Rebuild, with Corrosion Spots

[goatram]

Aluminum Pop Rivets with Aluminum Mandrils.
Check it out 5056 Al ready to be used.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/POP-Bl ... Pid=search

[Katoh]

Goatram that link is for Aluminum rivets with a steel mandrel

First thing I'm going to say to you blokes who weld aluminum each and every day, I take my hat of to you all You all must have skin like leather, or some really good protective clothing. Wearing a work cotton short long sleeve, a leather apron a hat a welding helmet, welding gloves and still those little molten balls just seem to penetrate right through, and boy they hurt when layed up on the skin. I have little and some not so little red dots all over my arms, shoulders back, and even the smallest hole in a glove they would find a way in to my fingers as well. I Really curse myself for not rolling the darn thing right over, so that all my welds would have being down hand.

Well here I am now the hull welded up shut, exactly how good? I no not know, but its welded up tight which has to be an improved from before. Starting to take shape, and hopefully be ready for painting in the next week or so.

The patched hull

patched1.jpg (152.27 KiB) Viewed 11274 times

After grinding down all the welds with a flap disk grit 40 then 80, I high pressure water plastered all the welds to find any problem areas or suspect areas, I have a handful of these little pits/holes looks like a contamination spot every here and there. I plan to just drill them slightly, maybe a mm or 2 into the plate to remove the rubbish and weld up from there. I still don't have access to a tig, so I will probably use Kevin's run on, run off method as described in an earlier post.

typical hole about 1-2mm diameter or 1/16"

patched hole.jpg (200.64 KiB) Viewed 11274 times

[goatram]

Goatram that link is for Aluminum rivets with a steel mandrel
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/blind- ... sst=subset
Here is the previous page for all sizes of the Alloy Pop Rivets. The Do make them all you gotta do is search the Net. Grainger is one of the more expensive mail order places. Sorry for the steel mandrel.

another place to look
http://www.fastenal.com/web/search/prod ... ucts%22%7C~

[JETTYWOLF]

Katoh,

Please continue with your photo journalism.....'We're very much enjoying this."

Maybe your pictures will keep Goatram from rolling his boat over on a big work bench.

[Katoh]

G,Day Friends
A small milestone was reached this week, I finally got to the point where I had to say enough is enough. I had to put the welder done and stop trying fill, change fix every little imperfection I could find on the bottom and just get the darn thing finished.
I finished welding on all the strakes that I had folded out of 5mm plate, there clearly seen in the pic, and I ended up fully seam welding them as there on there to try to tie in my sheets and give them a bit more strength then anything else. It didn't work out to badly cost wise as I only used 1/2 the 8' sheet, so still quite a bit left to make some outrigger bases, rod holders and a bait board, but all in good time.
I still have this pedantic streak and not 100% certain of my welds, I searched for other things that may help. My first item was AlumiSeal, I had to get this shipped over from the States but thought it can't hurt. Its basically a 2 part porous weld sealer, for those with interest look here.
http://www.impco-inc.com/sealants/for-aluminum
So I Alumiseal'ed all my welds outside and the ones I could get to inside also, I have no idea if it works and will probably never know.
I spent the day today getting the hull ready for its first coat in the morning, We spent the day apply Prekote to the entire raw surface, a bigger job than I imagined, but the hull looks good and now ready for its first coat of 2k primer. Hopefully if weather stays as it was today for the next 3 days I should be able to get the primer on and two base coats of epoxy. Leave it for a week and 2 coats of clear 2k Polyurethane and that should see the bottom complete, here's hoping.
For those interested in Prekote look here. http://www.prekote.com/
To keep Jettywolf happy a quick pic of today's efforts, the high tensile mower handle support had to removed for the process.

Ready for primer.

pre-paint.jpg (134.55 KiB) Viewed 11166 times

[Katoh]

Colleagues
I'm back again, after prepping and spraying and sanding and spraying, Ive had enough.
Reminds me of a Quick quote from the Shreck movie "That'll Doo Donkey, That'll Doo"
Well that's it, if it leaks Ill be F****d and if it cracks the same goes. there was no real way to test, this is it. Like it or not its done now and painted to boot, I do admit there are things I wish I did differently, but too late now. Who knows it may last one trip, one season or 100 years. If it all turns to poo too soon well

The Finish is not exact glass, but not to bad never less.

paint1.jpg (95.22 KiB) Viewed 11137 times

Well we Prekoted, sprayed one coat of 2pack primer, 4 coats of Aluminum Epoxy Mastic and 2 coats of semi gloss clear 2pack acrylic polyurethane. It took around 3 liters each coat on average.

each coat would, have to be nearly 80micron.

paint2.jpg (116.08 KiB) Viewed 11137 times

Next job is to get the trailer back in one piece, all the steel parts I had re-dipped in Gal, except the axles and the hubs. my Lathe is nowhere near large enough to turn an axle or the hubs, so re cutting the bearing guides and threads would need to sourced out. I was simply going to paint them in the same coatings as used on the hull. I had friend today simply recommend that he could have them sandblasted and powder-coated with some special 2part powder for a minimum cost, so I agreed. Saves me a lot of work and may be better, but I have doubts for some reason.

The boat was never named when i bought it, so we have been throwing around names, so far only one suited or on top of our list, Get ready for the Tin-Tanic, no chance of icebergs here, but the re-builder's a bit dodgy.

[Chaps]

As they say, if it looks good then its good! Tin-Tanic, I like that, I reserve that name for my next north-of-the-equator alloy project boat. And no, Goatram, think of your own name I stole Katoh's genius . . .

I'll tell you how to test it, get it right side up for the first time in three years, support it well and fill the tub full of water to the brim. If its going to let go you'll find out before life and limb are at risk.

[Katoh]

Tin-Tanic, I like that, I reserve that name for my next north-of-the-equator alloy project boat.

You perfectly welcome to use the name, don't think our boats will ever sit side by side, or even in the same hemisphere for that matter. Just one names and signs, I should invest in a cutter pen to fit the CNC router, it will cut vinyl singe's out in the blink of an eye and to any shape you like. The routers cutting area is 1200x2700 (4'x9') that makes one heck of a large sign. This could help out a lot of us Some fuel for thought

I'll tell you how to test it, get it right side up for the first time in three years, support it well and fill the tub full of water to the brim. If its going to let go you'll find out before life and limb are at risk.

I thought of that, along with pressure testing. Couldn't pressure test as there is a big hole where the motor sits, and a lot of patching was in there being an inboard. The other drama I would have had to fit and seal the tank and the deck over the tank , just to seal what I could test and that's only part of the repairs, just wasn't practical.
Filling the hull with water creates another problem. To seal that gaping great hole were the leg sticks out not only do I have to fit the transom shield but the motor also. This means that I have to drowned the motor to fill the hull, not something I really want to do.
Maybe I can make a temp ply infill to seal the hole but I can't really see it sealing anything. This one is a real suck it and see job.

[THEMOORINGMAN]

Hi,

Lots of work, man you're NOT lazy!!! Great job!! Love it!!

Did you splash the boat and test for leaks before you did all that bottom painting?

Are you concerened with internal stresses becasue you welded it all while twisted and stressed from being on it's side? Did you frame the boat up before tilting it on its side? ( I read lots of your post but not ever post so you may have covered this. If so, sorry.)

[Katoh]

Lots of work, man you're NOT lazy!!!

lazy? Probably not , more like just plain STUPID.

Did you splash the boat and test for leaks before you did all that bottom painting?

Would have absolutely loved to, but and there's always a but. Would have meant again fitting the motor and leg I/O to seal the transom, finding a way to move the beast, Ok could have put the trailer together earlier, which I am just doing now. Rolling the tub onto the trailer, removing my front gates and part of the fence as the darn thing wont fit through them by a mere 1". If all good then, would of being a bastard to paint from underneath and had to be removed off the trailer again, not to mention again removing the motor and the leg. Now I can see the beauty in an outboard in this situation, but lifting that diesel in and out is just painful, and because of the height and the reach you cant even do it with a normal donk hoist. The Darn thing is even too heavy for my Bobcat to lift.
This is where the whole Suckit and see approach comes from.
I am really thinking now if I can seal that transom hole with some ply I will flood the hull on the trailer and see what happens. Just had a scary thought then, with my luck Ill flood the hull and the extra weight will break the trailer or crack the hull where it sits on the rollers. I suppose if it all goes pear shaped, while its on the trailer and after I finish crying I could always just tow it somewhere.

Are you concerened with internal stresses becasue you welded it all while twisted and stressed from being on it's side? Did you frame the boat up before tilting it on its side?

Great Question but I have to say actually no. Refer to the pics on page 5 post 62. The boat has full frames and there fully welded each side with stringers at 8" centers The deck is welded in and there are L beams running the length of the hull under the deck also. If you look at the cutout's I made you can notice I left a good 1" of original plate either side of each frame still in one piece, Basically I cut holes where the plates were empty, The only part is where I exposed one stringer on each plate but these were only stitch welded to start with which I tried to duplicate from the outside with the new plates. But as far as warp I couldn't see it. As extra strength I did weld on all those new strakes , they were not original. Where I could get to both sides I welded both sides, and I put an extra stiffening bar across my welds and fully seamed welded it in on both sides and from stringer to stringer also.
To be honest, I can't see it falling apart, Yes it may very well leak. I did find a a small crack about 1/4" straight after the prime coat went on, and I did weld it up before continuing, funny thing it was nowhere near anything I had done
But lets think about it, if it leaks how much would it leak, enough to overcome the twin auto 750GPH pumps, it'll have to be a big hole, but at least it may just give me time to get it out of the water. I also plan for its first few trips to stay in the river, once proven start pointing its nose outside gradually and see how it goes in the bay with chop and swell.
You don't realize how many sleepless nights I have had with these questions, and the constant second guessing of my own work and is it good enough. So far all that have seen it can't wait to go on it and comment on how good it looks and I should stop being so bloody pedantic, but the seed has being sown and the doubts still live in my mind.

Thanks for bringing them back up!

[goatram]

Alumin-Ate-Her



Sweet PAIN "T"

Sorry had to bust a bubble.

[Katoh]

Alumin-Ate-Her

"SWEEEET"

By the way nice project you have got going, I'm still!

[THEMOORINGMAN]

Sounds great and love your posts!

I thought the boat was tipped up on the gunnel but now I see tires where the floor hits the freeboard. Much less stress.

[Haunted]

G'day Katoh,

Nice work you've done here mate, it's great to see this old girl getting a new lease at life. I stumbled across it around 2-3 years ago on boatsales and wondered what happened to her.I have the Fisher Alufarm 5.8 sports cab with a 140 yammie on the back and am always looking for more info on them..I had exactly the same issue with mine and the floor was foam filled! I am a boiler maker with a fair amount of aluminium experience under my belt so fixing it wasn't an issue. We removed the fuel tank, cut access holes in the baffles, removed what foam we could then I simply wire brushed and tigged up the holes. I also pad welded out the corrosion spots where thickness was an issue. Once we had done that we filled her up to floor level with water to checked again for any holes we had missed. We only found one more hole which I welded up from the outside, leaving the weld raised as not to loose thickness after sanding. We then filled the hull up with foam blocks and riveted new plates in to cover the cut outs. It was a little bit of a hack job but that was 6 years ago and have not had any problems since. The boat goes out to Gabo Island and offshore at Portland (Vic) regularly in some pretty horrendous stuff and hasn't missed a beat!

I'm keen to hear how yours runs with the in board as I know mine leaves most other 6m tinnies for dead when it roughs up - they are a very solid, great handling offshore boat!

Looking forward to your feed back!

Haunted

[Katoh]

G'Day Haunted
Gee its good too here from a fellow Fisher owner.
There really nicely built boats, strong as. Unfortunately I can not tell you how mine rides or performs yet as its still sitting upon its edge, I have put the trailer together underneath it, but. Well in my case there's always a but and an if. Dad passed away last year, actually one year ago exactly from today, his old truck that I must get-rid off needs a (Dulux Overhaul) fresh coat of paint, so I decided to repaint the truck and paint and trailer at the same time, What else would one expect.
So I'm simply looking for a good weekend to do this task, and finally right the ship itself. In the mean time I have busy playing with another toy that I acquired an XJS sports car from a deceased estate. Yes it is a Jaguar and yes it does leek oil and have a couple of rust spots, and you have to be a pygmy to get in out of one where it doesn't suit a 100kg middle aged person who is in shape, and yes round is a shape!
Back to the boat, I had a friend come round to look at a cnc lathe I built and showed him the boat. The interesting thing is he said straight up I now this boat, not mine but it has a twin in Nowra (N.S.W Aust) and he knows the owner and has being on the boat. He could not speak more highly at how it performs, and says the other boat goes out in some very ordinary weather and does very well. Well I'm still yet to see.

Ill still keep my progress reports going, as I do things which may have being nil lately, but with the weather on the improve and the days getting longer something might start happening again soon. Good to see you on the forum, post some pics of beast!

Cheers to all.

[Haunted]

G'day again Katoh,

Sorry to hear about your dad, that certainly puts your priorities into perspective..
Interesting about a twin boat being in Nowra, I would have thought the inboard was unique. I remember the one I looked it was on the south coast somewhere, it did have a distinctive bent up galvanised rail across the transom that didn't look standard, it was advertised at around 27k from memory. I'll do my best to post some pics of mine. Good luck mate, it will be worth while, not too many mobs build tinnies like these anymore!
Cheers
Haunted

[Katoh]

G'day again Katoh,


Interesting about a twin boat being in Nowra, I would have thought the inboard was unique. I remember the one I looked it was on the south coast somewhere, it did have a distinctive bent up galvanised rail across the transom that didn't look standard, it was advertised at around 27k from memory.

I remember when I bought mine there was a 5.8 Sportsman advertised also, looked the same as mine but just with an outboard. Mine came down from Queensland even though it was advertised out of Sydney, but you can see it originally came out of Tasmania. There was a bloke about a year ago selling a 6.5 fisher with outboard set-up on youtube, the thing that I remember about his boat more than anything is the scupper set-up, must be custom but was a fantastic design. Ill have a draw a pic and post it.
I have seen also two of the big brothers up for sale, both identical and both inboard diesel's, but the next size up. Mine runs the Volvo 31 (130hp) but these were both 41's (160hp). One thing with Fisher its got me stuffed how me measured his boats, these bigger ones where stamped at 7m (23ft) but looked more like 9m(29.5') that had 3m (9.9') beams on them. Even mine is weird it measures 6.3m (20.7') in the hull and 6.9m (22.6') LOA with a 2.55m (8.4')beam but he called it a 5.9 (19.4') sportsman.
Well the weather is starting to warm now a bit, and if I can get two decant days in a row I may finally get this tub back onto its trailer and start putting it all back together. Some of my great ideas are getting compromised like a full rub back and re-spray above waterline, now its looking more like a quick sand and re-spray.

Hows your hull holding out after tigging those spots?

Cheers Again.

[Katoh]

I'm Back! I'm Bad! and according to my wife just simply Mad!
Well who would of thought that this day would actually come, were the little tub has finally being righted and now sits on top of its trailer. Again 7 large individuals, 1/2hour of planning, 5 minutes to do the job and then gallons of beer back slapping and BBQ sausages for hours after.
The trailer I had fully re dipped in Gal, but I decided to paint it also and just for the hell of it I also waxed it on top of everything else, this is where the mad part comes in. Why? I don't really know. The wax I used is this product, and I thoroughly recommend it, thin it with GPthinners and spray it on with a degreasing gun, goes everywhere but coats everything. Gives the trailer and old rusty look but I can defiantly see the benefits of using it. Cost $76Au for 4 liters.
http://www.valvolineeurope.com/english/ ... tectyl_506
Next is a bit of welding in the fuel well and a coat of paint, and a coat of paint in the engine well also. once that's done I can start working on getting the stern-drive all refurbished and repainted.

Just like to Wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and all the best for the up and coming new year.

[KingFischer]

Since you have holes in your hull, couldn't you look through those holes with camera and get Idea of what you need to do?

Les

[Katoh]

Hi Les
The couple of holes to be welded up I am referring to are in the fuel well, not the hull. These are 4" holes I made to see what the initial problem was with the hull, photos of them on post No.18 of this thread. I made new plates for these holes and welded the underside while I had the hull cut out, Now the boats over I will weld the opposite side, if that makes sense
Anyhow the only hole that should be there now is the big one on the transom where the leg fits on, well I hope that's the only hole left. Once I get it painted up I'm going to do the leak test, ill fill her full of water and see what happens.

[KingFischer]

Here's another thought if the hull is totally enclosed, most fires need o2. Since the o2 will be gone quick then there should be no fire.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Les

[Katoh]

G'Day Freinds

Firstly I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and the very best for the up and coming new year

Holly Monolly! cant beleive its being so long since the last post, I have being hovering around in the background all this time.

The tub has not being forgotten, neglected maybe, but not forgotten, my time has become very sort after and taken up by others that beleive boating is NOT at all that important They have left me little to no time to the truly important things, like completing this boat. I have had only a chance to paint the inner motor well, and the fuel well in this time. I have just lately purchased a few parts that that where corroded on my motor that I was going to rebuild, so that should really speed things along.
Ok you get what what I mean. speed it along ( can not find a smiley of a snail).
I have to show you that table that held the tub is now home to 9 chickens (no not the lawn mower handle), why? An almighty power directed me to do it, or Id be in Dog house again!
I am pushing for this season around April to get on the water.