SpudFiles

Hey yall, it has been awhile since I've posted, I've just been super busy lately. School let out and work started back up but I've made it a point to check the forum till I fall asleep at night

Anyhow, I inherited a 14' mud riveted flat from my grandaddy down in chackbay and it needs some work. He tried running a 45 hp Yamaha on it, and cracked the transom. From what I can tell, he and his buddies tried to fix it with some 1/8" sheet, but it was a pretty shoddy job of welding.

So I got a galvanized trailer in great shape, a half decent bateau, and a Johnson 25. I plan on putting new plywood in the transom, covering that with some 3/8" sheet, running a gusset from the plate to a plate/c channel on the floor, and capping off the top of the transom with some more channel aluminum. I plan on welding on the channel, plate, and gusset (probably square tube or more channel), but I'm not sure about welding these thicker pieces to the boat aluminum itself. All the added parts will either be 3/8" or 1/4" thick.

Does anyone have any experience with bateaus? Welding thin aluminum? If not, anyone stay in a holiday inn express?

Any help/suggestions is greatly appreciated.

my best advice would be to drill and bolt your plate to the bottom of the boat with a piece of inner tube rubber in between the plate and the hull. that way you wont have to worry about welding thin aluminum. i had a hole in the rear keel of my coleman plastic scanoe that had to be fixed in this manner but i had a plate on the bottom too for added wear protection

No advise from me, sorry; however, I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

Hey it's Biggsauce, I was wondering what happened.
If you don't get so many welcome backs it's probably all the discussion about off topic posts this is in NSGR anyway and you've been away.

Looks like that'll be a great boat if you get it fixed.
Srry, don't know about welding aluminum. May be it could be fixed with some diamond plate and bolts with caulking in between ?

My brother's got a Lund the same size with a Johnson 25hp also.
It's a blast and better than anything bigger in a lot of ways.
Sometimes we take it in the chesepeake bay even!!!
First time we went out there I was 8)

BTW I posted a new cannon styled a little like your Intimidator today.

Bolt it using sme plate and plywood. Same thing happened to me that exactly what i did workst fine so far i also put some small daps of metal epoxy on the crack while bolting it down.

Use all aluminum and then start off on the thicker move to the thinner. Don't try mixing metal and aluminum.

i want a boat. you have to totaly mount a cannon on the front and send the pictures in!!!! how many people can u fit on it? would be good for drunken partys on the sea or not(thinks of drunk people diing in the sea)

sorry i dont have any info on boats i have a small all wood sail boat that i used once but thats about it.

sweet boat.

Flat bottom boats are the best!

How tight is your budget, and how good do you want it to be?

If it were mine, I would;

1) Drill out the rivets holding the transom in place.

2) Make a "buck" from 3/4" marine grade plywood in the shape needed. (allow for metal thickness)

3) Clamp some aluminum (6061 T3) onto said buck and form a new transom. (use a plastic or wood mallet and a block of wood, bend gradually)

4) Use marine grade epoxy to bond and seal the buck to the new transom.

5) Bond and bolt an extra thickness of plywood where the motor mounts.

6) Rivet on the new transom, seal and paint.

7) It never happened.

BigGrib wrote:my best advice would be to drill and bolt your plate to the bottom of the boat with a piece of inner tube rubber in between the plate and the hull. that way you wont have to worry about welding thin aluminum. i had a hole in the rear keel of my coleman plastic scanoe that had to be fixed in this manner but i had a plate on the bottom too for added wear protection

innertube would work, I'll definitely add some silicon too though

No advise from me, sorry; however, I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

Hey it's Biggsauce, I was wondering what happened.
If you don't get so many welcome backs it's probably all the discussion about off topic posts this is in NSGR anyway and you've been away.

Looks like that'll be a great boat if you get it fixed.
Srry, don't know about welding aluminum. May be it could be fixed with some diamond plate and bolts with caulking in between ?

My brother's got a Lund the same size with a Johnson 25hp also.
It's a blast and better than anything bigger in a lot of ways.
Sometimes we take it in the chesepeake bay even!!!
First time we went out there I was

BTW I posted a new cannon styled a little like your Intimidator today.

Well thank you for the warm welcome. Yeah it oughta do great with that 25, especially being so narrow. It'll be a regular bayou rocket.

Bolt it using sme plate and plywood. Same thing happened to me that exactly what i did workst fine so far i also put some small daps of metal epoxy on the crack while bolting it down.

I plan on getting little more involved than that, but its along the lines of what I started thinking of

Use all aluminum and then start off on the thicker move to the thinner. Don't try mixing metal and aluminum.

Sort of confused... its all aluminium...

i want a boat. you have to totaly mount a cannon on the front and send the pictures in!!!! how many people can u fit on it? would be good for drunken partys on the sea or not(thinks of drunk people diing in the sea)

sorry i dont have any info on boats i have a small all wood sail boat that i used once but thats about it.

sweet boat.

Well it can safely carry 3. But with any combination of decoys, rods and reels, ice chests, dog(s), its looking realistcally like 1 -2 people. And drinking and driving on water is no less dangerous than on land and the fines are twice as costly.

Flat bottom boats are the best!

How tight is your budget, and how good do you want it to be?

If it were mine, I would;

1) Drill out the rivets holding the transom in place.

2) Make a "buck" from 3/4" marine grade plywood in the shape needed. (allow for metal thickness)

3) Clamp some aluminum (6061 T3) onto said buck and form a new transom. (use a plastic or wood mallet and a block of wood, bend gradually)

4) Use marine grade epoxy to bond and seal the buck to the new transom.

5) Bond and bolt an extra thickness of plywood where the motor mounts.

6) Rivet on the new transom, seal and paint.

7) It never happened.

This is what I had originally toyed around with in my head. And by all means, it would work great, but since bossman gave me a bunch of aluminum plate and box tubing, I'll be making the whole thing out of aluminum. No wood! instead of plywood, 2 pieces of 1x 4" box tubing stacked vertically, some 3/8" plate as my buck, some more 3/8" plate on the back of the transom, some c channel to top it all off!

Overkill? nah. Not to mention the floor plate with some box gussets. If everyhting goes right, I should be looking at a flat that can handle a 40 - 45hp motor. Kinda scary actually...

Man, I love how red neck good ol' boys think man. Big Sauce, You're the man!! Say it!! I'd love to see that thing with a turret mounted cannon on the bow.

When you said 3/8ths I assumed you were thinking sheet metal, my fault. Have you ever welded aluminum before?

No, but this will be a learning experience. I got a buddy at work that does aluminum, and another buddy who works at a boat shop (in the pictures) and I'll hopefully be learning from them

Man, I love how red neck good ol' boys think man. Big Sauce, You're the man!! Say it!! I'd love to see that thing with a turret mounted cannon on the bow.

Actually, my boss wants a mortar type combustion mounted in a steel trailer wheel for the bow of his, so I'll be sure to do some thorough testing on mine. It'll be fun, and the ducks will eat the potatoes...

game warden here we come...