1977 Fisher Marine 14ft Jon Boat...FRONT DECK BUILD

[baseball_guy_99]

Hello guys of the Jon Boat world! My dad and I recently purchased this jon boat, trailer, and 1989 40hp Evinrude for $300.

The motor was not running when we bought it, but a new fuel pump cap and a carb clean and she runs like a champ.

The boat itself is in a little bit rough condition (it was used on the Ohio River for juggin). We had some of the rivets welded and one spot on the front where it had a small hole knocked in it. We took out the old transom because it was completly rotted and replaced it with sealed plywood. On the outside of the transom we used 3/4" rubber mine belt. We replaced all the old aluminum bolts with stainless steel bolts, nuts, and lock washers. For added precaution we put rubber washers around the head of the bolts.

The trailer was in fairly good conditon. Had to replace the tires and repaint the rims. Added a winch to the front because all they had was a rope. Added a jack stand as well. One of the welds on the right side brace was broke but we welded it back in place.

I used a scotch brite pad to clean the bottom of the boat (it had years of scum caked on it). I then used a heat gun and a scraper to get off all the old decals and stickers. I'm in the process of sanding it down to be repainted.

I plan to removed the front bench seat to have a more open floor plan as I will be using this boat for mainly duck hunting. I'm going to put down a floor using stuff called AlucaBond. A guy in my area is a dealer and he says this stuff works wonders in Jon Boats. (If anyone has used this please leave some feedback.). Then I'm going to carpet over it. I'm not sure if I want to cover the sidewalls and carpet them as well (I guess it just comes down to aesthetics).

Alright enough of me rambling...here are some pics.

This is right after we got it home.




Feel free to leave comments and or suggestions. I'm still in the designing phase so I'm open to anything.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Before and after of the rims/tires.

Bottom of the boat before the cleaning.

Inside on the bottom is about 50" wide.

After the transom was rebuilt. You can see the mine belt on the back.

 

[perchin]

:WELCOME: aboard!!!

Nice score on that beast. With a 50" floor width, you should be able to do just about anything ya want to it.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Well like I said...it's going to be mainly a duck hunting boat. I will use it occasionlly for fishing on some of the smaller lakes that have a 10hp limit (I'm lookin to sell the 40hp to buy somethin smaller). My dad has a Ranger Bass boat that I do 90% of my bass fishing out of.

 

[Howard]

Good find, you will love it!

 

[Brine]

I'm using a product in my build that is the same thing. It's an ACM panel. In my case, I'm using 4mm thick material. If you're planning on attaching it directly to the ribs of the boat, you need to put some sheet foam the same height as your ribs underneath. It is not meant for load bearing applications.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

What kind of speed are you getting with the 40 on it?

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Brine, I planned on puttin foam underneat it. This stuff is about 1/8" thick. I'm thinkin of putting down some 1x2 furring strips perpindicular to the ribs. Would you reccomend this or just mount it straight to the ribs?


I have no idea what the boat will run with that 40hp. I have not had it out on the lake...I'm kind of scared to haha. My buddy has a boat similar to mine with a 25hp johnson and that thing will fly. So I don't know if I wanna take it out or not lol.

I'm on vacation out in Kansas City right now. So I'm unable to work on the boat. Will post some updated pics as work continues.

 

[Brine]

Brine, I planned on puttin foam underneat it. This stuff is about 1/8" thick. I'm thinkin of putting down some 1x2 furring strips perpindicular to the ribs. Would you reccomend this or just mount it straight to the ribs?

I'd put your foam in, put the sheet in, (Don't fasten anything) then walk around and see how you feel about it. Worse case, you take your foam back out and cut it for the the perpindicular support.

My ribs are 1 1/2" tall with 1 1/2" foam. Mine feels good with ribs about 13" oc and no longitudinal support. If used as an upper deck, I would want support under it every 6-7" I think. I'll let you know if I beat you to it. I'm currently framing out my upper decks.

 

[hyzerbomber]

Have a similar boat [ Fisher Marine 15' ] will be watching this thread for sure! Great idea on the AlucaBond for the floor, will have to inquire at a local sign shop to see avail, $, etc...

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Brine...you will most likely beat me to gettin you floor in. I have not had much time to work on the boat lately. I'm not putting an upper deck, its just going to be on the floor since it will mainly be a hunting boat. I think I'm going to notch it out so it fits around the side ribs.


The dealer in my area charges abut $3 a sq. foot. The only bad thing is he does not have full big sheets. I need about 5x10. He said he would probably have to do 2- 5x5's or a 4x5 and a 6x5. Depending on the spacing of my ribs. I'm going to draw up a picture of the boat with all the measurements on it and take it to him to see what he thinks will work best.

 

[Brine]

I'm paying $2/sq.ft. Sheet size was 6' x 16'.

Apparently, normal retail is $7/sq. ft. on the product I got.

I'll need 1 more sheet to get the boat done.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Inside of the transom after it was done. Forgot to get pics while we were redoing it.

Outside of the transom. That is the mine belt I was talking about. It's almost as rigid as a sheet of plywood. but it will never rot.


I think the painting is going to be done tomorrow. Bought the paint today. Went with an olive drab color and I'm going to stencil over it one day haha.

 

[hyzerbomber]

Did you replace all the wood behind the textured sheet metal on the transom?
Was the bar on the bottom a strip of the same ply? or different?
Have the same exact on my FM-15'...[just one brace]. Just got it home so haven't take it apart to look yet.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

What we took out was a 1" sheet of plywood and a 2x2 piece of wood on the bottom that sticks out.

We put back in a piece of that mine belt, 3/8" plywood, and a 2x4 ripped down to the same size as the 2x2 that we took out.

We had to drill out the rivets on the braces to get the textured piece of metal out. We replaced them with i think 3/8" SS stove bolts with lock washers and lock nuts. We also put a rubber washer between the head and the boat for added precaution.

 

[hyzerbomber]

Thanks, that helps a ton. Can't wait to see the rest of your mod

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Well we could not get around to painting today. Got home too late today. So I took the opportunity to snap some more pics.

Bottom is much cleaner now than when we got it.

What we had to have welded.

The winch and jack stand we added. Jack stand has to be moved to the other side. It's too close to the handle of the winch.

Mine belt we added to the front. All that was there before was a bar and thats what was causing all the damage in the front.

Primer...the reducer/activator is on top of the can.

The paint I will be using. Olive Drab color. My bro-in-law used this on an older truck he had and it looked great.



Hopefully we will be able to spray some paint this weekend.

 

[Howard]

What is that around the rivets?

 

[baseball_guy_99]

That's where we cleaned around the rivets before and after they were welded.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Whew been a little busy with work. Finally got to work on the boat a little bit more on saturday morning.

As stated above I was going to take out the front bench seat. Well when we flipped the boat over to primer it...it just fell out haha. So that saved us a few minutes of grinding.

We got the boat primered with no problems. Did the whole outside of the boat with about 1/2 quart of each primer and activator. So I'll have plenty left over to do the inside.

Now the paint...this is where the problems started haha. The wind started to blow pretty hard..10-15mph. But we decided we would chance it anyways. Got the paint nice and mixed up, poured it in the gun and it wouldn't spray. We dumped the paint back into the mixing cup and thinned it out with some thinner (5-1 mixture). Put it back in the gun and still wouldnt spray. So we took the gun apart and put in a bigger nozzle with a smaller needle. Still wouldnt spray. So we put the paint back into the mixing cup and put some more thinner in it...still wouldn't spray. So my dad got way to frustrated and said he was done and didn't want to take a chance of having the paint blow onto neighbors houses. My bro-in-law has a Wagner Power Painter that he used to spray the paint when he used it. So I think thats what we are going to have to do.


Anyways snapped some pictures of what I could.

Inside after the seat fell out.

As you can see after all the trouble...that's how much paint we got out.