skyline223
Well-known member
With Christmas approaching, I have been thinking about what to get my best friend and long time fishing buddy (Hank) for Christmas. He and I fished out of my 12' Starcraft V all summer and had a great time, but whenever he wanted to go fishing he was basically at the mercy of whether or not I could go with my boat.
Hank has a small farm in north Mississippi, and his old jon boat (1980 14' Starcraft) that has been sitting in the weeds rotting away for ages. Also his trailer was broken in multiple places and gradually rusting away. The whole thing was completely unusable. I decided it would be an awesome gift if I restored his boat and trailer so that he could use it once again!
So earlier this week I hauled it back to my house on my car trailer and got to work. First thing was to redo the trailer. I sanded the whole thing down, welded the necessary repairs, repainted it, cut and carpeted new bunks, installed new tires, repacked the bearings, installed new lights, winch, jack, hitch coupler, safety chains, and new reflectors as well. That took about two days of work.
Here is the trailer as it was when I had just pulled it from his field. (Forgive the messiness of my garage area)
You can see the almost complete trailer in the background of the photo. This is the boat before I started working on it. I wish I had taken more before pictures! (OK the background is really bad.. the trash was about to be picked up! :lol: )
So I sanded about three layers of old paint off of the entire boat. That was one nasty job, but once it was complete I resprayed the whole boat in zinc chromate and finished in with a satin clear coat. I also coated the floor in undercoating to provide grip and protect against leaks.
Hank always talked about how much he wished he had some nice swivel seats in his boat like mine. So I could not help but install some for him. I also installed a basic fish ruler and a new Lowrance Elite-3x color fish finder. I am really pleased with how it all came out. It is a super simple and clean setup.. now I'm ready to go fishing with him!
As you could see from the earlier photo, the boat was originally named "Achoa". The name has been on there as long as Hank has had it and he does not know anything about the origin. But I will not risk upsetting Neptune so I painted the name back on the bow.
Well that's it! The boat and trailer are now ready to head out to the lake. The entire project took five days. I'll hopefully be unveiling the boat to him tomorrow and am looking forward to seeing his reaction. I'll let y'all know how it goes!
Hank has a small farm in north Mississippi, and his old jon boat (1980 14' Starcraft) that has been sitting in the weeds rotting away for ages. Also his trailer was broken in multiple places and gradually rusting away. The whole thing was completely unusable. I decided it would be an awesome gift if I restored his boat and trailer so that he could use it once again!
So earlier this week I hauled it back to my house on my car trailer and got to work. First thing was to redo the trailer. I sanded the whole thing down, welded the necessary repairs, repainted it, cut and carpeted new bunks, installed new tires, repacked the bearings, installed new lights, winch, jack, hitch coupler, safety chains, and new reflectors as well. That took about two days of work.
Here is the trailer as it was when I had just pulled it from his field. (Forgive the messiness of my garage area)
You can see the almost complete trailer in the background of the photo. This is the boat before I started working on it. I wish I had taken more before pictures! (OK the background is really bad.. the trash was about to be picked up! :lol: )
So I sanded about three layers of old paint off of the entire boat. That was one nasty job, but once it was complete I resprayed the whole boat in zinc chromate and finished in with a satin clear coat. I also coated the floor in undercoating to provide grip and protect against leaks.
Hank always talked about how much he wished he had some nice swivel seats in his boat like mine. So I could not help but install some for him. I also installed a basic fish ruler and a new Lowrance Elite-3x color fish finder. I am really pleased with how it all came out. It is a super simple and clean setup.. now I'm ready to go fishing with him!
As you could see from the earlier photo, the boat was originally named "Achoa". The name has been on there as long as Hank has had it and he does not know anything about the origin. But I will not risk upsetting Neptune so I painted the name back on the bow.
Well that's it! The boat and trailer are now ready to head out to the lake. The entire project took five days. I'll hopefully be unveiling the boat to him tomorrow and am looking forward to seeing his reaction. I'll let y'all know how it goes!
