How much old adhesive do you remove and carpet over rivets?

[jprovencher80]

Recarpeting and aluminum boat. Deck and lids are all aluminum. I've chemically stripped the adhesive from the lids and an getting ready to do the rest of the boat. It takes a ton of time but the parts I've stripped are all clean bare aluminum. After the chemical strip I'm going to hit the entire thing with a brass brush to scuff the surface and then wash all the parts. Then I'll starting glueing the new carpet down.

Question is if it's overkill to get all the old adhesive off vs peel the old carpet and scrape up whatever is loose and comes up willingly.

2nd question....
The compartment lids have aluminum braces underneath. The braces were welded. Some of the welds broke causing the lids to flex. The shop my boat was at recommended riveting the braces instead of welding. I had them do it. Now that I'm getting ready to lay the carpet I'm concerned that the higher rivet heads will cause premature carpet wear. Should I take the lids to a welder to have the rivets drilled and welded?

Thanks for the advice.

[ct0218]

I had the same problem with the lid braces, and solved it with pop rivets. You cannot feel the pop rivet heads at all. I used 24 oz Syntec, but I doubt that you could feel them even with 16 oz carpet.

[jprovencher80]

The potential issue I see is the shop used solid rivets with a fairly large head. I'd estimate the rivet is perhaps 1/8 inch high

[ct0218]

The rear deck on my Tracker 185 has those large rivets and they really aren't visible and I don't remember feeling them either. In several places a layer of aluminum is lapped over another and riveted together, and there I do see and feel the lap. If you use a good quality carpet it probably wouldn't be a problem, those rivets on mine were originally covered with 16 oz carpet. I used 10 or 12 smaller head 3/16ths rivets rather than a few big rivets.

[jprovencher80]

Perhaps I'll drill them out and downsize

[kdogsboomstx]

As long as you get all the loose old glue off the boat you will be fine. The gule will stick just fine with the new carpet. Its all in how ADD you are:)