Bucking rivets in a boat info

Is it better to hammer from the outside in with a metal block in the inside? I have 5-6 that seap no major leak but annoying have tried marine weld no good got some Flex Seal coming. it’s all in one area. Should I grind and get rid of all the old marine weld before I try the flex steel? I have hammered until blue in the face. I cannot find any place that has boat rivets and my local marine center said always best never to drill them out. If it matters it’s a Lund boat I have had 3 all leaked only ones out of the upteen other boats I have had. I really want to fix the rivets not band aid them. It’s about 6 inches long of rivets together. Thank You

The one on the outside gets the anvil. Inside gets the hammer.

Idea being you SUCK the outside IN to create the bind.

The head of the rivet gets hammered with a proper “rivet set”. The anvil or bucking bar is used on the tail end of the rivet.

https://www.vintagetrailersupply.com/content/assets/pdf/buckrivetingbasicsinitialrelease.pdf

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I had a leak in the bow of 2 of my 14′ Alumacraft row boats. I too pounded until my ears rang. Each rivet set on a railroad track iron (I don’t have an anvil) and peening from the top. No luck.

Someone at Alumacraft told me to use – Vulkem 116 sealant. I power washed, wire wheeled on a drill then used Denatured Alcohol to final clean. Both boats – no leaks. Home Depot.

I did nearly the same as Hodag…. but the product I used was “Gluvit”. I read about it on some aluminum hull repair threads I found on an interweb search.

It is a two part marine epoxy sealant that seeps into seams and seals up leaking rivets and cracks. Seems to have worked as advertised.

SikaFlex 221 does an amazing job on a hull.
I have some on my rivets from 5 years ago. That’s a lot of boat rides.

X2 on the sikaflex 221. I used that on my recent boat rebuild and it worked great.