want to cut bow out of 16 foot aluminum and put in casting deck...anyone?

Got a nice 16 ft aluminum with windshield and steering wheel however would like to convert to a fishing machine...possible???? any help would be great
thanks

Re: want to cut bow out of 16 foot aluminum and put in casting deck...anyone?

Seems a lot of work when you could probably just stand on the existing deck, but if you maintain the hull integrity, you should be able to do what you want. Considering it's aluminum, a couple of riveted cross braces and install your decking. Are you keeping the side mount steering? Going with center console? I saw a guy that took a Bass Tracker, stripped it and installed a center console steering set up. It was really nice. I am sure there are others more qualified that will chime in, but that's my 2 cents.

Re: want to cut bow out of 16 foot aluminum and put in casting deck...anyone?

Actually if you do some searching, there have a few people that have done that, that posted pictures as well as methods employed to get it done, you might try searching the forum.

Re: want to cut bow out of 16 foot aluminum and put in casting deck...anyone?

Im in the process of doing what you want to do. I bought the boat with some of the bow already cut out. I ended up just taking the remainder of the bow/gunnel off because its original design required the whole bow cap to be in place for its structural integrity. So that being said I would take the whole bow cap off and then add your own gunnel and new smaller bow cap for mounting a trolling motor. This way you can make it out of plywood rather than the thin aluminum that is already there and add proper supports to add strentgh back to the hull and the new gunnel. I tried adding my thread to this at the bottom hopefully it worked. Good luck and post some pics!!

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=459622