Home Forums Fishing Freshwater anyone ever bring an old boat back to life?

picked this one up a couple weeks ago, missing center bench seat, paint looks like hell but other than that she's water tight. thinking of gutting it and starting over. has anyone done anything like this before? tips on how to do it? designs? ideas? any input is appreciated!

I watched a girl resuscitate a dinghy once.

That thing looks like the Queen Mary compared to mine.

Here's the inside.....

There's a lot of that done over at the Bass Boat Central forum with old alumiunim bass boats. Everything from basic to trick. Compared to some of those boats yours looks good to go as it is.

Co:

that looks like a lund. They get old, but they don't die. I have an S-14 -20" and once talked to the Lund engineers about taking out the middle seat. They said don't do it, as the hull's integrity depends on the seat for rigidity. . next year they came out with a flat floor 14' boat. .

If you need a middle seat, consider getting a cushion for the top of a cooler. Otherwise, enjoy the flat floor.

One thing I did to my boat was to install a flat floor between the front seat and the bow. I put a trap door in it to stash the battery for the bow mount trolling motor, which also helps level the boat when fishing alone.

I also built a long, narrow box - think of it as a console - on the left side in the rear. I mount the graph on it, a downrigger on it, and have installed battery and trolling speed gages in it. Inside it I can stash marker buoys and other misc fishing tackle. I'd photo it for you except it is full of duck and goose decoys - also functions well as a storage unit!

Mine (14 ft. Starcraft) cleaned up really well. The interior was better, came with the middle bench and ply between that and the front. The wood was structurally ok so I let it soak up all the clear ordinary wood deck treatment it wanted which was a lot every spring for a few years. That was maybe 15 years ago, still good. Interior paint was still reasonably good. Transom wood should be replaced one of these years.

Decided to go cheap on the exterior too, figuring I could redo a few years later. Sanded as necessary to get all the loose paint off and feather the edges of what was left. I used Naval Jelly for an etch and wiped with lacquer thinner and primed with Krylon. There happened to be a sale on semi-flat Krylon in a standard color I liked so I used that. A standard color so I could always do touch-ups.

Won't win any prizes but has looked respectable for roughly 15 years. Paint has chalked up and needs to be redone, but the paint isn't lifting so it's an easy project. What makes a big difference is that I panted the numbers on in neat block letters (the state requires block). Really looks better than the usual stick-ons.

Again, the project was to go cheap and look good, not super good.

Where I did go wrong was in painting the trailer. I used a better epoxy for that and something didn't go quite right. Stood up poorly to rocks on gravel roads. But then the factory paint didn't do so well either or I wouldn't have bothered. LED lights of course, lights routinely get dunked here.

It's been fun adding gadgets, like permanent lighting, bilge pump, baitwell etc. Much more and it might not float.

Oh, new bass boat seats when on sale with arm rests front and back bench. Added a 7 inch riser on the front seat for Dad. Nice, but then I pick nice days to fish.

Thinking of a layout like this

One other thing. For painting, go to an auto paint shop and get an aluminum self etching primer. Way better than the boat paint sold at most box stores. I found a 2 part epoxy primer that was grass colored and stuck to my boat like nothing else, much better than duck boat paint. It is still there. It has worn off the canoe, but never flaked. That stuff went off the market because it was "hazardous", but it worked. The replacement stuff was ok (painted another boat), but not as tenacious as the original stuff.

I have done quite a bit of work on those old aluminum boats. I have replaced flooring and the transom in several boats as well as stripped the old paint and repainted.

The biggest thing is if you have leaky rivets is to replace those with a little waterproof caulk and getting help to brad them. You need two people, one to hammer and one to hold something heavy against the other end of the rivet.

I like your purposed layout. That is probably more ambitious than a transom replacement! With a vee bottom there will be a lot of scribing and hand fitting.

Those old OMC outboards are bullet proof. I have a 1975 15hp evinrude that runs like its new. Service that little tiller and it will run a long time. Its gonna be a nice little rig. Good luck.

O yeah, the center bench seat is nothing but a hindrance, your better off without it. I too have taken them out. It beats the heck out of stepping over it every time you need to go back and forth. Plus it gives you so much more floor space.

You're more ambitious than I am. For instance the baitwell is a five gallon pail set in the wood deck. Standard bait bucket liner fits well inside and a microcontroller periodically drains and fills the bucket from the lake.

Don't forget wiring up front. I've got trolling motor, running lights, baitwell, aireator, interior lights, depth finder, bilge pump, anchor winch, a landing light up front, GPS and some spare lighter sockets. Believe me, it's easier to place the wiring before you build something on top of it. I built a little console on the right side of the back bench for switches, fuses, the spare lighter sockets, and terminal blocks. Terminal blocks make it easy to add/change and are neater than splicing.

Google Smokercraft Lodge series boats and you will see basically the same design that you have drawn up. That design makes for a very roomy comfortable fishing boat. We have a lot of those that are being used up here on the Olympic Peninsula for salmon fishing. It's nice having the flat floorboards and lots of storage.

tin boats.net that is what you want .

well I got the paint almost done, I went with implement paint, Massey ferguson Grey kids want to call it the "grey goose".
time to flip it and put in the platform/seats.

I looked up the sites suggested and saw lots of guys recommend the etching primer, so I went with that first. seems to have taken really well. gonna throw on a last coat today and we should be good to go.

Cool project. Just keep in mind that as said without the middle seat you've lost a key part of the framework and strength and also a lot of floatation. With your drawing there, you can gain back the strength if you can attach your side benches to the boat's sides and you can gain back some floatation under these benches as well. Coast Guard regs call for level floatation when the boat is swamped that's how you can check if you want to. Obviously if its just a boat for mucking around in small water none of this matters much. Have fun with it

Good to know! thank you!

I always wanted to bring back an old Chris Craft

been looking on the tinboats forum on the internet, lots of good tips.

here she is as we were stripping her down.


Primered


Painted, with my helper in the background


did another coat today after work, going to polish the side rails and flip her and put her under the carport for the floor and seats hopefully this weekend. (fingers crossed we don't get a foot of snow)