No question, go riveted. Best method for many reasons, including water tightness. The rivet expands in the hole when bucked.

Can’t go wrong with a narrow deck straight valve. I would estimate more ND SVs have been reliably pushing airboats through the glades than any other AC engine. Narrow decks may be older, but the cases seem to have less issues than the newer wide decks. Which is ironic, because the wide deck cases ar...

I always recommend putting anodes on airboats but especially if it is 7075. If the boat is only used in fresh water you would use a Magnesium anode. If you use the boat in fresh and salt (brackish) water then you use an Aluminum anode. If it is used in only Salt then you would use a Zinc anode. The...

Excellent posts. The topic of corrosion on these hulls is important, for the reasons you mentioned. Mainly the 7075 not being very corrosion resistant. My boat spends its nights inside a warehouse on the trailer, and I don’t own a camp, so I don’t have to worry about it sitting in water for long per...

Post some pictures if you can. Anything metal can be fixed or repaired, but if you’re talking about the whole bottom of the boat is worn out you might be better off just running it as is and starting fresh when you can order a new hull. Unless of course you were talking about doing the repairs yours...

Alvarez1112 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:01 pm

Where the sides and bottom meet at the front "corners" of the hull as the bottom is pulled up and sides pulled in.

Gotcha. Pretty sure that’s aluminum as well, but maybe John Fenner will chime back in.

I’m not exactly sure what you mean. All mine have been plates of aluminum.

How wide do you want the hull to be, and what’s your side height?

I believe Al David does it with the full sheet down the center. Whereas most of the SoFlo builders use the thin strip, that varies in width depending on the boat width and side height. I think it’s a matter of preference really. There are plenty of 30 year old Thurmans sliding around with a bottom t...

What I like best about Al David is he takes the time to talk to you and explain things to you. He’ll explain to you why he builds his boats the way he builds them. A lot of other builders act like they are doing you a favor by letting you buy one of their boats. Al is not like that at all when I tal...

Gary for an illustration, here are two almost identical hulls built by the same builder. Both are 14x7. The first boat was built with 8” of taper (10” at the rear, 18” at the 12’ mark). The second boat was built with 9” of taper (10” at the rear, 19” at the 12’ mark). The hull with more taper (botto...

The TTY bolts were a major problem, but if you’re gonna throw a lot of boost and power at a 6.0, just going to studs won’t necessarily solve the problem 100%. They can still blow the head gaskets. The best way is to get a set of heads that have been O-ringed and had bronze valve guides installed. Ot...

You might be better off looking at some of the powerstroke forums. But the short answer is this, the 6.0 can be made into a pretty damn reliable engine in a truck...with extensive and costly modifications. But in stock form, the design of that engine has flaws. Sure there are some bone stock 6.0’s o...

All of the riveted hull builders just use a generous amount of silicone adhesive between the tank and the angle. I can’t remember the exact brand/type. It acts as a cushion between the metals, and holds the tank very securely. I have rebuilt several riveted boats and I have had to remove several of ...

I haven’t met Rich yet, but we’ve talked a few times and he seems like a good guy. I don’t think that was his intention with this thread at all. All great innovations start somewhere.

Very interesting Rich. Certainly appears stronger than any poly or slick bottom. I have only owned two boats with poly, but I did make an observation on one of those poly boats that I completely stripped down and rebuilt. It was a 12’ riveted hull, most people believed it to be a Cloninger. It was a...

Very interesting Rich.

Just mounted a Garmin 64sx handheld on my console. I really like it. Initially I wanted a big hard-wired unit, but I’m glad I went this route instead.

Every riveted hull I have ever owned has lost some steelflex at the seams. And all of my boats have been built by the best of the best. Perfectly normal.

I’m not a fabricator, but I have owned boats with aluminum and EMT riggings. I did not feel the aluminum rigging was any lighter. In fact, several areas of the aluminum had to be strengthened over the years with additional support as they fatigued and bent. And I’m talking about standard round alumi...

I’ve always wondered do you need to strengthen the bulkhead on a boat when you switch to air ride? Seems like that would create an awful lot of leverage pulling up on that section of a hull.

Front view

Seating for 5 on a 14x7 Thurman. Single rear driver, double in the center, and an interchangeable front seat that switches between a single (pictured) and a double. Love it.

Diggin you have a set of those boxes in yours...better make sure there’s no residue left in them LOL. My new one has a set as well.

Just curious about the science behind figuring what taper to bend the sheets of a riveted hull at (stern to bow taper). You look at some of the old Thurmans and they have a lot of taper making the bow deeper. But the later Thurmans, and the newer Benny Webb’s have less taper. The Don Davis’ and Ward...