'88 16ft V mod. muskiecraft

[jasper60103]

danmyersmn,
...
Also, thanks for the detailed pics on the pulley and guide. I'm a little concerned about mounting them that low. It seems too close the water line? I will think on it.

Thanks again.

Second thought, I may just attached the pulley to the floor board.

They are not as close to the waterline as you may think. If you look at that picture you are not looking at the floor. That is the front casting deck. The front deck is resting on top of the bench seats. That's pretty high above the waterline. If you think it through you will find a good way to mount the setup in your boat that works how you want it too.

Ok, I see what you're saying. I may take that approach after all. I don't want the rope to interfere with storage either. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[danmyersmn]

A few days back I started filling holes in my hull. I have lots of them from the previous owner and his love for attaching stuff.

So....drill out pop rivits and clean up the metal.

Add Acetylene and Aluminium brazing rods.

Plug the holes. Notice I got too hot with the Acetylene and started to burn the hull. I suppose that's the down side of using free gas. My fishing partner is a master plumber and had this tank. I was out of MAPP gas and didn't want to use propane so i opted for the Acetylene. It will clean up though so it's not an issue that I feel needs further attention. I added material with the rod to fill from both sides of the hull.

The repairs are cleaned up using an 80grit flap wheel and I gave them a skim coat of JB Weld on both sides to fill any pin holes and block sanded it with 400 grit. This is enough of a repair for what I need. The repairs are likely to still be noticed under the paint when I am done. Even if they are. I am not planning on filling every scratch or banging back every dent. This is a 10 footer fishing machine not a brand new show stopper so its more about function.

I filled 10 holes. I still have 5 I believe on this side then I can go to the other side. The transom has 6 holes in it from various trolling motors but I have a different plan for repairing those. Now I need to put everything back together and prep the boat for this weekend.

 

[huntinfool]

Keep up the good work!

 

[jasper60103]

danmyersmn,
the project is moving right along, and good luck with the muskies.
I'm hoping the rain will hold out, even though we desperately need it. I want to tune my carb.

 

[danmyersmn]

Not much to update but I was able to apply my decals. I am loving the way the motor looks now. Makes the boat look sad.

Old

New

Planning to go on a overnight musky trip to Mille Lacs this weekend then I need to decide if its time to tear the boat apart or wait a few more weeks.

 

[jasper60103]

Planning to go on a overnight musky trip to Mille Lacs this weekend then I need to decide if its time to tear the boat apart or wait a few more weeks.

yea, I say give a 2-3 weeks. We still have some decent fishing days left.

In the spring, I went on a bass hunt with my Dad in Tn. It was 50-60s and high winds, but the stripes and bass were hitting like crazy. That was the best 2 days of fishing I had all year.

I didn't get a chance to tune my carb last weekend. Got busy around the house. I plan to get out on the water one weekend, hopefully.

Your motor looks great!

 

[CRAPPIE_SLAYER]

Wow! the motor looks just fantastic! =D>

 

[danmyersmn]

So I was able to get some work done. I was debating over and over about my bench seats and after seeing what CrappieSlayer was doing I finally took the plunge and decided to yank them out.

I cut the front bench top and rear out. The front of the front seat is where the forward platform is going to start so it stayed in.

Plantform supports.

The sides are going to be boxed and tied into the floor. You can also see how I am tying the old bench supports into the new framing as well as how I am tying the floor into the bottom of the boat.

Where the second bench was located I am building a little bump out from the new sides. Battery will be stored here on both sides. I am going also planning to mount two seats here for my boys using some form of removable mount.

Decking is going to be wood and the faces are all going to be .040 aluminum. I traded an engine stand and 4 wheel dollies for the sheet of aluminum and a stereo so that is what I will be using. I ran out of Aluminum angle so that's it for now.

 

[CRAPPIE_SLAYER]

Lookin' good. Think you'll be happy with the space opened up by removing the benchs, I know I am so far. Tying the old seat brackets into the floor should keep it nice and rigid. Can't wait to see the rest of the build! By the way, love the drawing on the side of the boat :LOL2: .

 

[masterofillusion]

Looks great, you are way ahead of me. I have a question. The aluminum angle is 45 degrees, the side of the boat is at a slant. My boat has slanted sides. How are you going to make that work? I will need to make some adjustment. I wanted to attach pieces of angle to set the deck on. Thanks

 

[danmyersmn]

Looks great, you are way ahead of me. I have a question. The aluminum angle is 45 degrees, the side of the boat is at a slant. My boat has slanted sides. How are you going to make that work? I will need to make some adjustment. I wanted to attach pieces of angle to set the deck on. Thanks

I hope I don't make this more confusing by trying to explain it more.

I knew I wanted a shelf on top and I decided that I could use the existing seat supports to set the width of the top of this "side shelf" (I don't know what better to refer to it as #-o ). I took a piece of angle aluminum and clamped it too the two the supports. I also decided to slant the front part slightly. The "side shelf" starts at the same height as my front casting deck. I then angled it up slightly to the height I was going to build the battery boxes. From the battery boxes I am going to extend it all the way to the stern at the same height as the battery box.

Once I had the width of the top of my "side shelf" set. Then I eyeballed it from the outer edge to come down at an angle that would encase the current seat supports. You can see what I mean by this in one of the first pictures of my last post. I wanted to keep this "side shelf" as narrow as I thought I could get away with and still have the support and strength I was after.

Now that the sides of my "side shelf" are mounted to the floor I plan to hang angle for the floor off of each of the side pieces like this.

Then I will bring a short piece down from this support too the floor in two spots across the middle of the boat like you see here.

Then when the framing is done for both the sides and the floor I will have an aluminum face and wood decking. Here is the concept using some scrap aluminum and scrap wood. I hope it makes sense.

Clear as mud?

 

[danmyersmn]

Here is another pic to understand better.

 

[masterofillusion]

The second to the last photo, where you have the short horizontal piece riveted to the side of the boat, that looks like its angled up. That is where I see a problem for me. I don't think I can bend the angle down enough to make it level across the boat. Is there another option? Great job by the way. I went to harbor freight and bought a 6" cut off saw for 39.00. Saves me a lot of time. I was using a air cut off tool. Now I can cut any angle also. Thanks for the reply.

 

[danmyersmn]

OH, I see what your saying. The horizontal piece that is riveted to the boat. The top of that will be at too much of an angle if it is mounted to your boat wall? Well, to be honest, those pieces are at an angle on my boat as well. They are not perfectly level. I noticed the same thing when I fastened mine to the boat and I decided I am not concerned with this. The entire top decking of this shelf is going to be one piece of 3/4" wood. It does not bother me that the entire flat surface of the angle is not touching the wood. It will have enough support with the wood resting on a portion of the angle. If you wanted too I suppose you could use a angle finder and find the right angle and bang on the piece in a vice until the angle will give you a flat edge. Or, set your aluminum angle 1/4" down from your finished deck hight and rip a piece of 1x1 wood to an angle on the bottom to compensate. That's the nice thing about building these rigs how we want them. We can alter plans as needed for our vessel.

 

[masterofillusion]

Ok I will lower it a bit, that should work. It should be strong enough and you can't see it any way. Its supposed to rain this weekend so I plan on bustin a.. on it. I bought some speedgrip from norton to glue everything. Less riveting. cya

 

[danmyersmn]

Here is an update. I have all the seats removed. I have the both front side supports and the front of the battery box done. The rear portion of the floor is starting to come together and the rear casting deck has started coming together. I had a leak in the floor where two rivets where missing. I installed both of those again and I am confident they are sealed. I had decided against using steel-flex so I decided to seal any possible leaks in the rivets from the top side.

 

[jasper60103]

wow, she's coming along. Good job!

edit: I meant to ask how did you paint your outboard?
Did you use a sprayer? What kind of paint?
It looks great.

 

[danmyersmn]

I used rattle can paint for my motor. For the top I removed the decal's and gave it a good sanding. next I washed it down with degreaser inside and out. Cleaned the outside with acetone and sprayed it with sanding primer. Another quick sanding and another spraying of different color primer. Sanding to find the lowspots. Filled them with filler (bond-o). sanded, one more coat of primer final sanding and sprayed with three coats of paint with wetsanding between each. Then I bought the sound deadening foam and decals from evinrude and applied those.

For the rest of the motor I used a brass wire brush and lots and lots of degreaser and water and cleaned it up. gave it a sanding to roughen up the paint and washed it a final time with acetone. Then I sprayed it with zinc chromate primer where any metal was exposed. I gave it two coats of paint with no wetsanding. I didn't feel it was worth the work to try and wetsand all the areas on the lower end of the motor so I didn't. I applied the decals for the bottom portion and called it good.

Paint and primer was this:
https://www.moellermarine.com/aftermarket/marine_paints/engine_paint/

 

[jasper60103]

I used rattle can paint for my motor. For the top I removed the decal's and gave it a good sanding. next I washed it down with degreaser inside and out. Cleaned the outside with acetone and sprayed it with sanding primer. Another quick sanding and another spraying of different color primer. Sanding to find the lowspots. Filled them with filler (bond-o). sanded, one more coat of primer final sanding and sprayed with three coats of paint with wetsanding between each. Then I bought the sound deadening foam and decals from evinrude and applied those.

For the rest of the motor I used a brass wire brush and lots and lots of degreaser and water and cleaned it up. gave it a sanding to roughen up the paint and washed it a final time with acetone. Then I sprayed it with zinc chromate primer where any metal was exposed. I gave it two coats of paint with no wetsanding. I didn't feel it was worth the work to try and wetsand all the areas on the lower end of the motor so I didn't. I applied the decals for the bottom portion and called it good.

Paint and primer was this:
https://www.moellermarine.com/aftermarket/marine_paints/engine_paint/

Sounds good. I'll put that on my To Do list. Thanks.

 

[danmyersmn]

Was able to work more today. I am home with both of my boys. They both have H1N1 so I am just watching the fever and making them stay in bed.

I am tired of working on the framing with the angle so I decided to spend the day working on other things. I hooked up the speakers and radio I acquired to see how they would work. The appear to work fine. The CD player on the radio doesn't work but that isn't an issue. I wanted the "radio" part of it.

After that they went back on the shelf and I stared working on some of the aluminum paneling.

Then I used some pink foam and made a box of pink foam strips and gorilla glue. I then glued it to the side and used some wedges to hold it in place. The whole point is to make an open box that wont fill in when I use A/B foam. I am going to cut a hole in the front here and that is where the speakers will install.

The pink foam will keep the void open and allow me to have a cavity for the speaker.

I broke my drill bit so I went to buy a new one and grab some 5200 to fill the corners. Cabelas was out of 5200 and I forgot the drill bit so that was it for today. I am thinking about using PL polyurethane construction adhesive for the corners so that I can paint it. Thoughts?