin inside it?

I will have to see what is under the paint. So far the epoxy enamel primer we have used has stuck.

Originally Posted by No.3

Yikes - maybe if new and no corrosion in it...

This is the problem with these riveted hulls, once you start and tighten one bit up the next loose corroded bit shows it face. And they will all be suffering some form of issue either corrosion, working loose, cracking or just plain suffering movement due to everything around it being loose. You will get there, but it is truly a labour of love!

I suspect it is like what we encounter at work. You fix a leak and the stress is just transferred to the second weakest link and on and on it goes.

So far it is fun and enjoyable. Ali express rivets make it economic to fix it. otherwise she'd just get bogged up.

Originally Posted by No.3

Just saw the comment re the carb - there's a balancing kit that you need to get (or make not the easiest but doable if you can't find one but motorbikes etc used to use them as well).

I'll have a look. I have found a manual or two for it so should be able to sort it eventually. Hopefully it just needs a clean and another good hoon.