Re: 1957 Feathercraft Rocket

[boatnut]

I noticed this boat has a number of rivets on the bottom that have JB Weld smeared over the rivet heads. I have an aluminum StarCraft that I had to fix about 20 solid rivets that were loose. I have the aluminum rivets and the air hammer tools to fix solid rivets but you have to be able to get to both sides of the rivet to use the bucking bar. Pop rivets won’t work below the water line due to the hole in the middle of the rivet once the mandrel snaps off.

Some of these rivets are under the built in aluminum seats where I can’t get to the back of them. Has anyone ever taken the seats out of a FeatherCraft hull? It doesn’t look to me like there are a few rivets that were used to install preassembled seats. It almost looks like the seats were constructed in the boat. I realize these seats are structural and don’t want to open up a can of worms. It seems to me like there are way too many rivets tying into the gunwales, stringers, etc to drill out and disassemble the seats.

Let me know if anyone has some experience with this. I was able to fix my StarCraft up to the point I leak tested and it was dry as a bone. That was a combo of new rivets, 5200, and Glu-vit.

Thanks,

BoatNut (Don)