270Handiman's 1649 Custom Flat Project

Duck season is over, so it's time to get this project started in earnest.

I bought this boat in September of 2009. It is a 1995 Custom Flat 1649 with a beam width of 70". These boats are made by a company here in South Louisiana named Custom Boat Manufacture Inc. They are very well built and extremely durable boats. Mine is powered by a 1995 Suzuki DT40. Here are the pictures of the boat from the ad when I bought it.







I bought this boat primarily for duck hunting, but I'll also use it for going to our camp down the river and fishing for specs and redfish around Lake Pontchartrain.

I ran the boat hard this duck season to shake it down, and mechanically there are no apparent problems. A typical day hunting for me requires a roundtrip run of 10 to 15 miles, so I probably put somewhere between 200 to 300 miles on it this winter without any issues. The boat will run 33 mph with just me in it with 12 gallons of gas, 1 battery, and all my gear. Adding 1 hunting buddy and a dog, the speed drops to 31.5 mph.

This project is going to be more of a restoration job than a modification, but there will be some mods. I have already performed major surgery on the trailer, replacing both hubs and springs, and trying to salvage the axle and spindles. The brackish water in Lake Pontchartrain where the previous owner always launched just EATS metal! I always launch in a river, so regardless of where I hunt or fish, I'm flushing everything with freshwater before I head to the house.

I’ll try to list most of what I want to do to the boat in my next post. I have a ton of pictures, and I’ll post as I go along.

270

Glad to have you here!


Nice rig, very similar to what I have. I look forward to seeing your plans, as well as some more pics.

Here are some of the basic things I need to accomplish:

1. Put in an aluminum floor
2. Install new built-in (plastic) gas tank
3. Extend deck to cover new tank
4. Install new electrical system (started on this already)
5. Create battery storage for 2 batteries
6. Paint inside and out (*including motor) :wink:
7. New stainless prop for maximum speed with load (ongoing battle)
8. Fix trolling motor and create “quick detachable” mount
9. Buy some dang real seats and get rid of the mickey mouse crap that’s in it now :x
10. Remove most non-functioning brackets added by previous owner
11. Hydroturf all interior flat surfaces

Well, that should about do it. Now if I just had a bunch of extra money and time I’d be all set! [-o<

Here are some more before pics:

I can't imagine why an aluminum floor is number one on your list :lol:


I would have fallen overboard atleast 20 times with all those ribs to trip over.

dyeguy1212 said:

I can't imagine why an aluminum floor is number one on your list :lol:


I would have fallen overboard atleast 20 times with all those ribs to trip over.

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Yea, and these aren't your regular little aluminum boat ribs. These suckers are 2.5" tall and spaced every 18" O.C. :roll: The good news is that when you do trip and fall, the boat is wide enough to catch you!

270

Nice rig!!!!!!!!! That is a very tough commercial boat.

I wish these windy cold fronts would stop. I'm ready for the lake and Hopedale to crank back up!!

If you need a reasonable aluminum welder for anything, I know a good one who lives not to far from Front St. in Slidell and is a member on here.

If you need a reasonable aluminum welder for anything, I know a good one who lives not to far from Front St. in Slidell and is a member on here.

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That sounds like somebody I need to talk to. He would probably know the best place to get my aluminum also.

You can shoot me a PM if you need to.

Thanks,

That is a good looking boat and all open for mods.

I've made some progress on my boat, but nothing really to write home about. The previous owner applied cheap bedliner on most of the flat surfaces of the boat including the front deck, rear transom braces, and on top of the console. This stuff apparently was not very durable because it was coming off in some places, and it was slicker than owl poo when it got wet. Not to mention the fact that I think it just looks like crap. So, it had to come off. Pics to follow when I get home.

Deck Before:





Getting started:







Getting better:

Finished stripping:





Primed (and wet with water from another part of the project I have going):

Also did some other areas:















Finished products:

Wow looks really good! Looks like a brand new console..

Looks great! paint, a wonderfull invention, twisted your ankle yet? :wink:

Froggy said:

Looks great! paint, a wonderfull invention, twisted your ankle yet? :wink:

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Not yet, but with these 2.5" ribs it's only a matter of time! I really have to get this flooring project rolling.

I've got some new pictures I need to get posted of the paint job coming along.

I'm a month behind on my updates but I have all the pictures so I'm going to try to get everything caught up:

I had to clean and prep the exterior for paint. I had 15 years worth of oxidation and what would be the equivalent of road grime built up on the existing paint. I tried several commercial products to clean the hull, but I finally settled on a solution of vinegar and water used in conjunction with Scotch Bright pads to clean the hull and prep it for paint. The following pictures show the in-progress, and you can see what a difference it made.











Now final shots of both sides:

The next step was to prime the entire surface with self-etching primer. The hull had so many nicks and dings in it, that it was impossible to just prime the bare spots. So I did the entire hull. I used the Duplicolor self-etching primer because I like the way it looked when dry. It seemed to have a smoother finished surface and wasn’t as chalky as the Rustoleum product. It also seemed to lay down flatter when I was spraying it. As a side note, it matched the existing hull color almost exactly, and if I was going to leave the boat green, I would not have need to top coat it. These pictures were of just the exterior, the interior was done later.

Don t know if you have your aluminum yet, but I was buying some the other day and the sales man told me the price of aluminum is going up by the end of the month.

Looking good handi

rick50 said:

Don t know if you have your aluminum yet, but I was buying some the other day and the sales man told me the price of aluminum is going up by the end of the month.

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Hey Rick, thanks for the heads up! I guess I need to make that happen soon.

Troutman - It actually looks way better than this now, I just haven't made it that far updating my posts :wink:

hint - the green is just the base coat!