Aluminum boat with possible minor hull damage

[TN-25]

There is a cartop boat I am considering. When I look at the pictures in the ad something jumps out at me. I can see the upper starboard side of the boat towards the rear appears to be slightly pushed in. Looking at another photo I can see a slight distortion of the gunwale extrusions at that place. The boat is all aluminum of stretch-press construction, having a seam only at the keel. The seller did not bring attention to the minor damage in the ad nor did he hide it, however he is describing the boat as ?perfect?. Have a look at the attachments.

My question is can something like this be easily repaired? It does not look like there are folds in the metal, just a little ?wow? on the side, and of course the gunwale. The gunwale extrusion makes me a little uneasy since I believe it contributes to strength in the hull. Should I not consider the boat, or offer something low for it?

Am I making too big a deal of it? I would like to fix it if I decide on the boat.

My dad I believe had the same brand of boat (Nalco) and it was very good. He fell off a roof, landing on the boat and broke his pelvis in the fall. He did similar damage to the boat but more severe; it was still seaworthy (he gave the boat away to a duck hunting buddy).

Thanks for any opinions or assistance.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Aluminum boat with possible minor hull damage

looks like it bumped a dock pretty hard, i would say not damage done other than cosmetics.

 

[eavega]

Re: Aluminum boat with possible minor hull damage

Boat brand "Nalco" or "Valco"?

I have an ooooold Valco boat (14') that I picked up on ebay for like $50. In fact, it cost me more to actually pick up the boat (had to rent a trailer, plus the gas) than the boat itself. This thing apparently suffered a great trauma on one side, like pushed up on a rocky shore which punched through the hull. Since the bottom was still fairly true, a riveted piece of sheet aluminum, some hammering, a couple of braces, and a lot of jb-weld and 3M 5200 sealant later, its doesn't leak a drop. with my 20 HP it planes right up and scoots around the lake at about 25 MPH. I have determined that those aluminum rowboats are pretty much indestructible.

-E

 

[AZMinyard]

Re: Aluminum boat with possible minor hull damage

The first pic looks like he blurred the image to cover up the boat numbers, may not be actual damage. The second one looks cosmetic, as TD said.

In the end, you will have to check it out in person and go from there.

I paid $175 for a 12' Chrysler that wasn?t nearly as pretty. The guy could have made more off it by taking it to the scrap yard. Lucky for me he didn?t think of that. I did end up putting some cosmetic and leak-proofing work into it, but am extremely happy to have it.

I have heard that the older boats are made out of a thicker gauge aluminum and as a result more resilient and heavier. This might be a good reason to look at it seriously versus a newer boat.

Good luck, be sure to let us know how it turns out!

 

[Joe Dirt]

Re: Aluminum boat with possible minor hull damage

Looks cosmetic to me. Funny- I thought that it looked exactly like my old Myers- same pattern on the rail, same style of stern, same colors on the floor, same stuff... That boat was bulletproof, aside from having to toss some sealer on the bottom rear rivets after 30 years. I'd rock that boat... Looks good to me!

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Aluminum boat with possible minor hull damage

I just walked away from a deal like that, the guy said the boat was in A1 shape yet when I went to look at it it had a bellied in right gunwale rail with a crack in the upper extruded rail. There was also various other dings and a few cracks in the corners of the seats. He was stuck on $100 for it. The way I see it is there is no shortage of small boats out there, why settle for one that will never be perfect or one that will require more money to make it 100%. The one I looked at was a very early Sears boat, I ended up answering an add on CL and picking up a mint clean version for the same money. Its the 14 to 18' boats that seem to be hard to find. 10 and 12' boats are all over the place with an average price of about $200 here lately.

When it comes to damage, I'd rather patch a hole than deal with a broken gunwale rail. Its tough to make a repair on that type of extruded tubing and make it as good as new and to hide the repair. Even when welded, aluminum doesn't have the same strength or temper it did when new. Additional material must be added to regain the full strength again and to prevent it from failing in the future.

I'm not saying that boat isn't very usable, but it will take more than it's worth to make it right. If cosmetics aren't an issue, it's probably fine.
The port side blur looks to be just that, a spot on the pic where the seller scrubbed off the numbers for listing purposes.

 

[thefishinguy]

Re: Aluminum boat with possible minor hull damage

that doen't look to be anything that should be worried about unless you want a perfect boat. Everyone is right though 10 to 12 ft boat can often be had for little or no money. Just a word as i have had about 10 old tin boats be carefull of the seam in the center. They often split/ pop rivets if over powed or run hard in rough water, just look it over to make sure it already hasen't been fixed because usually its not done right and its a lot of work to fix someone elses mess and may not be worth it to repair.