Ordered one gal of steelflex from Fascos earlier this week should be here Monday.
Pulled my 1751 Gators trax off the trailer and flipped it yesterday. Got some pretty good hooks in it. Should I use a filler or somethin or will there be enough steelflex to fill the voids?
Started sanding with 60 grt flap wheel and grinder, figured out real quick its gonna take a lil while. Talked to my buddy this mournin he told me that his step dad has a pot for blastin but I dunno what type of media or sand to use on aluminum. Will post pics when I get home in the next day or two. Any help will be welcomed with open arms.

I've heard walnut shell is good for soft metals.

Do NOT sand blast it. Just acid wash it.

Acid wash only or sand then acid wash ?

I would acid wash only or you could rough it up a little by hand wit sand paper before acid washin it, but I don't think it is necessary. One could very easily permanatly damage an aluminum hull sand blastin it.

Now I'm nervous. I feel like I need to take it to someone who has done this before so I don't jack my boat up. Anyone close willing to help? I can pay with beer.

I just did my boat and I was scared to sand blast ive been around restoring cars for along time and have seen alot of cars come back from sand blasting and if the person doing it dosent know what they are doin even more with you boat being alluminium the amount of stress caused by blasting loves to warp stuff unless your boats a heavy gauge aluminium then i wouldnt. What i did was went to the hardwared store and bought some paint stripper and then just hit it with a presure washer after i let the stripper set a while and the paint blew right off it took a few times with the stripper in some areas but way better than sanding it all off then just roughed it up with some 24 grit wasnt to bad i preped 2 boats in a day

Pics of the boat

I did the steelflex on an 16-48 thin hull boat. I sandblasted it. Worked out fine.

Hyper.. Is that Hooks in your boat? If so WOW !!!!! They look as if they are about to pop through the bottom..

Steel Flex is not going to fix that.. And I dont think SandBlasting could hurt it any worst. That bottom is in BAD shape..

yeah dude your bottom is DONE. Time for a new boat.

WOW!

Josh,

I think it's about time to sink that boat and collect insurance money. That thing is fuked. Now you know not to buy a 1/8th inch bottom boat where we run now. 3/16ths all the way, and alot of bracing.

How much is the steel flex

Yeah, if you had to salvage it, wonder if you could have the bottom replaced without creeping near new boat price.

Do u need a hardener for it? Do u brush it on or roll it on or spray it? U know the website for it?

Its a 2 part epoxy. Comes with the hardner. Just roll it on. I think you could spray it on if you want. Use a nozzle like they use for bedliner, but most are just rolling it on.

Fasco-epoxies website is where you order it.

That bad huh. Anyone wanna buy a boat ?! I bought this set up about a year ago from a guy in Fort Worth , he told me he didn't use it that much and he bought it as a demo from what I can tell they where hard on it. Don't get me wrong but I have put it through some sh!t but surely I didn't do all of that.
You have to call Fascos to order it and they ship it COD , it cost $131 for a gallon with 4 oz of OD green.
Wtf Should I do? I don't wanna waste my time on it if its goin to be pointless?

isn't the one in the middle your tunnel and not so much hook?

Naw the tunnel doesn't start till about 3 ft from the transom

You may be able to beat da bottom back flat then have another bottom welded on it or bolt a teflon bottom to it.

I have thought about it and decided Fuk It! Im gonna finish what ive started and use the boat till ITS PAID OFF! Then see about gettin a new one. I guess Im just gonna have to start takin better care of my sh!t. I bought this boat not knowing much about them and not know about this web site; if i would have known I wouldnt be in this position, but you live and you learn, and i have learned THE HARD WAY!

yeah what they said!

need to do the filler on that one for sure....

Ok. The thing is I have a small window of time, the company I work for is about to send me outta town for I don't know how long, I need to get this done this weekend.
Here's the plan; gonna turn the boat back over cut my gun box and floor out, then take a block of wood and a hammer and try to knock the hooks back out.

If you beat da hooks out they will come right back because da metal is now softer.

By a slightly bigger boat, then weld that one inside it. Just a thought.

nuc, could you put a new bottom on it?

didnt look a the pic

Aight, cut the gun box out, took the floor up; which was a bitch, hammered the hooks back out flipped it back over "took more pics" I think it looks a hell ofa lot better now.
the plan is after i get the steelflex on is to take or get it taken to a guy in Genoa; Owen u know where that is, but theres a guy over there that is pretty good with allum. Im gonna have him ad some cross braces to the inside on the bottom to beef it up a lil bit. then have him weld the box and whatever else i need to get done to it.
http://picasaweb.google.com/109158228614102414262/Boat#

Why not ad braces to it Owen ?