repairs to aluminium

[lucansingh]

Can i use fiberglass to cover the bottom of an aluminium boat, bottom is flat and cracked all over. Considering pop rivets, prep and then covering with resin and matting sanding and spraying. Will it work anyone? Boat is 14 ft flat bottom and open.

[Dean Smith]

the boat is pretty stuffed but yes it,ll work,
sand it heavily, acid wash give it a coat of 201 Devoe, 75 microns or two brush coats and then do you sticky stuff trick
201 is an excellent Alum primer, it is a two pack but the catalyst is tiny compared with base quantity
you could use Altex devoe number one instead of

[Ad Hoc]

Originally Posted by lucansingh

Can i use fiberglass to cover the bottom of an aluminium boat, ....

Like most things, it depends.

What of size area are you thinking of covering...ie how large is the hole or holes?

A few more details would help. Such as, is this flat bottom boat a slow speed or high speeed flat bottom type...what do you use it for?....also, why you wish to use GRP rather than replate

[Dean Smith]

it is simply not worth replating a sheetmetal boat, if was a plate boat 4mm and up maybe, you cannot hurt the thing doing as I said, after all mega million dollar yachts are done as I said--without cloth of coarse, just Bog, In your case the cloth will give it a new lease of life, but it will not be cheap--done well. You will probaly spend 300 all up I would guess and you may pick up a good used boat for this amount. Good luck