1656 OMC Roughneck Jon Built

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Canadian Dave

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Hi folks,

I'm a first time poster but long time reader of TinBoats. Let me start by saying how much I appreciate the sharing of information and ideas that goes into making a site like this great!

I recently purchased a 1996 OMC Roughneck Jon with a jet tunnel equipped with a 1996 Evinrude 35/50 outboard jet. The boat was purchased from the Canadian Government (surplus). Though the boat has seen little use, the use it did get was in remote areas, which require many miles of towing down gravel roads. The boat and trailer are rock rashed big time. The boat was last used in 2004 and has sat out in the sun since then. I always wanted to access the local river systems, one less than 5 minutes away, so closed my eyes and jumped right in.

The first course of action was to go through the motor and understand what I had. Though this is my first hard sided boat, I've owned many Zodiac inflatables and outboards over the years and spent lots of time with 2 stroke dirt bikes so I thought I'd start with something I'm already familiar with, the motor. I was thankful to discover that the carb's float bowls, the crankcase and cylinders were full of 2 cycle oil . . . . . not fogged but filled. It took some time and a lot of messing around to clean all the oil out, but I was thankful someone had the foresight to spend the time doing such a thorough job given that the boat sat unused for 12 years. Exposure to UVs deteriorated the oil tank and caused it to crack. Given the cost of a replacement tank, and my preference to pre-mix my fuel, the VRO pump and oil tank were removed and replaced with a new fuel pump purchased via ebay. The motor was started and a compression test was done. I was really happy to see an even 140psi on each cylinder. One minor issue to deal with . . . . the auto primer o-ring is passing fuel.

I'm still working through my game plan for modifying the boat. Right now the plan is to fabricate a front and rear casing deck, add some pedestal seats, and move the steering console from the side to the center of the boat. Basically build a comfortable river fishing boat capable of accessing the many local river systems. I've purchased some thin wall 1.25 inch aluminum square tube to build the frame and plan on using marine plywood. My preference would have been 1/8" aluminum plate, but the cost in our area is prohibitive and I'm unable to find a source for scrap . . . . . none of the local recyclers sell to the public. I have access to my brother's MIG with an aluminum spool gun so I guess I'll be teaching myself to MIG weld aluminum :shock: .

Here are some pictures of the boat as received. . . . your basic welded hull jon.
 

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Nice ride congrats on a beautiful boat!

Mind if I ask how much a package like this cost you?

Did you score this from auction?
 
Nice find!

You will have a blast running the shallows.

Just a thought - the acid in treated ply will corrode aluminum, so be careful what you mount it up to.

Exterior ply has good glue, just needs to be sealed - then it will last a long time.
 
Good advice CedarRiverScooter. The alkaline copper in modern treated wood causes really aggressive galvanic corrosion with aluminum when water is present. I'll be using 1/2 inch marine fir plywood with 48 mil Deksmart vinyl deck material on the top and rubberized roof sealant on the bottom side to keep moisture at bay and make clean up easy. I'm thinking vinyl over carpet for no other reason than most river banks are muddy and we won't be entering the boat off of a dock. I'll be using a good quality neoprene based contact cement to adhere the vinyl after reading about the issues other members have run into adhering carpet and vinyl with water based outdoor flooring adhesives.

Welding the frame is coming nicely. Love the MIG welder with a spool gun. I was expecting a nightmare after reading how-to articles on the internet, but once I set up the amperage and wire feed rate and did some fine tuning it's going pretty smoothly. Proper aluminium preparation seems to be the key. I'll post pictures once I'm done the frame work.

Spcamno - Yes, the boat was purchased via the Government of Canada online surplus disposal auction. I paid just under $3800 Canadian, which is $2150 US. That's hardly more than the going rate of the motor and controls in our market so I was happy with the price. Might seem high to our US friends ???, but outdoor recreational products are much more expensive and more heavily taxed in Canada than the US. At that price I have a good buffer between the purchase price + the cost of materials and market value if I should decide to sell down the road.

More updates shortly . . . . .
 
The frames for the front the rear casting decks are in as well as the doors to access the front storage and the gas tank in the rear. I went with 3 storage areas in the front. This will complicate cutting the deck, but should be worth it in the end. It was a windy day so I found it tricky at times to maintain a good coverage of argon over the weld to prevent carbon from forming around them. I did a few test welds on scrap, and the bond was strong with good penetration so I'm not concerned. If you look just behind the front deck you can see where I cut the original front seat out of the boat. I'm not too concerned with the loss of support given the front frame is welded in and supporting the sides of the boat.IMG_2086.JPGIMG_2087.JPGIMG_2091.JPGIMG_2090.JPG

I wanted to ensure that the hinges lasted the test of time. I've seen hinges get loose with use and doors pull out of alignment so wanted to make sure that wasn't an issue. I used a hinge with an 1/8" shaft, attached to 1/8" angle on each side. I used a 3/4" x 3" length of angle under the door, then riveted through the door and the aluminum under it to attach it. So far it seems like a very strong connection.

The back side of the doors are painted with white rubberized roofing sealant.
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I needed to remove a layer of pink foam from under the original floor. It has heavy and saturated with water. Note to self: ensure that closed cell foam is used under the floor. I took pictures of the saturated foam, but they didn't turn out. I picked up some plastic mesh to place between the replacement foam and floor of the boat to allow water to drain more easily and hopefully keep the area dryer. Because the boat has a flat welded floor there are no channels under the ribs to convey water to the rear of the boat so I wanted to do something to promote water movement and allow a little air flow. I'm thinking about drilling a few small holes in each rib at floor level as well. The ribs fit tightly to the floor so there is very little room to allow water flow, and any amount of dirt or sand seem to plug what little gap there is and cause water to pool between the ribs.
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I've started making templates, measuring the various panels through out the boat and transferring them to my 1/2 fir marine plywood. If I would have anticipated what a pain it would be to transfer the various angles, etc. to the front casting deck I would have put more thought into elevating the deck above the ribs. It sure would have made the installation easier. I'm concerned with maintaining a decent degree of stability as the boat drifts down a moving river with someone standing on the deck so I chose to lower the deck 6" from the gunnel to achieve a lower center of gravity. IMG_2070.JPG

So far I have the back deck, floor and the faces of the casing decks cut, sealed and wrapped in vinyl. I test fitted them to get a feel for things. So far so good. Next steps will be to cut and wrap the front deck and side skirts. More to come . . . . .IMG_2073.JPGIMG_2075.JPG

I built a center counsel using the materials from the front seat I removed and the original side counsel. My intent is to build something with bent aluminum, but that will have to wait until I get access to a metal bender. The temporary version will give me a chance to test the height, location, etc. before committing to something more costly. The current version is assembled using rivets rather than welding, but appears to be structurally strong enough for the task. It will be fastened to the floor using aluminum angle riveted to the counsel then bolted into holes that I tapped into 2 lengths of 1/4 aluminum angle that I welded into the boat. I'm uncertain at this point how best to finish it. I'm thinking of either wrapping it in vinyl, hitting it with grey box liner or ???
 
Busy work schedule has prevented me form spending much time of the boat lately, but was back at it today. I've drilled a series of small holes through the ribs to promote water draining from under the floor, installed my plastic mesh and closed cell form under the floor. Had a cloud burst shortly after and I'm happy to say its doing its job. Water migrated to the back of the boat and is no longer pooling between the ribs.IMG_2095.JPG
Small holes drilled through ribs to promoting draining.
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Mesh installed between the boat's floor and foam.IMG_2096.JPG
Spent some time installing the driver's seat today as well. I've used two 1/8" aluminum signs to reinforce the floor where the seat pedestal attaches. Holes will be drilled in front and behind the pedestal and rivets used to attached it to the ribs under the floor. My intention it to stand the majority of the time I'm running the boat so I'm hopefully optimistic that the way I've attached it will provide adequate support. IMG_2102.JPGIMG_2101.JPG
Stainless steal bolts pass though the pedestal and both pieces of 1/8" aluminum. View attachment 1

I've attached a picture of how I attached the frame work to the hull of the boat. I've recently read a question asking whether it's appropriate to weld directly to the hull. I didn't have any issues, but I was concerned that because the boat will inevitably be bouncing off rocks as it makes it's way down the river there might be a fair bit of stress on the attachment points as the boat attempts to flex under the strain. To combat this I first welded a 4" x 4" x 1/8" piece of aluminum to the hull, then welded the frame work to that. I'm not saying its necessary, or even that it will work for that matter, but its the approach that I took. The welds don't look pretty, but they hold well enough.IMG_2092.JPG

The next step will be to build the 2 side panels to cover the exposed ribs on the side of the boat and install closed cell foam under them.

More to come . . . .
 

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Back at it this weekend. I installed the floor, casting decks, seat base plates x 4, and the console.

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I spent some time (maybe too much time) comparing seat pedestals. Seating is expensive, so I wanted to make sure I got the biggest bang for my buck. I ended up going with the Attwood Swivl-Eze system over the Springfield Kingpin. The build quality (bushings, tolerances, fit and finish, etc.) appeared to be better on the Swivl-Eze. I went with the cast aluminum seat mounts over the stainless mounts. The stainless mount I had was showing some deformation after little use. The aluminum base plates have a series of webs cast into the underside with a beefy looking structure supporting the centre pin. They get good reviews on the internet so off I went.

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After drilling a hole in the casting decks to accept the base’s centre pin I coated the bore of the hole, as well the top and bottom side of the deck around the hole with clear roof patch. I’ve used this stuff before . . . . . on a roof. It sticks very well and lasts forever so it should work great for resealing the exposed wood.

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I riveted the floor down using 3/16 aluminum rivets spaced along the ribs every 3 inches. This might seem excessive, but being a river boat I’m expecting lots of movement as the boat works its way over rocks, etc. Plus, the floor of the boat has a slight V so it took a bit to encourage the 1/2 inch fir marine plywood to conform to the bottom of the boat. I could have flattened the floor using aluminum angles riveted/welding to the floor ribs, but I wanted to avoid the weight as its starting to add up. A 2” to 3” spacing was common on other river boats I’ve looked at too so I figured there was method to their madness. We’ll see how it works.

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I cleaned, acid etched, primed and painted the console. Used an acid wash to etch the aluminum, followed by a coat of etching primer. I wanted the paint to have a slight texture to it to help hide imperfections, scratches, etc. Rather than going with a hammer coat paint I hit the console with a light coat of paintable rock guard inside and out, then laid a top coat of grey over that. I like the results.

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I attached the console to the casting deck's frame using stainless bolts through the back of the console and to the floor by drilling and tapping into the 1/4 aluminum angle that I previously welded between the floor's ribs. After seeing other tinboat members having issues with the base of their consoles cracking along the 90 degree angle that they bent at its base to attach it to the floor I decided to use two lengths of aluminum angle bolted to each side of the console's base to create a foot. I don't imagine that this would be an issue with a console built using a thicker 1/8" plate, but it does appear to be an issue when using thinner gauge aluminum. My console is built using the seat that I cut from the boat, so its on the thinner side.

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Next I’ll be reinstalling the controls. I spent some time reversing the handle on the outboard control so that the throttle lever now sits on the right side, rather than the left side of the control box. I did the same with the safety line and alarm horn. Pretty straight forward operation once I understood how it all went together. . . . . thanks to the OMC manual.

I'm trying to understand how best to run the steering cable into the console/helm. If anyone has a centre console and can provide some pictures or advice I'd love to hear it.

More to come.
 
For the steering cable, can you get the cable to go in that gap between the hull and the ribs on the side of the hull? Run it along the back of the casting deck, behind the ribs having it exit forward enough to keep the bend to the motor cable friendly.
 
Back at the boat again. Progress has been delayed as I waited on the new (longer) control cables to arrive. Over the last couple weeks I've:

- installed the controls, steering wheel, gauges and fish finder to the console;
- repainted the motor's hood using a can of OMC colour match paint;
- added trim to the front deck (checker plate);
- installed closed cell foam to the front of the boat; and
- fabricated and installed a chase to run the cables and wiring through.

There are the details . . . . .

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My original plan was to run all the cables down the side of the boat, under the front casting deck, turn 90 degrees then back through the casing deck and into the console. The cost of new control and steering cables was prohibitive so I went this route instead.

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I cut a hole in the side of the wire chase and added a piece of trim originally intended for a desk top. I purchased it a Home Depot for a couple bucks to protect the cables and wiring from the sharp edges of the aluminum . . . . I think it looks good too.
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Here is a look inside the chase prior to the cables and wiring being cleaned up. The round hole to the rear of the chase leads under the rear deck and ultimately to the motor, bilge or starting battery. The aluminum cleats on the side of the chase are to support the top, which will form a tray that will eventually become a rod holder. I added a length of 1" x 1/16" aluminum angle to support the top on the opposite side.

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Here's the finished product. Eventually the exposed wires will be covered . . . . just not 100% on the plan yet.

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This was originally a 1' x 1' x 8' block of closed cell foam, which I cut to shape and installed under the original nose of the boat along with the foam from under the seat I removed. There should be way more than enough there to offset the weight I've added to the boat.

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Here is a quick view of the progress to date. Next on the agenda is some trim work and some camo paint.

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More to come . . .
 

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I got going on the camo this week. The original paint was in tough shape with lots of rock rash. I figured I had a couple choices; strip it and repaint, just live with it the way it is or camo it. Camo was the easy choice and by far the more entertaining option. I started by removing the factory stickers. A little heat applied using a heat gun and a razor blade made quick work of the stickers followed by a couple quick shots of WD40 to remove any sticky residue. Next I scrubbed the boat down with SprayNine and a fine Scotch Bite pad to remove any dead paint or oily residue and to prep the surface to accept the camo paint . Once the boat was clean and thoroughly rinsed I laid down some basic patterns using Rust-Oleum Self Etching Primer over any areas where welding burnt away the existing paint followed by some Rust-Oleum camo paint in various colors. To break the pattern up a little I sprayed some shadow lines through some mesh material that I had left over from laying the floor.
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After laying down some basic patters I made 3 stencils including some soft lined geometric patters and a couple bark patterns and starting spraying. I used Rust-Oleum Dark Machinery Gray followed by flat black. The process was easy and I really like the final result. It took me a solid 4 hours to cut the stencils using an exacto knife. I would have preferred to just buy the stencils pre-made, but didn't want to wait for weeks for them to arrive. I found that it really helped to hold the stencils tight against the boat with a couple 3/8" wooden sticks spaced at 6 to 8" and spray between them. Have lots of sticks on hand as they load up with paint and become sticky.

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Once the camo was down I got to thinking that the pattern reminded me a little of a WW2 war plane and I decided to take it a step further by adding a Curtiss P-40 graphic made famous by the Flying Tigers. I taped off each color using 1/4" masking tape and sprayed it using flat Rust-Oleum colors. It took a little time, but I think it was worth it. I played with the mouth in different positions, some further forward and some further back, I liked this position the best.

Here's a look at the final product . . . .

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Wow it's hard to believe that 4 years have past since this build. I thought I'd post an update showing the restoration of the trailer and the system I chose that allows me to organize my paddles and push pole.

I went through the trailer completely, stripped the factory paint . . . or what was left of it, removed the rust and repainted it (self etching primer followed by paint). The plastic ShorLand'r fenders were victimized by gravel which blasted holes through them when navigating nasty gravel roads. I removed the plastic fenders and welded in metal replacements and then built a platform in front and behind the fender to give me a place to stand while reaching into the boat. The fenders were coated with box liner, top and bottom, and the platforms received a layer of outdoor carpet to give them some added grip. I installed new LED lights, new safety chains, new tires and a new folding front leg.

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Added some stickers to the helm . . .

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Added switches, wired in a battery cut off switch and bilge pump and relocated the battery to under the helm to improve weight distribution . . .

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I installed a Hold-It storage system with an aluminum rail. It's adjustable and works great to keep the paddles and a push pole off the floor and out of the way. It's gentle enough to hold fishing poles too. This is a fantastic system for boats and I wish I would have come across it sooner. I simply cut the rail to the length I wanted and riveted through the side panel and into the ribs. Once I fine tuned the location of the receivers I put a dab of silicone under them to prevent them from sliding down (originally intended to be mounted horizontally).

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It's been a great boat, works excellent in the local river systems and doesn't fear shallow water. I'm thinking I could run it down the street during a heavy rain :shock:
 

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