The whole shebang. 16' aluminum shell to fishing machine.

[dysco]

I'll be installing the seat braces tomorrow. I dropped off the old ones at the local sheet metal/HVAC shop expecting to get flat stock bent twice and instead I got near-copies of the originals. $114 was really not enough... so I kicked him some more work.

 

[dysco]

Another local craftsman helped me with my bow eye backing block. Some squinting, a trip to the scrap pile, and 4 machines got me this nice piece of white oak.

​Starboard spacer, and a nice finish on a piece I'll never look at... but it'll last forever.

 

[dysco]

I've been having serious heartburn about flanging in a drain tube. For years. But I got it finished tonight and I'm certain it's great. Since you can never see enough pictures and tutorials, here's another one.

I started with a set of brackets milled custom to 1.040" just to fit a 1" aluminum drain pipe with O-rings. It actually wasn't expensive (at $50) and it gives me peace of mind about my old aluminum wearing out around the drain hole. Plus, I added a second hole just for a live well intake. I had them chamfer on both sides for an O-ring to match the Moeller kit. The O-ring popped right out on the straight side and I didn't have enough space after I cut to length on the existing flange side... but I had a great pocket for sealant on either side so I don't regret it.

Cut gently to 1/8-3/6" longer than the hole.


You can see the chamfer here with just a hair over 1/8" of tube past the flat portion of the bracket.

With the tool this way, I'll never flange my short tube.

This is how I solved that. Flat side to existing flange.

I didn't take any pictures of my deep well socket on the wrong side of the tool since the deep well wasn't deep enough. Turning the wrench while correcting with the socket seemed to work but I found that constant pressure on the flanged side really helped when putting it all together. I removed it when there was still a little movement in the tube, reassembled, and gave it about a half of a turn until there was no more movement in the tube.

On the inside you can see the flange follows the chamfered edge on the left hole. The O-ring popped right off onto the tool. As I used lots of 3M 4200 and the seal is tight without being cracked, I'll be shocked if it leaks around the tube.


View from the outside. 5/8" long ought to be enough to seal with a good drain plug. No extension gives me a stronger seal in my mind, so I'm going for it. As insurance I haven't knocked out the other hole which I will extend if the first one leaks and I'll put a fitting through the first hole.

 

[ezmobee]

Very nice work.

 

[Watermann]

Hey that's well done, I don't think you'll gave any issues with the drain tubes.

 

[dysco]

Mocking up the benches and braces. If you zoom into the pic you can see all of the angles for the braces are 45 degrees... and totally wrong. I knew this was going to have to be custom going in.


I made a metal brake out of two pieces of steel stock but ended up just using the angle iron. With tight screws it was fairly easy to bend and twist without deforming the rest of the brace.


6 took me about 2 hours. I lost one of my big washers right off and I failed to get smaller diameter screws and had to use the nylock nuts I bought to fasten the hull side. Those things cost me a lot of time but I couldn't fix my problem as the stores were closed when I got to it. I also should have done this before I painted them but I had been working on finishing the benches and didn't have a suitable bench-sized analog. Oh well, it's done, and the paint isn't too messed up.

 

[dysco]

I'm hoping to mount my benches tomorrow, fix the braces to the hull, and then wood-screw the braces into the benches. Unfortunately I also want to put on my seat in the rear bench. I need to swivel to till, and I have seats. I also have a variety of fixed pedestals, clamping seat mounts, and simple swivels. I know I'm going to need some sort of height increase to make it comfortable with a drop-in floor, like 4-6". I guess I'll mount it all up and take it out, then take apart the rear bench again to mount some kind of pedestal base.

iboats lists the 6" Fixed Pedestal with Seat Mount Spider - Wise Boat Seats, which looks nice, but I might have to use a backer on my 1/2" baltic birch bench so it doesn't destroy it. The weight might torque the aluminum bench walls, too at 6 inches.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Watermann]

Well the spiders and clamps are for people who don't have access or the ability to remove the wooden seat plank. I would add an underside backer piece to add some thickness in the area of the seat pedestal, drill the holes for the seat mount and glue in T nuts on the underside. Then all you have to do is install the seat planks and screw down your seat pedestal.

 

[dysco]

Well the spiders and clamps are for people who don't have access or the ability to remove the wooden seat plank. I would add an underside backer piece to add some thickness in the area of the seat pedestal, drill the holes for the seat mount and glue in T nuts on the underside. Then all you have to do is install the seat planks and screw down your seat pedestal.

Is there a particular pedestal that allows me to cut down the post to fit?

 

[gm280]

I have to say your work looks really nice. You seem to be good at this. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[dysco]

I have to say your work looks really nice. You seem to be good at this. :thumb: :thumb:

Thanks! It's not as perfect as I want it after planning this resto for so long but it'll work great. I'm​ building a house right now with a nice garage/workshop. After painting this much I'm putting in an exhaust fan so I don't have to deal with the wind blowing dust in through cracked windows.

I could see doing another boat next year between duck season and fishing season, but there are so few lakes around here. I'm going to drive 75 miles to splash this thing if I ever get it done. The nearest non-river boat launch is about a 45 minute drive but it's iced up still. Still, a "beater" fishing boat I don't mind beaching on rocky shores would be sweet.

 

[dysco]

Watermann, a backer on the bench is a great idea. I'll have to cut my bench foam a bit, but it'll come out right. I'm posting this sitting on a chair on my back bench with my feet on bits of insulation to simulate floor. My legs are bent a little past 90 degrees, but I bet I can add a spacer to get me up a little more. I happened to have some proper plywood lying around I'll cut to 10"x10" and try it out on the back bench.

 

[Watermann]

Is there a particular pedestal that allows me to cut down the post to fit?

Oh man I would never take over someone else's fun of boat parts shopping. :lol:

Watermann, a backer on the bench is a great idea. I'll have to cut my bench foam a bit, but it'll come out right. I'm posting this sitting on a chair on my back bench with my feet on bits of insulation to simulate floor. My legs are bent a little past 90 degrees, but I bet I can add a spacer to get me up a little more. I happened to have some proper plywood lying around I'll cut to 10"x10" and try it out on the back bench.

Backers under the deck for pedestals is a technique we use on our Starcraft rebuilds. The hammering in of glued T nuts on the underside makes it easy to later drive machine screws down through your pedestals and decking making them super secure. It's a balancing act for a small tinny to get it right so you're not too high yet still comfortable.

 

[dysco]

I'll take any help I can get. Here, Finn is helping me measure for flooring.
Using an old cast off pontoon seat to test for seat placement. I'm just going to use a basic swivel base with a 3/4" piece of ply under the bracket and seat side for every bench, even though I'm only mounting two seats. This will let me pull up the bench and throw the seat on in one swoop if I want to add one, and it'll give me more solid bracket mounts while maintaining my slick 1/2 bench look. In both pics you can see my sweet stainless transom guard mounted up. The rear end is on and solid! I'm hoping to get the benches drilled and mounted tomorrow with the brackets so we can float it on Saturday, then take it back apart for floor, seats, and electrical fun.

 

[dysco]

I'm looking for a little advice on what to paint my floor with. I have the enamel deck paint from my transom, spar varnish, and some two part epoxy with a yard or two of fiberglass weave. If I'm going to glue carpet on everything, does it matter what coating I put on the wood?

 

[pckeen]

Original boat manufacturers didn't put anything on the plywood. They just leave it open to the elements, so anything you do will be an improvement. If you are going to put carpet down, then use the epoxy or spar varnish to seal the wood on all sides.

 

[dysco]

Instead of cutting backers to fit the entire bench, I went with 20" sections. I was trying to save wood but I ended up with some headache. If I had it all to do over again, I would have cut the seat foam shorter and run a single backer from end to end. But I didn't. Cutting the foam went fairly quickly, and despite having so many variables with the smaller pieces, only 1/6 was fiddly to mount. I was able to use T-nuts for the braces and seats. I think it looks pretty good.




Side note: if you're going to use a swivel to mount seats directly to a bench, add a spacer. I balked on the spacer and went with nothing to try. A combination of the very low clearance and the inability of my spine to flex at all made it a 30 minute job. I'm going to have to remove that seat to add vinyl to that seat. A ratcheting wrench set is on the way to my house....


All I have left to do is run some U-bolts through the transom for tie-downs. I'm not looking forward to that part. I'm going to try to get a posse together to get it on the trailer this week. I feel like I can drill straighter if it's higher up. The floor is all cut and now I just need to fill it with water or drive to the nearest open lake to check for leaks.... and test the motors, and mount the battery...

 

[dysco]

I ended up with a "free" brand-new group 27 battery I'm going to use on my boat. Is there any reason I shouldn't mount it under my bow cubby? The big downsides I see are having to run some big wire in conduit back for the trolling motor and having the extra weight of the battery where the trailer wasn't build to support it. The wire doesn't bother me, but I'm concerned that the rollers have deformed the keel in the past and may again, especially with more weight in the front.

 

[Watermann]

Looks great, nice and solid seat mounts. The weight of a gp27 isn't that big of an issue. Most of the hull damage is done with guys using ratchet straps up and over the boat and cranking them down. You'll need 8 ga wire for the run back to the TM.

 

[dysco]

I really need to measure well for the battery thing. It'll be tight, but it's a good place to put it.



Here's what I did today besides sit on the floor and squint at the back of the boat.


I have some 316 stainless 1/2" (BIG) bow eyes that I want to use on the stern as tie-down points, engine tie down points, and/or an anchor mount for my upwind anchor. Here's where I'm planning to mount them. My boat extends past the trailer so putting them on the outside isn't necessary as I'll be running the tiedowns from the bottom. I also want to reach them easily from inside the boat, so near the cutout is better. I'm not keen to put big holes in the transom so I'll keep the tape there for a day or two.

Also, you can see my stainless transom guard. Here it is next to the original hammered aluminum piece.