1985 bass tracker tournament TX...17'....complete rebuild.

[Bowlershop]

Well I picked up this boat in April of last year. I live in Wisconsin and picked the boat up from Illinois off craigs list, $1000..... The guy had no title but gave me a bill of sale. Long story short, I will never do that again. It took me like a year to get a title!!!!! I have the title in hand now so I will be picking up and doing more work on it in the near future. This will be my second build on here, I also built a 1984 bass tracker I a few years ago check it out.....I hope this one turns out as good as the last. I know this boat needs everything but so did the last boat I did. The aluminum on this boat is perfect not a dent anywhere. The motor is 50hp mercury and started for a few seconds then some old wiring took a crap. I think the motor will be great with some new wiring, fingers crossed! The transom is rotted bad and will need to be replaced, no fun at all there. This will take some time so be patient with me. I will post pics over the next few days to get you guys caught up with where I am on the boat at this time. Here are some pics of the boat as it was when I picked it up.

 

[Bowlershop]

I forgot to mention that this boat sat in the woods for the last several years if that wasn't already obvious :lol:

 

[Bowlershop]

Started by stripping stuff out. Sorry pics are in reverse order.

 

[Bowlershop]

Then some cleaning.

 

[Bowlershop]

Rotten transom removal.

 

[edwonbass]

Looking great so far! Not keeping the old carpet? :mrgreen:

 

[Bowlershop]

The carpet looked great in the fire

 

[hsiftac]

Looking good, what have you got in the blue bottle for cleaning the aluminum?

 

[DPI]

You are flying through the build. Its looking good so far.

What did you use to clean the aluminum?

 

[Bowlershop]

I do not remember the name of it, I'll check when I get home. I got it from farm and fleet. I've had some of the stuff done for a while just finally posting pics now. I'll be posting more this evening.

 

[Bowlershop]

I also filled the boat up with water and had no leaky rivets.

 

[Bowlershop]

tear down of the trailer

 

[Bowlershop]

Trailer repaint and rebuild.

 

[Bowlershop]

Here's the stuff I use to clean the aluminum.

 

[Bowlershop]

Ok, here is some pics of my transom replacement. This is the second boat I have done this on and it wasn't anymore fun than the first time but its done now! Also this is caught up to the current state of the boat so progress will be a lot slower from here on out, real time.

 

[Bowlershop]

Note, not everything I have done has been posted in order. As you can see in some of the transom pics the trailer had not yet been rebuilt.

 

[RStewart]

Looks good so far. What things, if any, do you think you will do different to this build than the other one you did?

 

[Bowlershop]

I think I will be pretty close to the other one cuz I really like that boat. This one a 17 though and the other was a 15. I think on this one I want to extend the front deck back to console. I also will put controls for the power anchor on the console as well as on the anchor mate . In my 15 foot I have to jump up front to push the button for anchor.

 

[Skunked again]

WOW. Nice work!

 

[RStewart]

I think I will be pretty close to the other one cuz I really like that boat. This one a 17 though and the other was a 15. I think on this one I want to extend the front deck back to console. I also will put controls for the power anchor on the console as well as on the anchor mate . In my 15 foot I have to jump up front to push the button for anchor.

That sounds cool. I went and checked out your other build, good job. What speeds do you get out of the 15 fter?