Re: The rebuild of an aluminum runabout
I want one of you to come shoot me right between the eyes. We'll call it "assisted suicide" since I asked. <br />HELP! Look, I know it's overkill. Fine. Nevertheless, I've bought just about every single item that I need to finish the boat when I get home. I have hundreds of dollars worth of stainless steel, closed cell foam, paint, plywood, lights, electric wire, steering, and so forth. One more thing, but it's a really sticky subject...<br />I'm going to put closed cell foam in the sub-floor. Simple enough. It's a rivet-construction boat, though. Urethane foam, once it's in, is designed to stay in. Thus, the price of the crap. Simple enough. With that in mind, though, I want a barrier coat on the aluminum. I don't want moisture trapped against the aluminum or the foam, so I've planned for water drainage channels. That should serve to keep water from sitting against the foam. In the case of a rivet leak, though, repair would be a bit of a pain, and with the foam in there, identifying which rivet was leaking would definitely be a pain. So I want a barrier coat. <br />For a week and a half now, I've spent hours on end on the internet for this. I've been typing in things like: 'brushable, permanent, high tensile strength sealant'. I've used other words, but you get the picture. <br />I want a product with the following charachteristics:<br />-Permanent <br />-lightweight<br />-brush or roller applicable<br />-waterproof<br />-adheres well to metal<br />-remains flexible<br />-high tensile strength<br /><br />Additionally, I think an ideal product would also have these charachteristics, and thus be suitable for a bottom coating:<br />-UV protection<br />-High impact resistance<br />-Smooth finish<br /><br />Cost effective is a must. Most of us agree on that. I've found industrial coatings that I think would be more than adequate on a dozen sites. The problem? THEY WON'T ANSWER MY EMAILS! You can see "Quick Rant" if you want to go on with that, though. I'd love to hear your suggestions, comments, snide remarks, sarcasm, etc...Please.
Also-I've been through about 5 boats this year. The first one took over 1/4 of the year. The boats I've chosen since then have been ones that I can rebuild more quickly, cheaply, and simply. I'm accomplishing a lot, but I'm also doing some fairly simple work. And last but not least, these frequent trips to sea give me time to do almost every bit of my planning when I can't do anything else. When I go home now, I'll be ready to dive right back into it, with a definite plan of attack. Now if I can just figure out this cooler...
