bulldog
Well-known member
This was my first ever build a few years ago. It was pretty cool to do and I learned a ton of lessons on this build that I incorporated in to my newest build. This boat started out as a 1950's 1436 aluminum boat that weighed about 400 pounds because of the waterlogged foam under the seats. I had a nice plastic canoe that I traded for a 1994 Sea Doo XP waver runner that I believe had a 650 cc motor. I can't recall a lot of the details as I gave all the receipts and most of the pics to the guy who bought it from me. I cut a hole in to the bottom of the boat for the Sea Doo hull and used lots of long rivets and silicone to seal everything up. I used a large portion of the sea doo hull so I did not have to fashion any motor mounts or anything. Needless to say it still leaked and I tried all kinds of ways to make it stop. That is one of the reasons I sold it, I was to the end of my leash with frustration about the leaking.
After getting the motor in I made a motor cover out of 1" steel tubing and aluminum sheet. It had a pretty cool flaming skull graphic on top of the motor cover along with some cool looking air scoops. I had the whole outside of the boat sprayed with Duraliner (I think that was the name) spray in bed liner which looked really cool but weighed a lot I think. I made the switch panel out of diamond plate and the stick steer was made out of the origial handle bars just cut down and turned vertical. Seat out of an old dune buggy. The seat had a hinge to let it fold forward so the motor cover hinged correctly. Carpet was from Lowes and the middle seat I had covered by a professional shop with a carbon fiber looking vinyl. I had a cavitation plate put on the intake grate to keep it from cavitating so bad. In 6" chop you couldn't go any where. The grate scrubbed off some top speed for sure but the intake grate fixed it.
It was a cool boat but too small for me. Went an estimated 30-35 mph but would get there in about 3 seconds. That thing was stupid fast. Steering was a little wide you could say and a lot of my friends hit the bank. I ended up selling it to a guy in Tennessee for about 1/3 of what I had in to it. Cool little boat.
One of the best times I ever had on that boat was on the Missouri river. I was going full speed and hit a sand bar which flung me and my buddy sitting in front of me darn near out of the boat. Messed his knee up good. Took a long time to get it back in the water and we started going and a 15 lb carp jumped in the boat and scared the absolute crap out of me. It hit my buddy in the shoulder and landed basically in my lap. Good times!!
After getting the motor in I made a motor cover out of 1" steel tubing and aluminum sheet. It had a pretty cool flaming skull graphic on top of the motor cover along with some cool looking air scoops. I had the whole outside of the boat sprayed with Duraliner (I think that was the name) spray in bed liner which looked really cool but weighed a lot I think. I made the switch panel out of diamond plate and the stick steer was made out of the origial handle bars just cut down and turned vertical. Seat out of an old dune buggy. The seat had a hinge to let it fold forward so the motor cover hinged correctly. Carpet was from Lowes and the middle seat I had covered by a professional shop with a carbon fiber looking vinyl. I had a cavitation plate put on the intake grate to keep it from cavitating so bad. In 6" chop you couldn't go any where. The grate scrubbed off some top speed for sure but the intake grate fixed it.
It was a cool boat but too small for me. Went an estimated 30-35 mph but would get there in about 3 seconds. That thing was stupid fast. Steering was a little wide you could say and a lot of my friends hit the bank. I ended up selling it to a guy in Tennessee for about 1/3 of what I had in to it. Cool little boat.
One of the best times I ever had on that boat was on the Missouri river. I was going full speed and hit a sand bar which flung me and my buddy sitting in front of me darn near out of the boat. Messed his knee up good. Took a long time to get it back in the water and we started going and a 15 lb carp jumped in the boat and scared the absolute crap out of me. It hit my buddy in the shoulder and landed basically in my lap. Good times!!
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