RD2 Mini Pro W/Polymer Water Leak Question

[stripermania]

I have a RD2 Mini Pro w/Polymer bottom and I notice after about an hour in the water, quite a bit of water leaks into the boat. I assumed that the water is coming through the hundreds of threads of screws that attached the polymer to the bottom of the boat. My question is " What is the best way of sealing all these screws to prevent water from going into the boat ?" I am thinking about mixing 2 part epoxy, the same kind I used on the guides on my fishing rod and just apply epoxy on all the screws. Does anyone have any experience in this. Thanks for your feed back.

[Duane Scarborough]

Striper,

How much is quiet a bit?

Chuck Rackley would probably be the one to give you the best advice.

Several years ago, a friend had a riveted aluminum run about. It'd leak about 5 gallons an hour. His solution was to put in 2 bilge pumps. One of them was automatic, and the other (manual) was there only as a back-up.

That may not be the best way to do it, but he ran that boat for 20 years like that.

Duane

[chuckitt]

Hey Stripermania, Who put the polymer on the boat? I don't remember putting polymer on any of the RD2's that we sold. The RD2 was named after Ronnie Deschamps because he built the riggs for us and rigged out the first one. He did help John with Swamp Bug Mini Airboats build a few but i didn't know they called them RD2. The bottom is only .090 thick so it should have nuts and washers on the inside of the boat. If not, you would have to get longer screws and put nuts and washers on the inside. Put weatherstrip adheasive in the hole before putting the screw back in.
Thanks, Chuck

[stripermania]

chuckitt,

actually, I called it the RD2 since it looked exactly like the boat on this forum called the RD2. I bought from cntry144iq (John) last year. Thanks for weather stripping and the nut advice. I will buy nuts and put them on. Can you recommend the weather stripping compound.

Thanks,

[chuckitt]

Yea, it comes in a tube and is sold at any auto parts store. It's called super weatherstrip adhesive and it's yellow. ( contact cement ) works great.
Thanks, Chuck