boats on a budget

[tashasdaddy]

Re: boats on a budget

i had one with just a piece of garden hose , it was tie wired to the transom mount of the motor. red neck but kept the deck dry.

 

[Ezrider_92356]

Re: boats on a budget

i would just set up a hose over the transom and make a nice clamp to sucure it. your want a bildge pump if you ever take any watter over the bow or the transom your want to have some way to get it back out

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

I'll go with the bilge, there's plenty of aluminum around here, so I'll be able to come up with some sort of bracket, I'm going to finish fitting the boat to the trailer today, I keep putting off making the bunks, and now, that's all I have left to do, so I'll work on that.

I think I'm getting close to stripping the inside of the boat, there's not much paint left in there but I need to get it stripped so I can repaint it, so, what am I going to want to use to strip it? I read somewhere that I could use oven cleaner, what do you people use?

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: boats on a budget

Looks like a neat project you have going on. What are you up to in cost with
all what you have done.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

lets see, cost so far? I have to think about that one,

the trailer was $50, then I spent about $100 fixing it up, the boat was $125, I can't really put a price on the outboard, it came with the other boat. at first the guy wanted 700 for the motor, then after some wheeling and dealing, he ended up throwing it in the deal for nothing. so I decided to use it for this little boat project, I found an old cruise-a-day fuel tank at a garage sale for $10, the oars were a 5 or 10 dollars find at a garage sale a number of years ago, I have a 42 lb thrust Minn Kota electric motor I'm going to use on the boat for a troller, that's a raft motor I've had for about 10 years. all the wood, aluminum, and supplies so far is stuff my brother has had over at his house, and I didn't pay anything for any of that, there's enough aluminum over there to do just about anything I want to the boat, I have access to a metal bender, so I can fabricate some parts if needed, I had even thought of putting a covered bow on it, but don't know if I want to go to the trouble or not, I got a new deep cycle battery for the 10 horse outboard, I traded some ham radio stuff for that, a lot of what I'm doing to the boat is through trading, there is paint over at my brothers I can use on the interior, not sure what color it is though, I did find some Mahogany but not sure if it's enough to do the benches or not, I may have to brake down and go to the lumber yard and buy the wood work for the interior, I've been trying to avoid it for the simple reason that it's a "boat on a budget" and kind of defeats the purpose of this thread of I go out and start spending money on it.

my goal has been to do as much as possible with as much free or recycled stuff as I can, I like the old seats I've seen pictures of in TD's boat, if he could post a picture of those seats here, that would be cool, I had thought about doing some sort of fold up bench seat, but haven't gotten that far yet, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself.

I'm reading and listening to every idea you people post here, the outcome I want is a boat done as cheap as possible, yet one that looks good, and not like so much of a back yard job.

they say the word "boat" stands for "break out another thousand" and as with any hobby or sport, I don't see boating as anything different, it all costs something, but I don't see boating as being anymore expensive then any of the other sports or hobbies I have, I'm a year round camper, I have a travel trailer, plus lots of tenting gear, and I'm not in that stuff a fortune, and neither am I in this boating adventure a fortune, I also fly radio controlled model airplanes, and I've done that pretty much my entire life, and really don't have a fortune wrapped up in that either, I learned a long time ago, Improvise where you can, that's why I love flea markets and garage sales. I find all sorts of neat stuff at them

overall, cash out of pocket, in recent months has been around maybe $300 that I've put in this boat, and I'm sure if I were to sell it, I'd be able to get my money back out of it.

sorry for such a long post, just thought I'd take a moment to explain myself.

Stuart

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

I've also got a color depth finder for the boat, it's along story how I ended up with it, but it was originally for my very first boat. a boat that I never did use and only had it about a week.

my idea with the interior so far if to paint it white, and put in a slat floor, I'm pretty determined to go with the slat floor, but not completely settled on the white interior yet.

I'm still looking for suggestions on the best way to strip and prep the interior for paint, the paint job is going to be coming up fairly soon, I'm just fishing for ideas right now on the best way to strip the interior, so if anyone wants to put in their 2 cents worth on that subject, I'm all ears, or in this case, all eyes. I had read somewhere that I could strip it with oven cleaner, anyone want to throw in their ideas on this?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: boats on a budget

pressure was and go from there. don't go white it will blind you, light gray works very well, almost a dull aluminum color.

the front are old bar stools, both off ebay. the back is a porch swing, i bought on a trip to deliver a boat to north carolina. had to modify the back to fit.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

OK, I'll start by pressure washing it, I'll stay away from white, and I want to figure something out for some seats like TD has, I'd like to have mine fold flat when not in use, I can probably build something.

I've been thinking of how I want the interior, I want to put the battery under the front seat, have the center seat be a cooler for keeping the camping food cold, with a lift up lid, and the rear seat I'd like it to lift up for storage, that's kind of my thoughts at this point, it has floatation under the seats now, but maybe I can work something out with it where I can still have floatation, I think if I line the cooler with foam, have the lid seal when the bench seat is down, that might take care of floatation under one seat, and if I turn the rear seat into storage and keep the life jackets in there, maybe that will work for floatation under that seat? Just some thoughts I'm tossing around in my head, my next move is to get the interior painted so I can start working on the woodwork.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

do those do-it-yourself car washes put out enough pressure to really clean the inside of that boat? if not, I may have to rent one or something.

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: boats on a budget

That's kinda cool how your going about building it. You sounds like you are having lots of fun building it as you will using it. Plus you are keeping costs down. We are all keeping tabs on your project.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

Hopefully in the next week or so, I can start painting, that's pretty much going to be my only hold up at this point, once I get the inside painted, I can start to work on the woodwork, I might have someone weld up an aluminum box for the cooler under the seat, I can line the outside of the box with wall insulation foam board, then cover that with wood, and have the seat top double as the lid for the cooler

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: boats on a budget

got an old igloo around, separate it. drop it into the hole.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

got an old igloo around, separate it. drop it into the hole.

I was thinking about that, there's a GoodWill just up the road that has some cheap stuff, if I can find a cooler that fits, the middle seat is long and narrow, and I want to be able to use as much area under the seat as I can.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

what do you guys think about this idea?

I found a sheet of ABS, it's 3/8th of an inch thick, if I laminate it I can have a motor mount that's 3/4 of an inch thick, which is what I need, do you think the ABS would hold up? it looks pretty stout to me, and I'd never have to worry about it rotting out. attached is a picture of the ABS, and the back of the boat where it needs to go, I also have some aluminum plate I could put over the top of it, seems to me that I could make it pretty rigid

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

I've had a slight change in plans, I talked with my two teenage boys today, they agreed to go out with me on the boat, I figured, if the outboard quits, or don't run, they can man the oars, am I lazy or what? Actually, I think it's a grand idea, them guys can paddle us back to the dock if the outboard decides it don't want to run, we'll do the fishing/picnic thing, and see how it does, and I'll bring back pictures to post. So I need to get cranking on the boat, get the motor pad back on it, and do something for a temporary floor.

I think taking the boat out and running it a little bit will give me a better idea of what I want to do with it, I'm not completely satisfied with it at this point because of the lack of a bow eye, it may not seem like a big deal, but if the front of that boat is as thin as it is with it having a 3/8th inch cap, there's no way I'm going to be able to put a bow eye on it, it’s one of my pet peeves.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: boats on a budget

as i said run an eyebolt thru the hole. remember it's a fishing boat, worm goo, fish blood. it's old and is not going to be perfect. buy you are doing a good job. actually there is no 'perfect' boat. on every one there is something the individual wants to change.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

as i said run an eyebolt thru the hole. remember it's a fishing boat, worm goo, fish blood. it's old and is not going to be perfect. buy you are doing a good job. actually there is no 'perfect' boat. on every one there is something the individual wants to change.

that's what I need to get used to, it's just an old boat, it won't be perfect, but it can look a lot better then it does now

I took the next couple of days off work so I can work on the boat, Saturday, the kids and I will go out in it, and Sunday, another friend of mine wants a little river adventure, so it's going to get a good work out this weekend, that will give me an idea how I want to finish it up.

I'll get some sort of eye in that hole in the bow, not sure how I'm going to do it yet, but I'll come up with something that looks ok.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: boats on a budget

for now, just run a rope thru the hole, and tie it off to the handle. see picture page 2.

 

[Mr.Stuart]

Re: boats on a budget

I took the boat to the car wash today, and presure washed it, they has some sort of engine degreaser presure wasing combo, total cost $4.00, it doesn't even look like the same boat, all the grit/moss/oil/gunk and junk came right off, I was surprised at how nice it looks now, I'll get some pictures of it when it's daylight, it should be river ready tomorrow.

Stuart

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: boats on a budget

that was $4.00 well spent.