Hey Everybody, new guy here, figured since I didn't see a introductions area I would do a light build page and introduce myself. First off, I am a first time boat owner and picked this up for $150 with no trailer or engine. Picked up a rebuilt galvanized trailer off CL so it is no longer being moved with the utility trailer you see in the picture below. There was a cap and a few other accessories I left with the previous owner and I took out a so/so platform the previous owner fabbed up, even though they never ended up taking the boat out. I put it in my pond when I got home and it floats and didn't seem to leak. It needed a little repair from when a tree fell, but I found a local guy who works with aluminum and they fixed it up pretty nicely for not too much.
Now I have zero experience with boats besides riding in them, so this has been a big learning curve for me, and I've been lurking in this build section for a while. I have seen a lot of great builds, awesome ideas and most all of them are beyond me, but I am going to try anyways.
Right now the boat has been stripped to shiny metal with a wire brush and the outside has been completely coated in Interlux 2000E two part epoxy. The black coat on the waterline is Trillux-33, the photo shows the first coat, I just finished the third coat yesterday and am out of Trillux so will leave it at 3 coats. I am going to put a coat or two of pre-kote for the above water section and then cover it with Jade Green EZ-Poxy. I also repaired a few rivets on the bottom that were knocked out, and sealed them.
For the inside I am going to get it to bare metal again and put 5200 on the seam and rivets in the middle as a sort of preventative maintenance and then most likely cover it with some more epoxy, or maybe just get some cans of self etching primer and go from there. This boat is pre 1970, and I figure it can't hurt. I have paint for the interior and a bunch of marine carpet ready, I am just not sure of my final plan yet. My end goal is to have a platform in the front or middle section that allows my dogs to have a nice flat surface (hopefully future kids too) and maybe let the wife lay down when we cruise around the lake. I don't fish and never will in this, so setting seats and things to help with fishing isn't important. The FIL might take it out fishing at some point, but that would be maybe once a year. It will most likely never see salt water either. I have researched on here how to remove seats and I am a little leery of it, but I think it would allow me to build a better boat in the end. Without much metal working experience I am hesitant to cut things up or even pop out old rivets...that might be something I have to get over though. Once I finish painting the top I'll post another pic and take some shots of the inside. The seats are aluminum and are like the last boat in the photo, and the more I look at the boat the more it seems like it is one of these Crestliners? The seats and bottom design are almost identical.
Now I have zero experience with boats besides riding in them, so this has been a big learning curve for me, and I've been lurking in this build section for a while. I have seen a lot of great builds, awesome ideas and most all of them are beyond me, but I am going to try anyways.
Right now the boat has been stripped to shiny metal with a wire brush and the outside has been completely coated in Interlux 2000E two part epoxy. The black coat on the waterline is Trillux-33, the photo shows the first coat, I just finished the third coat yesterday and am out of Trillux so will leave it at 3 coats. I am going to put a coat or two of pre-kote for the above water section and then cover it with Jade Green EZ-Poxy. I also repaired a few rivets on the bottom that were knocked out, and sealed them.
For the inside I am going to get it to bare metal again and put 5200 on the seam and rivets in the middle as a sort of preventative maintenance and then most likely cover it with some more epoxy, or maybe just get some cans of self etching primer and go from there. This boat is pre 1970, and I figure it can't hurt. I have paint for the interior and a bunch of marine carpet ready, I am just not sure of my final plan yet. My end goal is to have a platform in the front or middle section that allows my dogs to have a nice flat surface (hopefully future kids too) and maybe let the wife lay down when we cruise around the lake. I don't fish and never will in this, so setting seats and things to help with fishing isn't important. The FIL might take it out fishing at some point, but that would be maybe once a year. It will most likely never see salt water either. I have researched on here how to remove seats and I am a little leery of it, but I think it would allow me to build a better boat in the end. Without much metal working experience I am hesitant to cut things up or even pop out old rivets...that might be something I have to get over though. Once I finish painting the top I'll post another pic and take some shots of the inside. The seats are aluminum and are like the last boat in the photo, and the more I look at the boat the more it seems like it is one of these Crestliners? The seats and bottom design are almost identical.