Aluminum Boat Repair

What city are you near?

guywhofishes Said:
What city are you near?

                 Would be helpful

Boat is in Kenmare nd, but I have no problem driving to bismarck or someplace within the state if it gets my boat fixed.

 product is called flexseal, however a lot of the review's on this product claim they are sent more than they order, and have a hundred or more charged to there cc. and have a real hard time getting it resolved.

 best to find a good welder and have it done.

 If near Grand Forks I would call Grand Forks Welding.

Find a welding shop, any welding shop, and ask if they have experience with aluminum welding.  Many will say they do and then botch the job, it will look like crap and crack again because of a poor weld.

At one time I considered myself a pretty decent welder with just about any technique, but I could never quite get the hang of doing a good job on aluminum.  Especially if vertical or overhead.

Knew one fella who had an old flat bottomed bass boat that had cracked near where the bow tiedown attached.  I bet he had that sucker "fixed" at least 3 times before he found someone who knew how to weld aluminum.  I think he got it done at one of the machine shops in Minot.  This was almost 20 years ago though.

 Yea it isn't the easiest stuff to weld.

My first boat was a Starcraft fishmaster and one beautiful but windy day on Devils Lake I was running it  34 mph across a 3' chop from 6 mile to Lakewood. Split the side of the boat open about 2' where the gunwhale meets the hull. Once I figured out why my feet were getting wet I backed off the throttle and kept the front end of the boat up. When I got to the dock I beached it right on the ramp and pissed off a half a dozen other fisherman for barging ahead of them. I took my boat to Ornamental Iron in Grand Forks and they welded it up so good that you could barely tell that it had been fixed. Sorry for the long story, but it brought back a vivid memory.

Had mine fixed at gibbons repair in Bismarck. They did a superub job.

johnr Said:
Had mine fixed at gibbons repair in Bismarck. They did a superub job.

If I am ever unfortunate enough to need some aluminum work, they will get the job.  I've heard nothing but good things about their work.  And, I live in Bismarck so I wouldn't have to drive halfway across the state.

It is short, sweet, effective threads like this that put the buddy in fishingbuddy. nice work fellers.

Gibbon's Repair, Bismarck for sure!

guywhofishes Said:
It is short, sweet, effective threads like this that put the buddy in fishingbuddy. nice work fellers.

Duct tape?

Interesting how many of you are saying Gibbons , my sons 16 ft Lund developed a crack in the aluminum from the trailer  .  Went and spoke to them about it and they told me to forget about it , not fixable .

Spoke to Russ at the boat show and he told me to bring it out as he had some time,
called a few days later and he had removed the floor found the problem and fixed it , hasnt leaked since .  This was about 5 years ago

Jeffs Sport Shop in MInot can do it, also Boatworks is Bismarck is capable of doing the job.

Thanks for the help guys, got just the information I needed and am hoping to limp it along the the rest of the year. The floor has to be removed so that could cut into the fishing time. At least bow season is approaching to divide my time up more