Riveting my boat

[follow maggie]

So my Lund aluminum boat needs a new transom. Not a real big deal, it’s a wide open tiller boat & I think it’ll be a pretty straight forward process. Since it’s aluminum I plan on using aluminum buck rivets since that how the boat is built. My question is the boat has a nice automotive paint on the transom & I'm not sure if that paint needs to be taken off for the rivets to be waterproof? If I used stainless bolts instead of rivets, would the paint be a barrier between he stainless & aluminum to prevent galvanic corrosion?

I appreciate any help.
-Grant

[GWP]

Use aluminum rivets and coat them before driving them in. Also coat between the transom and sides when you put it on. Slow curing epoxy will give you some time. Most of the bigger marine stores will carry some type of epoxy for marine use.
I picked up a free boat some years back because of leaks and taught my wife to buck rivets so she could help with it. She did very well! 0 leaks when we were done.
It helps to have the equipment to do it.
Do NOT over drive them!
Play on a scrap piece first.

[Henrydog]

Do not use stainless bolts.  When the aluminum and stainless steel are touching, especially with saltwater galvanic corrosion will follow. 

[wadu1]

As already mentioned only use aluminum rivets. I would also use Zinc chromate paint or primer to prevent any corrosion in the future. That is what we used on all aluminum parts on Boeing planes some of my years of service pins stiff have green paint on them.