18ft ouichita flat bottom

Albieback · Dec 4, 2013

Hello,

I am new to this site, and have been reading through these forums... Some great builds I must say!!!
Which has given me some great ideas for a project boat recently purchased. It is a 18ft Ouichita Flat bottom boat,

The boat is in DIRE need of some elbow grease which I have plenty of, My intent of use with this boat is for cat/croaker fishing with a great amount of duck/goose hunting done on this rig.

For starters I have purchased the steel flex to coat the bottom of this boat to seal up any leaky rivets stress cracks etc... after the boat is stripped and cleaned properly, my next goal is to remove all the bench seats inside of the boat creating a "wide open" boat with a bench seat running along the sides of the boat on the port and starboard side.

Recently purchased a mariner 60hp 2 stroke and am in need of purchasing a side console recommend any sites? also instend on dow insulating the floor and installing 1/8" aluminum floors with the gator trax hydro turf installed atop.
as you can see in pic below there is a shotty at best weld job to a crack in the bow along with a sever dent from a piling along the way, I am a metal fabricator, think I could get away with bending a piece of aluminum to cover this up and run it down the hull a good bit? let me know any ideas you may have... I want this boat done right and will do so with hardly no expenses spared...

Thank you in advance

jimmycrown · Dec 5, 2013

welcome . got a 16ft . need to replace wood in transom. been looking at other and their rear brackets are all different from mine . do you have any pics of yours you could share

Albieback · Dec 5, 2013

Will do tomorrow in daylight, I need to redo mine as well, my brackets resemble a speed square... I plan on removing them, installing a varnished piece of psl and fabricate new beefier supports possibly tied in to the first cross brace??? With that 50hp on the back I want assurity of its strength!!

Albieback · Dec 5, 2013

https://www.akmccallumco.com/store-console.htm

This site has a console I'm interested in, it's the 1st one you see... Anyone recommend any others? Or is a console a console is a console?!?!

Stumpalump · Dec 5, 2013

Pronounced Wash-ah-ta if I'm not mistaken.

Albieback · Dec 6, 2013

Jimmyy here is a pic of my transom supports along with the welds in which I want to fix and or cover....
Whoever welded this thing did a hidious job IMO however as you can see some progress has been made, all the plywood flooring and console have been removed, Upon removal i noticed some of the ribs had stress cracks in them, Is there a site where these can be ordered and be cut to fit? also the hole is which are going to occur when removing bench seats do i 3m 5200 those? prim and paint or do they need to be welded?

That site i posted previously has this center console with front seat that can be created into a livewell i think i would like to purchase that to install atop my aluminum floor along with a wise cooler with repositioning back rest.... and have everything else wide open... My question is how could i hide the steering line? if the sheets of aluminum are mounted to the ribs??