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You are certainly on the right track! Your transom plan seems good to me. Be careful not to bite off more than you can chew with lots of decking and storage areas. Sometimes simple is best.

Making a cap of sorts for the bench is a really good idea! That's awesome you have access to fabrication tools. Will you put anything between the seat and the new cap? If water gets in there, it could cause corrosion over time. EDIT: Just a thought here. Since you have access to a full fab...

All you can really do is clean the corroded ares incredibly well (blast, chemicals, sanding, etc etc) and then seal them up (5200, welding, epoxy etc etc). You can get a LOT more life out of that boat for sure!!

I haven't heard that, but it certainly sounds plausible. Unfortunately a brass to plastic connection is prone to leaks .... I've had luck with teflon tape, but I'd hate for it to gum up the works down the road.

Boats like that very rarely have plywood backing under the rear bench. Its likely that there is just foam underneath the aluminum. Its going to be very difficult, almost impossible, to gain access to the underside of your rear bench, especially considering there is a huge block of foam in...

Make sure that the hose is going the right direction. There should be an arrow on the bulb. Also make sure you are plugging the connections together properly. Some of them actually will fit together backwards and it isn't always obvious what the right way is. Look closely and you'll figure...

X2 on the above. Its definitely a worthy upgrade. Plus, you can list your current boat for $2,000 and see what happens. You never know what people on Craigslist are willing to pay for something.

The few extra inches in width on the 10' does not make up for the extra 4' in length. Definitely build the 14 footer. If you haven't fished from boats all that much, spend some time fishing out of the boat as it sits right now. That will give you time to figure out exactly how you want to mod...

Its not a smoking good deal, but its certainly a fair price. You can be very happy with the deal, especially if the fishing rods are nice! Having a good condition trailer is REALLY important.

Is it fuel leaking from the brass fitting where it goes into the plastic? If so, clean up both sides of the threads REALLY well, wrap the male end neatly with four or five wraps of teflon tape, and screw it in until its snug. Should work. If its air leaking from the where the two fittings...

I think I've bought some of your boats in the past .... I was cursing your name three ways from Tuesday as I sanded off multiple layers of old chipping paint and was left with a corroded and pitted hull. Although you do have a point .... sometimes the quick and easy method is plenty good...

Straight up awesome build! Excellent planning and execution of a very functional and attractive design!

Apparently that's why you need to buy two of them :wink: :wink:

I think I'd take my whole family up with me ..... have lunch, let the kids shoot a dozen rounds with the light guns, buy some fudge to take home, and then let the wife pick out something she liked with the rest. I figure I owe that to them considering how much money I've spent on fishing lures...

There are tons of hard ways to do it .... all of them will work to varying degrees. And then there is the golden goose, the holy grail ..... the MEDIA BLASTER! Call around. You can likely find someone who will blast your tin for a couple hundred bucks tops, while you wait. Don't forget to...

I like to keep things as simple as possible. I prefer nice open, flat designs in boats. Aluminum is best, but wood works just fine. Then, I buy inexpensive rubber backed indoor/outdoor carpet from Home Depot and cut it to fit where I want it. I don't glue it down at all and don't use padding...

Boats like your 1648 Big Jon are built VERY sturdy, in fact they are a bit overbuilt. Taking that seat out (even without adding a floor, deck, etc) will obviously remove some structural rigidity, but it will in no way leave the boat "floppy". However, if I were you, I would leave the center...

Wow! Someone really butchered that gunwale. The fact that only two cracks have shown up is a testament to the durability of aluminum boats. You may want to consider fixing that properly before using it under any significant amounts of power.

Some guys will swear up and down that removing that seat will bring the manufacture's goons down on you, the boat will fold in half, and your hair will fall out. Personally, I think that as long as you aren't pushing tons of horsepower on that boat, you'll be just fine. Riveting down a flat...

Taking seats out on most boats is fine .... but cutting into the gunwale like that is never a good idea!