1989 FLATSTRACKER 17tx to center console flats boat

[vahunter]

I wish I could say it was done. I don't like to start a project until I know I'll have time. I've been really busy the past couple weeks and I still have a couple things to finish up. Then, my weekends are booked from duck and deer hunting and family time. Depending on how work is going I may be able to mess with it in a week or two...I hope

 

[fool4fish1226]

Boat looks great - lovin the deck - I may steal that someday :beer:

 

[scsdiver]

still trying to get everything smoothed out in the floor and decks and dealing with mother nature. hopefully last night i got all of the screw holes leveled off and some little imperfections fixed. i have been working on getting the consoled assembled and wired and i made some pretty good progress last night. The quad gauge is installed and wired to the terminal block. the radio is installed, speakers connected and tied into the fuse panel and switch. the lowrance is installed and wired into fuse block and switch. all of the switches have on indicator led's so they all have ground and are all independenlty connected to the fuse block. i need to make up the wires to hook up from the terminal strip to the switches for all the wiring that is in the boat that needs switched. I was going to install a seloniod that the master switch would throw to power the fuse block however the selonoid i have is bad so going to the store today to see what i can get. I should get that done tongiht. i will upload more pics once the other wiring is neat enough.

 

[scsdiver]

she is all painted!! we spent all weekend preping and painting. we put two coats of paint on. before we painted i installed some drainage in the floor and some in the rear platform. i angled two 3/4" holes in the back of the floor you can see in the one pic. in the rear platform i two 3/8" holes and used some clear tubing i had to run from the deck to the bottom of the hull. i forgot to take any pics of that but i will later.

 

[Zum]

Your going show up to fish and alot of those glass guys,are going to start thinking aluminum.

 

[scsdiver]

Your going show up to fish and alot of those glass guys,are going to start thinking aluminum.

thanks!! i will deff be lighter! lol

 

[scsdiver]

Your going show up to fish and alot of those glass guys,are going to start thinking aluminum.

thanks!! i will deff be lighter! lol

 

[Bean Counter]

very good job. That deck looks great.

 

[Jonboat Jerry]

Excellent work SCS! I liked the Walnut Shells for non-skid, let us know how it holds up to use.
Very sanitary build.....your Tin is definately going to turn some heads. Any plans for graphics on the sides?
Keep Hacking ...Jerry

 

[scsdiver]

Excellent work SCS! I liked the Walnut Shells for non-skid, let us know how it holds up to use.
Very sanitary build.....your Tin is definately going to turn some heads. Any plans for graphics on the sides?
Keep Hacking ...Jerry

I deff hope you dont mind i am stealing your hatch idea for the bow of my boat! i am going to make the front aluminium area that normally just is a cover into a hinged hatch just like you did!! thanks for the kind words really hope to have it in the water this weekend! I have some tracker logo's i had made that will be going on and i have a new decal set i designed for the outboard to put on yet. no graphics yet we are still working the name and that might have some graphics in it but not sure yet. Im starting to think it should be called gilligan's island since our quick three hour renovation has turned into a four month project! lol but we are both super happy how its coming together and we really are getting everything we wanted and how and where we wanted it. i hope to have some pics up tonight of the poling platform i built.

 

[spotco2]

I'm curious about the changes you made to your rolling and tipping process. That turned out slick!

 

[scsdiver]

I'm curious about the changes you made to your rolling and tipping process. That turned out slick!

well i have been using a very fine bristle brush and switched up for a foam brush to start with. but i tried tipping before hand with a foam brush like i saw so many others do using a dry foam brush and it turned out in my opinion awfull so i went with a good dry fine bristle. well i found that a wet foam brush works even better! and i tipped it in two directions. by that i mean if we rolled it left to right i would first tip it front to back all the way across the piece then i would re-tip it left to right and wow it really seem to lay down i think as perfect as i could ever hope for with a roller and brush. i will post another picture of the bow as it is the biggest flat section on the boat and it really looks like glass. we had to go to my dads and paint as the weather was being tempormental this last weekend and my neighbor came over yesterday as i brought it back home and he thought i had taken it to a place and had it painted it laid down so nice. we were absolutely blown away with the end result. really wish i would have figured out this technique on the bottom.

 

[scsdiver]

trying to stay out of the boat for the week and let the paint cure so working out side i am trying to get the platform finished up and installed. i got the bow lights installed tonight and tested.

 

[Talons]

Awesome bow lights! Where did you get them?
Talons

 

[Crocodile]

I am about to install lights on my tracker this weekend and I like the look of yours. Where did you get them? How much? Details man... We need details.

 

[scsdiver]

I am about to install lights on my tracker this weekend and I like the look of yours. Where did you get them? How much? Details man... We need details.

i cant give out all my secrets now guys! no just kidding these things are very inexpensive. if you search for waterproof led strips on ebay you will find them. i am not sure if i can post a link on here or not. they sell the same lights at autozone,advanced discount, west marine however there ridiculously priced. i had these as i intalled them on our kayaks but i bought a 5meter roll of red and a 5 meter foll of green for about 20 dollars a roll for. if you just want enough lights for a bow about the size of mine a 60cm led light strip would be more than enough and you can cut it down them down to size. you want to get the SMD 5050 led's they 3528 are much cheaper and they are pretty bright but they are not as brights as the 5050 and they are not as efficient battery consumption wise either. you can pick up the small sections for about 2-5 bucks shipped. if you guys like these your going to love our stern lights and courtesy lights. i will take a better pic of them today when i get home so you can see how they install. they are very easy to work with and very waterproof i have them on the bottom of my kayak for night fishing and we may install some on the bottom of the boat after we get it in the water. i have had marine patrol stop me at night just to tell me how bright the lights are tell me how far away they could see them. actually had two sherriff officers come up on me one night and they went about a mile away which was as far as they could go and then came back and said they could see me no problem. my only recomendations is dont put them in a place where you will have to see them there blinding!

 

[scsdiver]

Big Night tonight. been letting the paint dry for a while before we walked on it. going ot get the console installed and all the interior lights, and hatches. unless we have a major issue hope to have her in the water this weekend. It was a big day we finally came to a agreement on the name and it is kind of cheesy but FLATSTRACKER she is.

 

[DaveInGA]

Looking good and the name sounds fine. I sent you a PM with some wiring information I'm hoping will help.

 

[scsdiver]

Looking good and the name sounds fine. I sent you a PM with some wiring information I'm hoping will help.

yes sir it sure did. deff hooked me up with the tach wire unfortunately i found out my brand new tach is bad! go figure. thanks for the schematic though very much appreciated.

 

[scsdiver]

well i suppose the phrase " Bust Out Another Thousand" wouldnt be true if it wasnt a boat. ran into a bunch of non sence little issues. between bad switches and locked up throttle linkages more bad switches, small fire, crappy fuse block and i am pretty sure a bad tach not sure what else can go wrong now. ok enough complaining. console is in and mostly wired up. i say mostly due to our tach issue and the temp horn needing some replacement. all but three lights are installed and have to finish the poling platform to install two of them. we hope this weekend to take her on her maiden voyage. here are some new pics.