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ked_man

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Hi, I've been lurking for awhile and decided to join.

I just bought my first boat, a Tracker 1648 with a 25 hp Evinrude, the previous owner had already built a pretty nice deck on it and installed a depth finder. I am wanting to refinish the outside as it is pretty beat up and most of the paint is worn off.

What would you guys reccomend for refinishing the paint?


The deck has two nice hatches to access the compartment beneath for storage and has seat mounts.

5cb839f7-70eb-447a-975b-465aa18e0b40.jpg


6c43c895-21a9-406c-8bda-dbac03f693c7.jpg


The sides are pretty scratched up and the trailer needs some work.

0be06f34-cae3-48ab-8f5a-0172ff72b6d3.jpg

Let me know what you guys thing, and thanks for any advice you can give.
 
Welcome! Depends on what you want for color. For flat colors, I recommend Parker's duck boat paint. Available at any major sports retailer or for me, I go to fleet farm.
 
I don't have one of those stores around here, I was thinking about using rustoleum, but I didn't know if I should sand the rest of the paint off or use stripper to remove the paint. DO you guys reccomend using an etching agent first before you paint?
 
Hi ked_man,
An etching primer is almost (for sure) required if you want a top coat to stick. The etching primer chemically bonds to the bare aluminum, retarding oxidation, and the top coat bonds to the primer. You can prep the existing finish in several ways. The prep will determine what the finished product will look like. You do need to remove any loose or flaking paint at a bare minimum. Stripping and sanding will expose the aluminum giving you the best chance at a good bond that should last quite a while. As far as the dents, scrapes and scratches go that is up to you. Look at the several projects here and go from there. The good news is it will be much better than what you have now. Good luck and make sure you share your project with the rest of us.
 
I will probably strip it down and start with the self etching primer, do you guys suggest a good one?

The bottom I will probably leave alone as it is in 85-90 % shape, The best I can figure is this boat was originally a rental from a boat dock and it spent much of its life either tied to a dock or tied to a houseboat getting drug around.
 
Personally I used rust-oleum in a rattle can and was pleased with the results. I also used Rust-Oleum "Top Side" for the final coat. I was not going for a showroom finish so I rolled on the Top Side and went over it with a brush. If you check my link you can see the results.
 
Sounds good, I went out yesterday to lowes, sportsmans warehouse, and harbor freight and stocked up. And picked a trolling motor and battery from Craigslist for 150 bucks.

Now all I need is some warmer weather to start work.
 
OK, so in doing my research I have come to some questions in wiring. I read some helpful articles I found on here and have sketched up a wiring diagram. I will be using 2 batteries, one to run electronics, the other to run the 30lb Minnkota Endura.

WiringDiagram.png


Does this look right, using circuit breakers and bus bars to connect everything to the batteries? Let me know of any sugestions.

cIRCUITBREAKER.jpg
Busbar.jpg


I am going to be wiring everything up to a 5 gang marine switch panel with a 12V plug.

Like this.
SwitchPanel.jpg


Also I don't think the wires on the trolling motor will be long enough to reach the battery, so I was thinking I would need to run some 6 gauge wire to this recepticle and wire the trolling motor to the plug, that way I can take it on and off easily. Has anybody ever used these or are they even necessary?

Trollingmotorplug.jpg


I really don't want to burn myself up so any help will be appreciated.
 
Wiring looks pretty good to me. =D>

You might want to route your fish finder wire around/away from the TM wiring, instead of across it. Just to eliminate any possible interference.
Your fish finder and 12V outlet don't need to be on a switch, just fused...especially the finder which could lose settings, etc. if it doesn't go thru it's shut down procedure first.

The only other thing I can think of is on your TM plug...if that is the MinnKota MKR-18 plug & receptacle, and if you use 6 gauge wire, you'll also have to have the MKR 18A 6 ga wire adapter
 
That's a good point about the depth finder, I can just hard wire it to the trolling motor battery. Shouldn't hurt anything.

The only reason I wanted to run the 12V plug on a switch is just in case I get the itch to install some small LED flood lights up from for bow fishing, I can plug them into the receptacle and then use the switch to turn them on or off.

In the description of the MK18 adapter it says it will work with 6 gauge, I guess this is a misprint, or it means the female end will connect with 6 gauge.
 
yeah, you can use in in-line fuse holder for the finder...I prefer it on a fuse panel just so everything is one place if I have to check it, but it's nbd to use an in-line.

The Mk18 A Adapter allows the plug to work with 6 ga, the standard plug won't.

I'm actually not a big fan of using a plug & receptacle and wired mine directly, but I never take my TM off the boat. If you wanted to go that route, and your TM wire is too short, you could use a junction block and some 6ga ring terminals to "splice" in your additional wire over to the battery.
 
Well I got back at it Saturday morning, built some saw horses, and built a motor stand. It took a few of us but we got the boat off the trailer and upside down on the saw horses.

You can really see how scratched up it is, this boat has had a rough life.

photo6.jpg


The best part, the trailer already has a flat. And after some playing around with the tire looks like it will need replacing.

f0b08f1d-8ab7-4733-8193-c056b911283c.jpg


I got a better look at the guide-ons the PO built out of re-bar.

photo9.jpg


And they didn't hold up, I'll be cutting these off and replacing them with ones made from square tubing.

photo10.jpg


This is the side that is pretty damaged. It doesn't leak and there are no stress cracks. Is there anything I can do with this or just kinda watch it?

photo8.jpg


I am guessing this is a hole that has been patched, but after hitting this stuff with a wire wheel and it didn't budge, I believe it will hold.

photo7.jpg


I conned a couple buddies into helping me sand all the paint off. Its amazing what all you can get done with a few friends paid with a case of beer and the promise of fishing trips.

photo12.jpg


Here is our supervisor, like always laying down on the job.

photo11.jpg


It took about 5 hours with three drills to get all of the paint off, but it looks pretty good.

photo13.jpg


Hopefully the rain dries up enough today I can get it wiped down with mineral spirits and get a coat of primer on it this evening and get it painted this week in the nice weather.
 
Yeah, the paint is what I'm worried about. I've got the self etching primer in the rattle cans and then I'm wanting to do rustoleum over that. I shouldn't need to clear coat it or anything, I'm just hoping it doesn't flake off and I have to sand it again. If I see a wire cup on a drill again it will be too soon.

Have you guys had any problems with the self etching primer and just regular rustoleum?
 
ked_man said:
Yeah, the paint is what I'm worried about. I've got the self etching primer in the rattle cans and then I'm wanting to do rustoleum over that. I shouldn't need to clear coat it or anything, I'm just hoping it doesn't flake off and I have to sand it again. If I see a wire cup on a drill again it will be too soon.

Have you guys had any problems with the self etching primer and just regular rustoleum?
This is the route I went. I sanded and wire wheeled off any loose paint then hit the bare metal with self etching primer. I used the Rustoleum OD camo paint on mine and put about 3 coats. It's held up well so far. the only place I've seen it rub off is the bottom from me beaching it. I'm not to worried about that. I can always spray it again if it gets bad.
 
Well the weather finally cleared up for a couple days and I got a chance to do some work on the boat. I bought two new rims from etrailer.com, if any of you guys are looking for some oddball trailer parts check it out. The shipped super fast and was exactly what I ordered.

Anyways, I got two "like new" tires from a used tire place next to my work. The rims were $25 a piece and the tires were $50 a piece. Which works out to about $75 per tire. Sure beats the $110 tractor supply wants for them. They went on, well just like tires are supposed to. I didn't get any pics of them, but they're just tires after all.

Most of the time was spent on painting.

c0e863a5-09b1-4e05-a62b-5d0b52e4adbe.jpg


After the first coat of the self etching primer in the rattle can. You can still see a few "thin" spots of paint.

cid_961298E9-7A6F-4520-8D4F-978DDAD30377.jpg


After making a quick trip back to Lowes, I got it finished priming just before dark. It took 5 and a half cans of primer. I went pretty thick though.

cid_68AADC45-3837-41A8-9A7A-DD35F9DF6353.jpg


Went with the plain-jane rustoleum in the gallon can. Put two good thick coats on with a roller, touching up with a brush. This stuff is a good thick paint and goes on pretty smooth for what it is. Hopefully it holds up for a few seasons.

Then I got to work cutting the old stuff off the trailer, one cut finger and about an hour later I got the re-bar guide-ons, the winch, and jack stand cut off. Let me tell you cutting welds is not a lot of fun.

cid_87A29E3B-D224-4475-AD76-657377E6745B.jpg


I guess whomever had welded the winch and accessories on the trailer had gotten it a little hot and burnt holes in the tubing. They don't look drilled and don't look rusted. I guess the welder will have to fix those as well for me.

Next stop, taking the trailer to the welder and having him fab some guide-ons, and patching a few holes for me. Then its on to wiring and installing lights.
 
Well the weather finally cleared up for a couple days and I got a chance to do some work on the boat. I bought two new rims from etrailer.com, if any of you guys are looking for some oddball trailer parts check it out. The shipped super fast and was exactly what I ordered.

Anyways, I got two "like new" tires from a used tire place next to my work. The rims were $25 a piece and the tires were $50 a piece. Which works out to about $75 per tire. Sure beats the $110 tractor supply wants for them. They went on, well just like tires are supposed to. I didn't get any pics of them, but they're just tires after all.

Most of the time was spent on painting.

c0e863a5-09b1-4e05-a62b-5d0b52e4adbe.jpg


After the first coat of the self etching primer in the rattle can. You can still see a few "thin" spots of paint.

cid_961298E9-7A6F-4520-8D4F-978DDAD30377.jpg


After making a quick trip back to Lowes, I got it finished priming just before dark. It took 5 and a half cans of primer. I went pretty thick though.

cid_68AADC45-3837-41A8-9A7A-DD35F9DF6353.jpg


Went with the plain-jane rustoleum in the gallon can. Put two good thick coats on with a roller, touching up with a brush. This stuff is a good thick paint and goes on pretty smooth for what it is. Hopefully it holds up for a few seasons.

Then I got to work cutting the old stuff off the trailer, one cut finger and about an hour later I got the re-bar guide-ons, the winch, and jack stand cut off. Let me tell you cutting welds is not a lot of fun.

cid_87A29E3B-D224-4475-AD76-657377E6745B.jpg


I guess whomever had welded the winch and accessories on the trailer had gotten it a little hot and burnt holes in the tubing. They don't look drilled and don't look rusted. I guess the welder will have to fix those as well for me.

Next stop, taking the trailer to the welder and having him fab some guide-ons, and patching a few holes for me. Then its on to wiring and installing lights.
 
Well I got some more work done on the boat. Been awhile since an update, this rain has been putting a damper on me. Put new rims and tires on the boat, but saved the good rim and tire as a spare. I also got the trailer sanded down a bit and gave it a new coat of rustoleum high gloss. It almost makes my ugly trailer look nice.

We got the boat back on the trailer and got the winch replaced. As well as a new jack stand.



I re-did the bow stop and did it correctly. The hook is too big for the eye so I had to leave the quick connect, making the tow strap a bit twisted, but I don't think that'll really hurt anything.



Also got the spare tire mounted out of the way.



Then we got the guide-ons built. There was a lot of figuring and redneck ingenuity to get these on the boat and get em right. I ended up using 1/8"X1" angle iron bolted straight to the frame. No welding, very little cutting just a lot of drilling. And if we figured wrong we can move them with little work.



The actual board of the guide-on is a piece of extruded PVC. Its not nearly as rigid as a 2X4 but it'll never rot and I think the little bit of flex it has will be a little easier on the boat when loading it.



I left the rear guide full length and used it as a spot to mount my lights. This way it gets the lights up, out of the water and makes them wide enough that I can see it in the mirrors behind me.



I let them sit out a little bit past the plate to be able to see them a little better.



It was pretty easy to get the lights mounted up, and it was nice having a piece of 1/4" diamond plate laying around. I plan on putting some rubber edge trim around it as that corner is sharp and I know my big goofy *** will walk into it.



Tonight we are going to wire the lights up. The frame has holes in the sides at the back and the front and we tested it with the fish tape and we can run the wiring inside the frame for 90% of the time. Is this a good idea to protect the wiring more? Or is it bad because if it does get a short or nick you can't get to it to fix it and have to replace the whole thing?

Just a few more items left to do, and she will be on the water.
Finish painting the gunwales
wire up the lights
install trolling motor
install battery and nav lights
get the motor tuned and running good

Really not a whole lot more work left to do.
 
Well short of getting some numbers for the registration, The Green Machine is all finished.

We got the trolling motor mounted. Its a 30 lb/thrust endura, I bought a bracket on ebay that we had to modify a bit to get it to work but I think it'll work alright.



We used PVC piping to shim it to make it tighten down on the shaft of the trolling motor. We used a heat gun and bent flares in the end of the pieces to keep them from falling out. Was actually pretty east to heat up PVC and shape it.



I got the motor back on it, and tested it out. After fixing a small leak in the fuel line for the choke it started right up, idled well and ran awesome. We got the motor-toter on it and I am happy with it. It still has a little play side to side, but I don't think it will be much of an issue.



So now that its all finished here are a few photos of the lay out.

Front deck



Front deck also



Rear



This is the Before



And here is the after



Its amazing what a little elbow grease, Ok a lot of elbow grease, and a few coats of paint will do to a boat.
 

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