Duracraft 1436 restore

Hey Ya'll

I've been getting on and checking out some awesome boat mods for awhile now and I've finally decided I want to join the party! Working on a deal right now on a Duracraft 1448 I believe, a 9.5hp Evinrude, and trailer for a trade and a little extra cash. I'll admit I'm a little nervous but one thing I've seen is if I ever get stuck I can ask and get a lot of good feedback from all you. I'm sure it will be often too LOL :LOL2:

Here's some pics of the beginning product..

Much better than what some of us started with! Get it on!

Welcome. Glad you joined us crazies.

Thanks for the welcome guys!

1st question... What is the general consensus on removing bench seats? After a little research I have found a lot of people say it will hurt the structual integrity of the boat but I see a lot of people doing it. I want to take out the middle bench seat, leaving the one nearest the stern, and the bench nearest the bow as well as the little deck on the front. My ultimate end result (for now) would be small rear deck, aluminum floor from rear bench/deck to front bench, and then a deck from the front bench to that little front deck. Any thoughts on if this will affect the overall structual integrity?

If you do that I would add some rib bracing from the edges of the inside bottom of the hull where the floor ribs meet the sides up to near the top of the gunnels. This will keep the boat from twisting and sides from flopping.

Smackdaddy's probably right, but I dunno...if you leave the front bench in, you should have enough side support, especially with the eventual floor. Nicely designed hull, btw.

Lesson learned the hard way, replace the bearings now.

have fun, post pictures often.

Im just the kind of guy that would rather have too much than not enough in pretty much any construction/fabrication project. The last thing you want is to get too far ahead and wish you had found some old ribs from another scrap boat and riveted them in with blind rivets. The solid feel will be worth it.

I plan on using angle brackets to tie the floor to the sides. I took out my bench at the rivets so I can use those holes to mount the brackets. Also if the floor does not work out. I can go back to a bench. I am installing my floor tomorrow. Should have pics up soon after that on my project page.

The Bench seats in the center add stiffness for flexing along the fore and aft axis of the boat. This stiffness
is critical for longer length boats. If you remove this structure, then you have to make up for it in other
ways. This is usually compensated for, by adding narrow 6"-8" equipment lockers on each side, between the forward seat
and the rear seat along the outside gunnel's (rails for us land lubber's). For a 1448, you can probably get away with it, but
remember the manufacturer put that in for a reason. Hope this helps. Jerry

Welcome & nice boat. I'm not responsible for the results of your actions, but if it was mine, I would remove the bench. My boat already had the seat removed & it's very stiff when completely assembled.

I really appreciate all the good advice! Did a lot of head scratching today... I went and picked the boat up yesterday evening and brought it home. When I saw it for the first time I knew it wasn't 48'' wide on the floor but honestly I was too excited and thought I was getting such a good deal I didn't care. The boat could have had a 2 foot hole right in the middle and and I still would have bought it
! LOL :LOL2: Turns out the boat is only 36'' wide at the bottom and 48'' at the top... bummer. I'm still excited about my boat and excited to really get started on it.

Today I had a lot of "honey-do" projects to do but in between I got a lot of boat staring done. I think I still want to remove the middle bench seat and lay a floor down on top of the ribs. How could I build ribs to replace the bench seat? Does anyone have pictures of how they did this? The ribs that are on the boat now are STOUT my brother-in-law has a 1456ish and the ribs on his aren't nearly as thick as these. If I have these industrial Sam's Club serving of ribs would it change the need to replace the seat with anything?


I pressure washed the boat and trailer today (after I took a few pictures). I then filled it up with water, did a few jobs and came back a few hours later and not one leak! At least on the bottom 3'' of the boat lol. Tomorrow I plan on cleaning and reorganizing my carport to give me a better working area and then I'm going to start on the trailer. My plans are to sand the whole thing, prime it, and then paint the whole thing in bedliner. Any opinions on painting a trailer with bedliner? I'm currently planning on painting the bottom of the boat in bedliner too. Any opinions on that?

Just repeating things I have read on here over the last year, but if you mean you are going to paint the floor of your boat that seems to be fine, but I read in one thread about painting the underside of your boat as in the outside of the hull, that it could create a lot of drag, everyone seems to be using steelflex for that. Like i said i have never used bedliner on anything but thats what i have read.

I do plan on using it on the floor of my next build.

Ahhhh! That makes sense! Thanks Warefishin I'll look into steelflex

You should look into GatorGlide bottom coating. I am using G4 on mine.

Does anybody have a good idea for a fabricated rib? If I remove a bench seat how could I replace the support it creates?

i just picked up a boat with the same bench set up as yours. i am wanting to take out that middle bench and run a deck from the bow bench to the bench right behind it. cant wait to see the outcome!

Bstanz I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger on ripping that seat out, not sure if I'm ready to get in over my head. I tend to have bad luck!

While I'm trying to decide what to do with the interior and weather was nice this weekend... I decided to sand the exterior and prime it for paint. I was able to just use a wire wheel on my 4 1/2 in angle grider to get all the old paint off. Debated on buying some aircraft paint remover but I figured there wasnt much paint to strip anyways so I saved $40. I used rustoleum self-etching primer in what I thought was dark gray... turns out it's OD green lol

While I had the boat off the trailer I wire wheeled the trailer also and used the left over primer to cover up the bare metal. I ended up likeing the color enough I went and bought another can and did the whole trailer.

I kind of like the color of the primer... would it be frowned upon just keeping the trailer and boat that primer OD green????

I forgot to take a pic of the trailer but. I'm replacing the bunks, wheels, bearings, and wiring.... SO MUCH TO DO!!!!! and thats not even touching the boat

haha yeah i hear you! I'm having some issues getting the title, so I wont do anything to the boat until I do. I told my wife i wanted to paint my trailer camo to match my boat and she looked at me like i was dumb