14 ft. 1976 Polar Kraft Modification in West Texas

LKennedy12 · Mar 23, 2013

My husband and I have begun the modification process of a 1976 Polar Kraft jon boat. This boat has been sitting out in the elements of West Texas for several years. We are in the middle of a historic drought, so the ol' tank (or pond as we call it back where I'm from in Arkansas) is dry as a bone.

We have tossed around the idea for a while now of purchasing kayaks to fish lakes and rivers in the Texas Hill Country or Lake Allen Henry, which is not far from Lubbock. I came across this site, and it inspired us to fix up the jon boat to be a fishing machine.

We brought the jon boat back to our house from its "resting place" at our ranch.

It's currently residing in our back yard as we clean and sand it down. We decided to do a reverse water test by filling the boat with water to check for leaks and weak spots in the structure.

Luckily, we didn't find any leaks.

Ultimately, we would like to add a casting deck, a trolling motor, and an outboard. I've seen a lot of great ideas on this site, and I look forward to any feedback and/or suggestions any of you may have. We are sanding it down now, and will probably do a quick power wash to do a final cleaning before we move on to working on the deck.

Check my blog at https://www.essaysfromtexas.com for more photos.

RStewart · Apr 2, 2013

Welcome to the site & good luck on your mod. Keep us updated with pics.

LKennedy12 · Apr 7, 2013

We have been sanding the boat and have worked on cleaning out a lot of the stubborn red West Texas dirt. We have used rotating sanders, hand sanders and SOS pads to sand down the aluminum and to remove the oxidation that has formed over most of the boat. Several rats have taken advantage of the styrofoam over the years, building nests up in the bench seats. As you can imagine, this has left a less than desirable smell.

We plan to use the these areas in the back of the boat behind the back bench seat as storage areas for a gas tank and battery once we have an outboard. Although adding the outboard is still down the road (we don't even own one yet), we moved forward with cutting into these sections to suck out all of the nasty rats nests and dirty styrofoam. We used a shop vac to suck out all of the gross stuff.

We have gone back and forth on whether or not we remove the middle bench seat. I've seen arguments that this will comprise the stability of the boat, but I have also seen several modifications where it worked perfectly. Since we are hoping to do a lot of fly fishing out of the boat, the removal of the middle bench seat to make room for a potential casting deck or perhaps casting knee braces (like you would see in a drift boat) would be necessary. I came across a jon boat mod being done by a fly guide in the Austin area who had a clean method of removing the middle bench seat. He drilled a hole through the rivets, outside in, popped out the rivets, removed the seat, and used JB Weld and appropriately sized steel nuts and bolts to seal the holes back up.

So, that's what we did.

It was a clean removal, and we still have the entire bench seat intact to use later down the road if we ever need to.

Now, we will continue sanding the inside of the boat down to prepare it for priming. We will be using a self etching primer in a spray can from Lowe's ($5/can).

LKennedy12 · Apr 7, 2013

I had beautiful weather today to work on the boat.

I finished cutting out the compartments in the back of the boat. I used a recip saw and tin snips. It isn't easy work.

I needed to remove the styrofoam and nasty rats' nests from the back bench. I knew they were still in there because I could smell them. So I cut a new compartment into the back bench. We will put a seat on the right side of this bench and I thought a compartment on the left side would do two things 1) Provide nice storage, and 2) Allow me to suck all of the styrofoam and nests out of there more easily. I also cut a compartment that will go just below the chair. The chair we will likely use will be 15 inches wide, so I put the other smaller compartment based on that measurement. This also helped me get the yucky styrofoam out of there. Once we get the compartments finished with closing doors and such, we will blow in more foam to provide floatation.

I also gave the boat another bath. You wouldn't believe the amount of red dirt that still lives in the boat. I towel dried and it and began the primer process.

I went through four cans of self etching primer before I finally had to stop for the day.

smackdaddy53 · Apr 7, 2013

A circular saw and jigsaw will work wonders on alumium cut outs, watch those fingers!

LKennedy12 · Apr 11, 2013

We have had wild weather out here in Lubbock. I worked on the boat in 90 degree weather on Sunday, we had a dust storm on Tuesday, and a half inch of snow on Wednesday morning.

I've got a question: I've read a lot of posts about applying Steelflex to the bottom of the boat. How necessary is it, and where can you buy it?

Also, I have seen some people who used a sealant on the rivets on the inside of the boat. What product is that and how is it applied?

Thanks for your input!

RStewart · Apr 11, 2013

Great job so far. Steelflex isn't necessary, but it will seal the boat & protect it. If you have leaky rivets, tighten them first, then apply steelflex. You get it from https://www.fascoepoxies.com. Look here https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11977 lots of info.