Newbie here, my first boat is a project.

[trucker677]

Hi guys, I am a first time boat owner, I never even drove a boat before but I decided to take the plunge and do this, I got tired of the car scene after 25 years of it, I found a boat by fluke, it is a thundercraft 16ft, 90 hp vro v4 evinrude outboard. it sat outside for a couple of years, I got the motor and trailer and boat for 500. I figured if the boat is junk I can still get my money back for the motor and trailer. I decided today to dig into the boat today and noticed that the floor was fiberglassed over the old floor, the more closer I looked into it parts of the floor was replaced as well, I decided that I want to tear the whole floor out and build a new floor so I will have a fresh start, (I bought this as a winter project so I am in no rush anyway) I looked at the foam and a lot of was black and rotted and still wet so I will be replacing the foam as well.
I am just wondering if anyone has tips or advice they can share with me. I am new to this but excited to try this.

 

[gm280]

Well :welcome: aboard trucker677. Nice to have you join us...

If it is any consolation, most boat projects on here are the same way. That being the floor is rotted, the transom is rotted and the stringers are rotted. But you couldn't have found a better place to refurbish your boat then here on iboats. There are some very good folks on here to help you out with anything you could possibly want to know about your boat. The very first thing you have to do now is take tons of pictures from every angle and position before doing anything. And also take measurements and write them down to use later on in the rebuild. You will be using those pictures and measurements for certain... And the second thing you need to do is start posting pictures of your boat here for us to see what you are seeing and dealing with. That way we can offer suggestions and help to get you going and keep you on track. And we love pictures. So post some and let's get started... :thumb:

 

[pckeen]

Great advice. While you are at it, spend a little while reading through some of the fiberglass restoration threads, to see what is involved, and what can be accomplished.

 

[studioq]

Pictures! Pictures! We all thrive on pictures... It's a sickness.. Set up a photobucket account and post some pics here..

 

[trucker677]

I will set up the photobucket today and upload what I have done so far.

 

[Kruegs35]

Welcome trucker667. I joined just a few days ahead of you and I'm in the same situation. Bought cheap first boat, needs transom and deck. Should be fun!

 

[trucker677]

Apparently I have to post three times before I can upload photos, I am hoping after this one I will be able to post pics, last night was pretty productive though, I got a lot of the floor taken out, A lot of it was soaked and just ripped apart, I know some parts of the floor were redone and the whole deck was fiberglassed over with wide sheets, I think tonight I am going to rip out the foam and stuff and tie up the loose wires, Would that boat have a wooden back on it and fiberglassed over or would it have a one piece shell, the reason I am asking is because it looks like the bottom of the back of the boat is seperating, If I have to replace the transom I am going to scrap it at that point, way too much for me for my first boat build. lol. I wont know for sure until I get the back of the bottom taken out.

 

[Woodonglass]

Uhmmm, I'm betting you'll need to replace the transom. Based on your previous statements it's almost certain that will be the case. It's the case in most of the restoration projects we see here on the forum. The good news is that 99% of all the projects here are done by people just like you with 0% experience and the members here can and will help guide you with All aspects of the restoration. It's NOT as difficult as you might think. If you have worked on car projects and have the stick-to-it-tiveness that it takes to see a project through...So do we!!!! If you have $2,000 bucks, don't mind Dirty, Itchy, yucky work knowing that you'll have a better than Factory new boat when you're finished then, I say...Let's "GIT ER DUN!!!!"

 

[studioq]

Apparently I have to post three times before I can upload photos.

With Photobucket all you have to do is copy and paste the "URL" styled links.. Last option on the list of available embed options..

 

[gm280]

Apparently I have to post three times before I can upload photos, I am hoping after this one I will be able to post pics, last night was pretty productive though, I got a lot of the floor taken out, A lot of it was soaked and just ripped apart, I know some parts of the floor were redone and the whole deck was fiberglassed over with wide sheets, I think tonight I am going to rip out the foam and stuff and tie up the loose wires, Would that boat have a wooden back on it and fiberglassed over or would it have a one piece shell, the reason I am asking is because it looks like the bottom of the back of the boat is seperating, If I have to replace the transom I am going to scrap it at that point, way too much for me for my first boat build. lol. I wont know for sure until I get the back of the bottom taken out.

tucker677, NO you don't have to post three post to be able to upload pictures. You can either do what a lot of folks do with the PhotoBucket account, OR you can use any type digital camera and resize them to be loaded on these forums. I do that myself because if you open a Photobucket account, you can't move any of the posted pictures on here around in your PhotoBucket account later on, or you will loose them on your project thread on here. But that is up to you, lots of folk use such accounts on these forums. As far as the transom goes, actually that is really one of the easier rebuilds on these projects. Don't throw the boat away for a rotted transom. It is not that hard to replace. I mean if I can do it, anybody can. And we will certainly guide you through the entire process with lots of help and suggestions as well. So let's get going with the pictures... :thumb:

 

[Woodonglass]

With Photobucket all you have to do is copy and paste the "URL" styled links.. Last option on the list of available embed options..

The URL is also called the IMG Code

 

[trucker677]

Ok, I got the photos uploaded to photobucket, my username is trucker677. it is under the heading thundercraft, actually its the only album there. I know, I am lame,

 

[Woodonglass]

Ok now what you need to do is look for the IMG Code for the pic you want to load into iboats and copy and paste it into your post.

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Next to every picture in Photobucket, there are four text boxes on top of each other. The last one of them has the word IMG next to it, like this....





click inside and copy the code inside it and past it on your post. Now you posted the picture in your post. Like this...

 

[studioq]

Almost there!!!

 

[JameO]

Hey JameO here. I'm in the same boat as you. There's no better place to find help than here. A lot of these guy's Have been through this.

 

[littlerayray]

Stick it out and get the pics posted in the end you can and will be proud of the work you've done