Easy way to patch small holes on aluminum boat

roy brewington

roy brewington

Well-known member
Picked up a used17' aluminum canoe couple weeks ago cheap. On initial inspection prior to purchase it was in like new shape with no dents and advertised as having no leaks. After getting it home and looking a little farther I found a small area of corrosion on hull that after scrapeing a little developed small holes to remove corrosion. Looking for a good way to patch this without heliarcing I discovered a brazing rod called alumiweld. They can be found on line but also small quanitys can be purchased at harbor freight stores. To make a long story short for about $20 and a little time I brazed a few pin holes and biggest area up to about size of a dime. Very impressed with results and seems to be actually harder than surrounding aluminum. Has anyone else had experience with these rods and how did it hold up in the long term?
 
I have used these before for structural repairs. The "weld" would hold for a couple years before cracking again. If I wanted to patch a corroded pin hole, I would clean the area peen in a small divot and fill the divot with JB Weld or equivalent.
 
Jb weld was my first thought for repair also as I,ve used it before. Just wasn,t sure it would hold up to being dragged over logs , stumps, and flexing. Area I plan on using this canoe in it will see all that and more. I guess I,ll just have to try what I,ve done and see what life I get from it.
 
I've tried the Aluminum "weld" sticks and JB Weld.

The aluminum sticks amounted to nothing more than solder. There may have been user error, but I can't recommend a product I couldn't figure out.... when isit supposed to keep you from sinking.

I've used JB 2-part putties to fix an aluminum boat, a cracked boat fuel tank lense that leaked like a sieve, and a few other house hold projects.

For the boat I repaired a gash from shore ice that was below the water line. It worked in less than optimal temps and held throughout my ownership.

If recommend applying from both sides if you have access.

Never checked if I could sand it, but it spread thin, to something less than 2mm, maybe even down to 1mm.
 
I have had great luck patching hole in aluminum boats with Marine Tex epoxy. I used it for corrosion that made pin holes, a 12 gauge sized hole in the bottom of a john boat resulting from an exigent circumstance caused by a four foot cottonmouth that dropped in to visit me on Back Bay Virginia.

I have also used it to mend the busted intake boot on a jet drive Mercury that was constantly slamming into rocks in the rapids. It seemed as durable as the aluminum I was patching. My son used it to patch up his jet drive on a jet ski and it has held up extremely well. The repairs I have made have stood the test of time and never failed or leaked even after 30 years of hard use in the case of the gunshot to the john boat.
 
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I have used all the methods suggested here and had good luck with all. JB Weld is a magic epoxy and would probably be first choice. Alumaweld is OK but only used a few times. 5200 is some good stuff too.
 
Here is a tip on leaking rivets: Take a hammer on the outside of the boat and place it firmly against the leaking rivet. Have a friend tap the opposite side 4 or 5 light taps with a hammer. This compresses the rivet and makes it fatter and will seal the leak and tighten the rivet. It is not necessary to apply a sealer over it. It normally works on all rivet leaks unless there is some king of damage to the rivet. There are tools to "buck" rivets but I find a couple of ball peen hammers do just fine. I have also done repairs in the field with a couple of river rocks.
 
I have never had good luck with those aluminum brazing rods. After a half dozen or so attempts i got one successful fix. my problem at first was not being able to get the base metal hot enough to get the rods to flow. Another time i tried MAP instead of propane to fix a leaky rivit and the hull ended up distorting in that area and made the rivit leak worse. I eventually did some horse trading to get the boat welded up. leaks after that have been fixed with 5200.
 
Roy,
I've been using Alumiweld for decades for boat repair as well as model airplane repairs.
Works great for everything I've done.
Lou Tisch

As a follow up for those interested:
Here are the links to our FME Color Chart and our Catalog.

FME Color Chart: http://www.rccd.org/Documents/2017_documents/FME-LSB-140121.pdf

Catalog: http://www.rccd.org/Documents/2017_documents/LSB-CAT-1707.pdf

Our website is down right now (hacked) but I'm hosting the FME Chart & Catalog on another site I manage for our model airplane flying club (www.rccd.org)
Holler with any questions and let me know how we can be of service.
Lou Tisch
 
Thanks for the input lou. I was actually impressed with the outcome of repairs I made to hull . I,ve got just a few more small areas of pitting I,m going to clean up and fill and then on to prep, prime and paint. For some odd reason the canoe bug has struck me this spring. I don,t think I would trust brazed joints for long term use on a boat but hopeing these small pitting repairs will hold up in heavy use. We,ll see.
 
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