"The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

I bought two 14ft Jon Boats yesterday, one was ready to go fishing and this one...not so much. BUT I love this boat because A) it was $50 for boat and trailer (father passed, they wanted it gone) and B) It has an open floor plan, casting deck, and a front plate for the trolling motor and those are the three things i was hunting for. So I'm stoked.

The boat is a 1977 but the title has no indication of who makes it. Have not had time to look for any type of plate or markings yet. I named it The Hulk because it's green and because the home made trailer it's on is heaaavvy. My god is it heavy.

Issue #1: The wooden transom is gone. Well almost some of it hasn't rotted off yet. I have some thick non-treated plywood around here I am planning to water seal and use, but I am unsure what thickness is proper to use on the boat. I can't really measure the old stuff it's all rotten and swelled. The outboard I am using is a 57 Johnson CD-15 5.5 HP if that matters one bit.

Issue #2: If you look at the two pictures of the drain plug you will see that it is out of shape and has caulk all around it. Now I put in one of the five or so different plugs that were mixed in with the rotten wood remains and filled the boat with water. It did not leak. However being the paranoid person that I am my thoughts have me wanting to just permanently seal off the drain hole. My boat is stored covered under a car port and I plan to put an electric bilge pump in so I'm not really worried about being able to pop the plug. What I'm worried about is sinking. I'm thinking the caulk is there because the drain is misshapen and likely wasn't sealing right, but I plan to remove the stuff and see exactly why it's there for myself.

#3 is more of a question then an issue. The casting deck has a circular opening in the center of it, I'm guessing where a pole used to go for a seat. I can look inside and the foam all looks fine BUT the boat has been outside uncovered for god knows how long. Do I have to take the deck off and replace the foam, and if so how does that metal deck come off, or can I just cover the hole and go on with life?

Question #4: It already has a transponder for a fish finder along with the wiring. The mount says "Hummingbird". Anyone have any guess as to what Hummingbird units will work with this plug and transponder? If I can just grab a unit on here or ebay that would be great.

All in all a great boat. I don't see any major dings, the bench seat is actually solid it just has a crap wooden top on it thats coming off. I'm going to just remove that board and ugly carpet all together. No plans to re carpet any of it. The boat and outboard are getting a backyard camo paint job in preparation for some duck hunting. It's already setup for lights but all of that will come off and new stuff will be put on. I don't like using other peoples messy half assed wiring.

Thanks guys!


Edited to add a question:

My Minn Kota is the typical off the shelf one that screws onto a transom by pinching the transom between a plate and its two hand operated bolts. How can I mount this motor to the existing plate on the bow of the boat? I don't feel like buying anything I can just build what I need. Google searches are only showing me what to do if the boat has no mount plate already.

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

More pictures of the boat

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

and the last of them

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

Your transom thickness is going to be the inside dimension of the transom cap that currently sits on top, and/or the distance between the knee braces at the bottom. Hard to tell from the pictures.

Regarding the troller, not sure that little tin contraption in the front buys you anything. With a squared bow like you have, you may be just able to use your existing clamps over the bow, with a small piece of 2x4 or similar on the inside for stiffness and thickness.

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

GWPSR said:

Your transom thickness is going to be the inside dimension of the transom cap that currently sits on top, and/or the distance between the knee braces at the bottom. Hard to tell from the pictures.

Regarding the troller, not sure that little tin contraption in the front buys you anything. With a squared bow like you have, you may be just able to use your existing clamps over the bow, with a small piece of 2x4 or similar on the inside for stiffness and thickness.

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Thanks for the reply. With the transom my thought was the sheet (or two) probably needs to fill the gap between those braces most importantly. The thickness at the top doesn't matter to me too much if it's thicker then need be because my outboard has a lot of wiggle room on the clamps.

With the trolling motor I'm only using a 30# and the plating is pretty dang thick. If I don;t use it no biggie, but I would like too. I will walk out there and see about how it would work out clamped to the front.

Thanks again

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

ThrottleBack said:

Issue #2: What I'm worried about is sinking.

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This is a valid concern with that boat, especially if you're duck hunting in cold weather over cold water.

... and is the reason you should replace the floatation fom under the bow deck and in the rear bench seat (yeah, there's foam there too).

You can access the foam in those to areas by grinding the heads off of the rivets that hold them to the boat and remove them, the rivet back into place when done... or you can cut access holes in the top of them and dig out and replace the foam and then cover the whole deck and bench a piece of plywood cut to fit each one. The latter of the 2 suggestions would probably the quickest and easiest.

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

Didn't get to the troller yet, but i did get 99% of the old transom removed. I attached a few pictures, am I correct that these studs are actual some kind of rivet? I'm assuming that I will be cutting these, removing them, and replacing them all with stainless bolts, nuts, washers, and 3m sealant. They also ran screws through for things like the transponder and it looks like they never sealed them. My guess is that contributed heavily to the rot and I will be making sure this is done right.

The plywood i have is pretty thick and is a perfect fit as a single sheet under the lip at the top but has a slight gap at the feet. I'm thinking of one sheet that goes under the lip, then a second sheet on top that comes flush with the top of the lip. Will this work ok?

jigngrub said:

This is a valid concern with that boat, especially if you're duck hunting in cold weather over cold water.

... and is the reason you should replace the floatation fom under the bow deck and in the rear bench seat (yeah, there's foam there too).

You can access the foam in those to areas by grinding the heads off of the rivets that hold them to the boat and remove them, the rivet back into place when done... or you can cut access holes in the top of them and dig out and replace the foam and then cover the whole deck and bench a piece of plywood cut to fit each one. The latter of the 2 suggestions would probably the quickest and easiest.

Click to expand...

I'll keep this in mine, thank you. I would likely go with option two since I have never done riveting. As for the rear bench i put my camera under there and took some pics, theres no foam under there. No real shock my old boat and my other jon have no foam under benches either. I read on here many of the older boats didn't have it.

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

Yes, all of those rivets that pierced the transom need to be cut and removed. Some would say to replace rivets with rivets, but for this purpose and for that boat, I'd say non-brass, non-carbon-steel machine screws, washers and nuts would work fine. If you're able to mark and drill the new transom wood for those fasteners before sealing it, you can improve your odds by making sure whatever you use to seal the wood with (epoxy resin, spar varnish, etc) gets inside those holes and gets absorbed as mush as possible. Yes, use sealant on all penetrations in the transom, especially those below the waterline.

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

I would put the new transom wood in place then drill through the existing holes from the outside into the wood so all the holes were marked and use bolts that fit in the existing hole and washers that give a nice bite surface on both ends. Glad I'm on the right track

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

At the top of the stern where the transom was there is some rust on the metal. I'm pretty sure with a wire brush i can get it all off and it doesn't go through the metal or have any holes. Should I do anything here besides cleaning it off? Perhaps some kind of spray on rust prevention before the transom goes in?

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

Remove the rust and use the zinc chromate self etching aluminum primer.

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

Perfect thank you

Re: "The Hulk" - New to me, needs TLC and looking for knowledge

The foam under the cating deck turned out to be perfect. Added foam under the bench and the new transom should be done and in today.