Filling Rusted Voids?

I have a large h-post that has rusted out voids beneath the horizontal crossbar. Since it's basically just a hollow steel pipe, I was thinking of digging out as much rust as possible, hitting it with ospho, spraying some expanding foam sealer inside the pipe, then applying some MarineTex to plug the hole. Any flaws in this plan?

Greetings,
Mr. ck. From your description you've either got a towing bit or a cleat. Both of these are designed to take a load. Any void or fault will weaken the piece and is potentially dangerous/fatal IF excessive load is applied. Why bother repairing it? Why not replace? If it is "... basically just a hollow steel pipe,..." it shouldn't be an excessive amount of $$ or simply remove it.

RTF may have a point; a pic of the piece in question would help us help.

Here's a pic. I don't thing the voids are large enough to cause the posts to fail outright but agree that a welded fix would be best. I'm mainly just trying to stop the rust holes from expanding.

Greetings,
Mr. ck. Holy cow! That's one heck of a cleat! I still think the best, safest and longest lasting fix will be to have the rust cut or ground out and a proper welded patch put on.

It's steel. Just cut it off and weld on a new one!

I agree remove it complete and weld a new one. You will find the whole cleat is rusted out and will cost more to patch only to have a new spot next year. The next gale that blows in you will be happy you did.

Tingum said:

It's steel. Just cut it off and weld on a new one!

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+1

I knew I should have taken welding in high school. Thanks everyone for the good advice. I've got a yard visit coming up soon so hopefully it wont cost too much to repair.

Although of no use for structural issues, you should be aware of the POR-15 products. They completely stop rust from re-emerging without even removing all the original rust.
Order a "starter kit" and the paste and try it, you will wonder how you made it this far w/o it.

ckpetrus said:

I knew I should have taken welding in high school. Thanks everyone for the good advice. I've got a yard visit coming up soon so hopefully it wont cost too much to repair.

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Judging from the photo alone. Approximately 3 hours shop labor plus $40 material charge to fab. Hour or so to install. Painting would be your problem

Find a local welder to give you a real quote.

that is one heck of a boat!

NICE!

eseyoung said:

that is one heck of a boat!

NICE!

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I agree, that boat reminds me of the old river boats with the high pilot house and loong cabin.. That's a very cool boat!

I bet she gets a lot of attention wherever she ties up.
I'd like to see some more pictures sometime.

Another vote for POR-15.

Amazing stuff.

Don't have any idea what it is though.

POR 15 is good stuff. But, its just a two part epoxy with an oil base, kinda like but not as good as coal tar epoxy. You can make your own with a good epoxy mixed with asphalt roof patch (roofing tar) to the consistency needed. It aint rocket science.

Greetings,
Mr. k. You must be thinking of something else. POR15, at least the stuff I've used is NOT a two part epoxy.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. k. You must be thinking of something else. POR15, at least the stuff I've used is NOT a two part epoxy.

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He's quite right, it's not epoxy, not two part, not coal tar, or any kind of tar.

Bluto said:

I agree, that boat reminds me of the old river boats with the high pilot house and loong cabin.. That's a very cool boat!

I bet she gets a lot of attention wherever she ties up.
I'd like to see some more pictures sometime.

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Thanks Bluto, the "Willie" is permanently moored in Port Aransas Texas until I win the lottery and can buy two big Elco motors to replace the diesels the previous owner removed. As for pics, you inspired me to create a quick Facebook page for the boat at: http://www.facebook.com/willietug

I will probably update the page from time to time with news of my latest maintenance dilemma.

She's nice. She surely deserves those engines and 'getting out there', and back to work. Even if that work is just taking you and friends cruising.

ckpetrus said:

http://www.facebook.com/willietug

I will probably update the page from time to time with news of my latest maintenance dilemma.

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A very unique boat that looks like a lot of fun!
I hope things go your way and you get those new engines.

Good luck!

You own a really neat steel boat, buy a welder and learn to weld. It is no big deal!

It's been at least 12 years since I last used POR15. I used it on the floor of a chevy truck. I coated the steel flat bed on that same truck with it but it didnt standup to sunlight for long. I think the instructions mentioned something about that. I could have swore it was a two part paint, but now that I think about it I dont recall mixing it. It was only available in black back then.