Almost swamped my jon boat yesterday with my 5 year old in it. I got stuck on a stump and when the water inside my leakey boat all sloshed to the low spot in the boat it almost went under!! The leak is caused by loose rivets on the bottom. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Aluminum welding is an option. It can be EXPENSIVE but it's right way to fix it.

I used that stuff you use on metal roofs for mobile homes. Painted the whole bottom of the boat. Working so far on my duck boat.

The mobil home paint works for a while. The previous owner did it to mine and it was dry for a while. Some people are using truck bed liner that you can buy at wal-mart and roll on yourself. Tighten the rivets. There is a lot of ideas on:

http://pagebiz.com/bds/aluminum/repair.html

Just ask or do your own search.

I listed for another similar request to check with some of the high schools welding shops. Years ago we had ours done at no cost. The work was not perfect but the boat did not leak anymore. Also a quick fix would be to find the leaks (put the boat up on saw horses and put some water in it then circle the rivets with a crayon that leak) then mix you up some J B Weld and slap in on. Good Luck! JR

Had the same problem got a wire wheel and got the paint off and just used JB weld no more leak's

I saw one of these 60minutes type of shows where they were using that spray in bed liner stuff to make rooms/buildings bomb/blast proof. They would spray it in the walls as an interior coating... that is some tuff stuff. I have heard of alot of people using it, also the roof tar stuff.

I have also heard of people using JB weld.

sound like you need to get you a good bilge pump in the interim... you can buy a good one for around $20.

Turn the boat upside down on sawhorses, sand the entire bottom with med-grit sandpaper, clean, & paint (thick coat) with fiberglass rosin (no cloth). While the fiberglass rosin is expensive it costs less than welding and reasonably light. Rosin is smoother than any of the above mentioned substances and will last longer.

Bassmatt,the suggestion about putting the boat on saw horses and filling it with water and then marking the areas that leak from underneath is one I used.I put food coloring in the water so when it leaked I knew it wasn't overspray from the hose and I used a 3M Metal sealant in a 12oz.tube and covered the leaking rivet after drying and lightly sanding each area.Which ever way you go,don't take that kiddo out with you till you know it's repaired.Geez man your giving me more grey hairs worrying about it!

Easiest way is to just drill out the rivets that are leaking and replace them with machine screws and nuts.Number 10 size is about right.Screwheads should be on the outside of the boat,nuts on the inside.

Contact Mike at the Outboard Shop in San Marcos 512-353-1854. If he can't fix it he will know someone who can.

Thanks a bunch for all ya'lls help. Wow, that is a lot of good info. And yes, the boy has had his last jon boat trip until the boat floats high and dry!!

i bought a tube of gutter sealent from lowes. flip the boat over and put a blob on the rivet then smooth it out with your finger. the stuf never gets hard and cracks. 1 tube will last you a lifetime. that's my .02
good luck

This has come up before but was with a Tracker that had foam in the hull. I suggested what the aviation field calls blind rivets (cherrymax a stronger type of poprivet) you can find a poprivet that retains the pulling rod and seals the hole when pulled.

Here is how to replace a solid rivet, very time consumming but permenant fix.

The other way and more permenant takes 2 people as stated above find the loose rivets get and aircompressor and a air hammer with a flat faced set and a good heavy peice of metal (about a pound or so need to be steel) rivet can be found a a good hardware store in alluminum (buy next size large then the one in the boat if possible)which you want steel will set up corrosion. Drill out the old rivet with a drill bit about the size of the shank of the rivet ( you can find this from the inside of the boat) drilling from the out side or head of the rivet just enough to break off the head, then with a small punch knock out the rest of the rivet. Then from outside of boat put new rivet in place (you can wet seal a rivet by adding JB wleld or a good rtv if you want to use it wet not dryed) have second person hold the heavy wieght onto to shank of rivet pushing lightly but firmly and with air hammer on the head of rivet slowly pull trigger until the shank is smashed enough to cover the hole and you are done. It takes pratice to get to the point you can just pull and go with the hammer or you can use a heavy hammer from the inside of the boat and the weight on the head from out side use a large punch to flatten shank trying not to slip of the shank.

Make sure you do not take to much metal off the stringers of the baot as this will cause them to split when the rivet is set. The rule of thumb is 1 1/2 times the diameter of the rivet to the edge of the metal in all direction including next rivet.

If the boat can habdle the wieght just coat it with bedliner seems easiest to me. The above was in case some one realy wanted to know how to do it.

http://www.fascoepoxies.com/

flexsteel airboat coating