I have a small 10 foot plastic boat that I use for fishing throughout the year, but I recently ran into a crappy situation. The boat stays outside throughout the year, and this year, water got inside the actual construction of the boat, which then froze and badly deformed the sides and bottom of the boat. The sides are bowed out and the bottom is bubbled upwards. I’m thinking the only possible solution is going to be to somehow heat the boat up, and hope it somewhat gets back into shape. As it sits now, it’s useless. The seats for the boat slide onto rails on the inside, but with it bowed out like it is, there is no way for the seats to properly sit into these rails.
I always store the boat upside down, but I still fish throughout the winter, and I got busy for a couple of weeks, which led to me not having time to go flip the boat over. Lesson learned I guess.
Well, I already have a 19 foot fish and ski boat, which is a very nice boat, but I’m not willing to take that one out on small lakes and what not. They’re too shallow and have too many stick-ups that can do damage to it. Not to mention, there isn’t anyway to launch and load a boat of that size in these small bodies of water.
Get on the net or go to bass pro and buy a belly boat and some swim fins. Cost for belly boat 65 to 100 dollars fins 10 to50 dollars. You will catch more fish and is much cheaper than a boat. Save your money and buy a $ 20,000. 00 or $ 50,000. 00 dollar boat.
Well gentle warmth such as you could get from a fan heater in an enclosure or small shed won’t hurt any further. . . .
If the hull is foam filled it really won’t go back the way it was, as the bond between hull and foam will be broken, and the foam is likely distorted permenantly. But if a simple hollow rotational molded thingy it will come back a fair way with slow gentle and consistent heat. I wouldn’t try using high levels of heat past what you would cope with, as if you go too far you will soften and stretch the material further again.
you will never get it back to the way it was, however if you have a heat gun than you can heat it up careful not to burn or melt it, than press it back into place. it might work with a hair dryer, but I dont know if that will get the plastic hot enough.