93 Tracker - Can of Whoop Bass

[Joshm]

Saw a lot of ideas on here, so I thought I'd share the project I've been working on since October 2015.

Picked up a 93 Tracker Pro 17. Everything on the boat works, so it was a good base.
It came with a 30HP Evinrude outboard and a 40lb thrust trolling motor. Both will be upgraded, but they both work and will be sold off.
I bought this boat to be more of my "river" boat since I don't like to run my 21 glass bass boat in shallow water :shock:

Here she is when I bought it:





Hull is in great shape, doesn't look. Just needs some TLC.

Planned to upgrade both motors, new carpet, new stereo, camo wrap, finish up the top cap of the boat with bed liner and some hyrdo turf. I'll use this boat for duck hunting also so I don't want much aluminum showing. The project is already completed as I waited till I finished to share so updates will be coming soon...

 

[Joshm]

First thing to do was replace the tires with some that have tread on them. As it turned out the rims on both sides were different, and different size. I ended up just putting new wheels, tires, and hubs on it. about $500 with labor, not too bad to make sure it travels around safely.

Was a couple extra bucks to put some nicer wheels on it... why not?

 

[Joshm]

Next upgrade was to the outboard motor. The boat ran about 22-23mp with the 30HP motor. Not quite enough speed and the 30HP did not have power trim which is something I want for running shallow water. Buddy of mine had a 60HP merc with less than 20 hours on a fresh rebuild. Picked that up and sold the 30HP on craigslist.

Install went pretty smooth. Only took a couple hours to get it mounted and hooked up. Had to get some longer control cables and have the electronic choke solenoid replaced.

Boat runs 35-36 on GPS now. Fast enough for this boat, but I think it could handle a 90HP

 

[Joshm]

Next up was the trolling motor. Needed more power for navigating in some current and who doesnt need more power?
Put a 74lb 24v on there. Had to add a battery, but worth the extra weight.

Also laid down some hydro turf and new LED light bars on the front step area to finish that up nicely.




Shotgun shell boxes worked out well to hold the edges down while the contact cement dries:

 

[Joshm]

Next up was to remove the decals on the side and apply a camo vinyl wrap. That proved to be a lot more challenging than I had expected. The first few feet had me ready to just pay a professional to get it done. Even on a flat surface its not entirely easy to get it down without any bubbles in it. After a couple tries I got it figured out enough to get it done on my own. A heat gun and some patience go a long ways. It was just 3x5 sheets that I cut into 10 inch strips. The pattern doesnt match at the seams, but its camo so not a big deal. Looks good enough. I bought the wrap on ebay as well as every other part I bought for this boat.

Hammered the fenders out straight as I could and painted them to prevent any further rusting until I can find some new ones.





Also put a carbon fiber wrap around the windshield since it was pretty worn out. Don't need to see through it since its so low.

 

[Joshm]

I used the boat quite a bit while working on it. At one point I broke the trolling motor head off, was a quick end to my day. A little JB Weld and its still holding up. Likely will have to end up putting a new head casing on it.

 

[Joshm]

The real work started after all these little upgrades. The boat had 2 layers of carpet. Removing the first layer was pretty easy. It was held in by 1000 staples and rusty screws. I was able to get it out without any trouble. A lot of scraping, sanding, cussing, and stripper, and the carpet is off the back deck.



The front deck of the boat is built out of plywood. I peel back some carpet and a layer of the plywood came with it. No-brainer to just cut some new marine plywood and put fresh decking in. When I pulled out the front deck I seen there is a lot of storage that was covered up by the previous deck whomever replaced. I decided to build a hatch over it and add a good amount of storage to the boat.

 

[Joshm]

Before putting in fresh carpet, I wanted to do my painting. Makes sense not to even mess with painting around new carpet. I still did a lot of taping and prep here for the bedliner spray around the top of the boat. I did a bit of sanding and used self etching primer to get the bedliner spray to stick to the boat. If I had to do it again (and likely will) I would not go with the rattle can version of this. It was cheap and sticks well, but it does not hold up as well as I want to impact. I chipped a few buts off while continuing to work on the boat.





This came out looking very nice though

 

[Joshm]

The boat is ready for carpet now. This is the second boat I've done carpet it. Using a new blade every few cuts goes a long ways here. The blades dull quickly and wont make a smooth cut through the rubber carpet backing. I went with 20oz carpet in gunmetal color. Its a blue/gray looking color.
Installed a new marine CD player and 6x9 speakers while I was at it... got to have some tunes second speaker is in a box under the steering wheel.

I used 1.5 inch nylon strap material to make handles for the lids. The handles before were big metal ones, I wanted something more comfortable to walk on.

 

[Joshm]

The boat is called "Can of Whoop Bass" it is sort of a double pun :LOL2:

If nobody else thought it was funny, at least I did :lol:

The back deck has some large holes where the foam goes. The old carpet was so thick that it didn't show through. I filled the holes with foam and did an epoxy over the top of them so I can sand it flush with the deck of the boat and not have the carpet sag through.

 

[CrystalRiverFishing]

Next up was to remove the decals on the side and apply a camo vinyl wrap. That proved to be a lot more challenging than I had expected. The first few feet had me ready to just pay a professional to get it done. Even on a flat surface its not entirely easy to get it down without any bubbles in it. After a couple tries I got it figured out enough to get it done on my own. A heat gun and some patience go a long ways.

Looks good. If you ever want to take it off, the easiest way is to use a little $20 garment steamer. We had to remove the vinyl wrap from our van. It was a nightmare until we figured out the garment steamer trick. Just put some water in, plug it in and wait for the steam. The steam causes the adhesive to let go and the entire wrap will peel right off.

 

[Joshm]

Next up was to remove the decals on the side and apply a camo vinyl wrap. That proved to be a lot more challenging than I had expected. The first few feet had me ready to just pay a professional to get it done. Even on a flat surface its not entirely easy to get it down without any bubbles in it. After a couple tries I got it figured out enough to get it done on my own. A heat gun and some patience go a long ways.

Looks good. If you ever want to take it off, the easiest way is to use a little $20 garment steamer. We had to remove the vinyl wrap from our van. It was a nightmare until we figured out the garment steamer trick. Just put some water in, plug it in and wait for the steam. The steam causes the adhesive to let go and the entire wrap will peel right off.

I didnt have much trouble getting the old stuff off... my misery came in laying the new one down. I used a heat gun on the old tracker decals and got it off in almost 1 piece. There is an art to the heat gun though. Too much and it melts

 

[Joshm]

Bass boat carpet trim here to finish up this piece. I couldn't take the old carpet out here without really taking the boat apart. It made sense time-wise to just cover the old section up and finish off how I did.


Talk about cutting it close on carpet material. I orders 25 ft of carpet for 17 boat. This is all I had left when it was time to do the hatches:



Was able to get it all done luckily. I did end up having to order 5 more ft to finish up inside the hatches.

 

[Joshm]

The boat is about done at this point. I'm supposed to get the cowling back from paint today or tomorrow. I took the old decals off to put on some new ones and it ripped off the 20 year old paint... and cost me an extra $300 #-o
Will post a few more photos once its all together 8)

 

[fool4fish1226]

Nice work and :WELCOME:

 

[Fin_and_Fur]

Nice work looks like I got some more ideas thanks for sharing. This is what I call my 12ft $12,000 bass boat it has a 15hp merc. which is same house as 9.9 boat rated at 10. It goes 21mph and I can launch from my custom made trailer from anywhere. New upgrades for this season include middle seat removal and rear deck all pedistal and seats are interchangeable based on 3/4 bolts with pipe receivers.

 

[kbeazy35]

how did you get the bass boat trim to stay? The stuff I have in seen in stores around me have this peel and stick adhesive..which I don't see how it will hold up to marine conditions as well.. Once I recarpet my boat I'd like to go with this around the perimeter of everything just to sharpen it up.. I plan on using marine vinyl and was hoping it would help over up the 100 SS staples I go around the edge if I don't wrap it underneath.

 

[Joshm]

how did you get the bass boat trim to stay? The stuff I have in seen in stores around me have this peel and stick adhesive..which I don't see how it will hold up to marine conditions as well.. Once I recarpet my boat I'd like to go with this around the perimeter of everything just to sharpen it up.. I plan on using marine vinyl and was hoping it would help over up the 100 SS staples I go around the edge if I don't wrap it underneath.

I bought this here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Marine-Carpet-Trim-by-Trim-Lok-for-Bass-Boats-Marine-Carpet-/272062904501?hash=item3f583678b5:g:33wAAOSwcBhWXeye&vxp=mtr
It has a 3M backing. Its surprisingly strong. My plan was to use a couple of screws + some contact cement, but this is stuck so strong I'm not doing anything else until (if) it falls off. I think the 3M backing is "pressure activated". This didnt mention that, but I've seen some that is. I stuck it where I wanted it, then used a regular hammer to apply some force along the trim and its stuck there pretty solid