1960-62 Texas Maid 1232 Jon Boat

[Shesabugger]

Hello everyone!

Iam a avid fly fisher and recently was given a 1232 Texas Maid Jon boat.

I plan on doing the basic restoration tasks. Strip sand seal and paint.

After which I will build a storage/ casting deck between the middle seat and the bow.

The storage compartment will house the battery, anchor/rope and life jackets.

In the stern ? ( I don't know boat lingo ) I will install a seat and another smaller storage cubby for a second anchor/rope and the depth finder.

Remaining areas of the boat floor will be covered with a floor board.

The purpose of the is boat is to allow me to safely fish from it on small to medium sized lakes. The lakes are very calm ( no gas engines allowed ). Only 1 person will be in the boat at any given time so I believe the 1232 size with 15" of free board will be adequate.

The boat is rated at 5hp and for 3 people.

I will be running a Minn Kota electric trolling motor. No outboard.

Now for some details....

There are dents, lots of them.
There is a patch on the side about 15"x8". Looks to be well done.
There is some sort of spay sealant applied. ( that's is the black stuff )
There is some sort of epoxy or caulk sealant in various areas and rivets.

How should I deal with the unknown sealants and spays ??

Should I just leave the old stuff on there and then apply gluvit then paint it ?

Or should I scrape and pick all of the old sealants off first before I apply the gluvit ??

I have not done a water test to see how many leaks the boat has currently- I was told it was a very slow seeper. Leaking only about 1 cup of water over a 12 hour day on the water.

I will be checking for leaks later this week.


One more thing...

When I unloaded the boat from the back of my truck I noticed that the boat was fairly flexible. I gather that this can be attributed to the age and era the boat was made in. Is this normal for a old aluminum boat ?

Is there a way I can brace the boat ? Will installing the bow deck and floor help make it more ridged ?

Thank you for advice and I look forward to this build with the forum.

A few from when I brought it home.

 

[64osby]

Welcome to iboats.

Looks like a good project for calm water fishing.

I would do 2 things before tearing into it.

- water test the boat to confirm leaks if any. Then determine a plan to fix it.

- Take a couple 1x4's and some ply and do a mock up of the front platform. Take it to water and see how it feels and acts.

Never have had a flat bottom boat, but I have had modified V's that were narrow and very tipsy.

Being this is a 36 wide you may find it to be less stable then what you want. Doing a test should let you know what the final result should act like before you do the work. If it doesn't feel stable enough you might look for a 48" wide hull, which would be much more stable IMO.

 

[Shesabugger]

Good thinking.

I have fished from other 1232 Jon boats before and they are stable for me. However that may change if I add more weight by installing a casting deck.

The casting deck would be around 69"long and 41" wide , mounted 10" above the boat floor. If that is too much I will downsize it to just a storage compartment at the bow and forget about the casting deck idea.

Keeping the center of gravity low is probably in my best interest regarding stability.

 

[Shesabugger]

Sanding sanding sanding ....

Iam going to JB Weld all the rivets on the bottom. A few of them leak

Sanding as much of this old unknown goop off the rivets first.

Then sand entire outer hull with 150-180 grit.

Then primer and paint.

What do you think ? Is that the correct course of action?

Transom and oar mounts are gone and being replaced

 

[Shesabugger]

Get those rivets clean !

More sanding tomorrow and then I will be ready to start with JB Marine weld on all the rivets.

 

[TruckDrivingFool]

Good job cleaning up the outside of the rivets but I think this

- water test the boat to confirm leaks if any. Then determine a plan to fix it.

is the best course of action before you go through the trouble of the JB weld.

If there are a few leaking rivets it's much easier to just replace those then to possibly cause yourself more headaches if something goes wrong with a rivet down the road.

 

[Shesabugger]

I have done the water test and found about 20 slow slow weeping rivets. There are a total of 80 rivets on the bottom of the boat.

I think I am going to put some 3m 5200 on the leaky rivets and see how it goes. A temporary fix is ok with me, I only intend to keep the boat for a year or two.

I also picked up some sikaflex 291 to mount Scotty holders and the transom bolts.

 

[64osby]

Re bucking the rivets may be a better solution then an exterior adhesive or glue.

Gluvit or Coat it on the interior also does a fantastic job sealing seams and rivets.

 

[jbcurt00]

Yep and having 20 leakers after the previous owner did you a huge disservice spraying that black carp on the interior, it still leaks.

Screendoor in a boat spray can of carp......

pffft, not on any of my boats. I'd rather let the leaking rivets leak after removing spray in bedliner from an aluminum boat hull.

 

[fhhuber]

Depends how bad they leak..

My old aluminum hull leaked less than 1 cup in 4 hours. I got more over the transom from slowing down too quickly one time, so I figured the rivets didn't really matter.

 

[jbcurt00]

Nope, I'll take leakers all day before I'd ever consider spraying that can'd carp or bedliner on an aluminum hull.

 

[pckeen]

Either half fill it with water, if you can get underneath to track the leaks, or do what I did - drop it in a lake, with a wax pencil in hand, and circle every rivet that is leaking. It looks like some of the rivets may lack a good foundation of metal - in which case, Gluvit on the inside is your best option. Drill out and replace, or rebuck the leaking rivets, then coat every rivet on the inside with Gluvit. Get the 8lb kit. If the rivet and foundation is bad, use JB weld on the outside. Gluvit will break down in sunlight, so you'll need to paint over the top of it.

Oh yes - great work on the stripping....