Marine: Boating, Sailing, PWC, GPS and Navigation - Aluminum-hull boat repairs...

I have a 1986 Grumman aluminum runabout in which I'm replacing the floor. To do such requires the removal of some of the interior furniture, which is riveted through the hull skin. There is also a small breach in the hull, below waterline, over which I would like to place a "doubler" to repair the leak and reinforce the hull. The question is whether I can nut-and-bolt everything back together, or am I looking at having to buck a bunch of rivets? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance - Chris

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the info on the lower unit.

As far as your rivet question, we recently drilled out and replaced rivets with screws on some aluminum hinges for the front gate on our pontoon boat. We replaced them bolts and nuts. Though they seemed to loosen just after a few times on the water.

So then I replaced them with aluminum rivets that we purchased at Home Depot. The rivet gun was about $17 and a 20 pack of rivets was about $6.

It's been a year with the new rivets and they seem to be holding up just fine. They seem to be the better choice of the two and was just as easy to install as the nuts and bolts.

Good luck, and thanks for the info.

As mentioned above, rivets and a decent gun are cheap - especially when you consider the cost of the stainless steel nuts n bolts you're going to wish you had bought. Use a quality marine epoxy such as marine tex in the holes and between the repair sandwich for a more secure seal.