Badbaggers SeaArk 1872 Modification & Restoration Project

[bigwave]

Hey thanks Dave. Just in from working my 8 hours lol. The entire inside of the boat inclusive of storage boxes etc will be in Linex. No carpeting.

Yayyyyy, fish blood and carpet do not play nice together. I bet the linex will look awesome.

 

[Badbagger]

Thanks and it should and it'll quiet the boat down a good bit. It is NOT cheap but the hull of the boat books out at $6k and change so figuring I paid $1800 for the trailer and hull, I'll be improving the hull drastically making it basically a new boat and then some and still come in when I'm done at well under what the hull alone is worth.

 

[reedjj]

jealous!

 

[Country Dave]

Very cool brother,

I’m not a big carpet guy ether. I had it on my 1448 and it worked out ok but it was top of the line pontoon boat carpet. I think the look, feel and durability of seadek is going to work good for me. Rhino lining or alike on the floor and seadek on the front and rear decks.

 

[Badbagger]

Seadeck is pretty nice. Fabricator is a dealer and I'm thinking about doing a small helm pad for some added comfort :mrgreen:
Reed, you've got a sweet G3 my friend!

 

[Badbagger]

Stopped by the fabricators this morning on the way to the doc and glad I did since he was about to call me so it worked out. They're TIG welding everything. He expressed a serious concern about welding up the side panels to cover the ribs. There is so much heat that is transferred during the process his primary concern was the aluminum warping even though it's .125 thick. When he welded the trolling motor mount on the front deck, I saw what he was talking about. An area about 1' away where they cut the hole for the anchor box showed a lot of bowed aluminum and the heat transfer bowed it even with a very heavy duty support brace under it. Over a 10" span it bowed out about 3/8" of an inch. He's not sweating that and they'll straighten that out. His concern was after welding the side panels into place was that the heat transfer will follow the path of the least resistance which happens to be between the ribs since there's about 18" of space between the ribs so I'd end up with side panels that would be warped. Not going to happen. The second option was to use rivets and over time those develop issues and need to be replaced and if I were painting the interior of the hull, no issues but I'm going with Linex so rivets are out. On all 3 of my G3 boats, I had rivets that held the floor in place work loose and screwing them into place isn't the best of all options out there either.
So make a long story, as much as I liked the idea of covering up the ribs it's not the best thing to do. Experience tells me that rivets would cause problems as the water on the flats kicks up now and then and the boat will take a pretty good pounding.

They'll be finishing her up tomorrow or possibly later today so the Etec will be off next week and then it's off to Linex.
Finished fab photos to come once she's home.

Bagger out

 

[Pweisbrod]

I'm surprised to hear that he thinks that. As a former tig welder, you have the ability to do some pretty "cold" welds. Especially if you do them an inch or so at a time and move to a different area of the project. A certification test I passed at 19 to weld oil refinery gear required me to weld two 1/2 inch thick plates together without melting a wax line drawn on the metal about 2 inches from the weld. I think your fabricator could do it, it would just take a lot of time. Warp would be incredibly minimal at absolute worst if he did small welds on different areas of the project allowing each weld to cool to room temp before returning to that area.

That said, I'm just a knucklehead!

 

[Country Dave]

No rivets bro,

The wire feed welder works good and much less heat. But hay I think the ribs give that boat it's character.

 

[Badbagger]

Thanks for the input and much appreciated. I don't know much about welding but even if it "might not" warp or if there was "minimal warping", it's something I would just not be happy with and no sense to take a chance and kick myself in the azz down the road. Thanks Dave and he did mention a couple of options but told me it "might" or "might not" but wanted me to be aware of it and said it's a cosmetic issue with the warping if there was any and true indeed but covering the ribs in the first place was for cosmetic reasons.

 

[Pweisbrod]

I hear that, no sense screwing up the boat. We want pictures!

 

[Badbagger]

Hopefully completed fabrication photos tomorrow or by mid-day Saturday for certain. Not going to risk doing anything to screw up the beast.
Finally got a name picked out and it'll be revealed once the build is completed with the final photos.

 

[Country Dave]

Hopefully completed fabrication photos tomorrow or by mid-day Saturday for certain. Not going to risk doing anything to screw up the beast.
Finally got a name picked out and it'll be revealed once the build is completed with the final photos.

Can we guess. I say “Ark of the covenant” :LOL2:

 

[Country Dave]

BB,

Give us a hint on the name brother. I bet I can figure it out. :LOL2:

 

[Badbagger]

Lol... I'd give you a $100 bill if you did!

 

[bigwave]

Hey BB, I like the fact that your sticking to true naval tradition.......you never reveal the name until you finish the boat. Never change the name, bad luck [-X hmmmm that being said......could we guess.......?


Better than Dave's :mrgreen:

 

[Badbagger]

Sure yall can guess all day long but won't be revealed till she's ready to get wet.

 

[bigwave]

Same with me......I am real close to splashing mine......she will be christened with silver bullets and blood........ :lol:

 

[Country Dave]

Lol... I'd give you a $100 bill if you did!

Ok all good but give us a clue at least. :LOL2:

 

[Paul Marx]

My guess would be .........................Miss Lotta Nookie =D>

 

[Badbagger]

"Clueless" - Moving on, my seats came in today and here's a crappy cell phone pic. Planning on mounts for my Garmin GPSMAP 720S and presently price shopping on the Lowrance HDS GEN2 12 Touch. Garmin will be my primary GPS and the Lowrance used for down and side imaging. Called the fabricator too late on Friday so I've got to wait for Monday for an update and pickup time. Etec gets pulled Wednesday and I'll start to prep the beast for Linex the following Wednesday which will take a week. Should be picking up the trolling motor soon. Since these electronics are so damn sensitive I'm rethinking electrical and will probably end up with 4 batteries. One dedicated for starting only, two house batteries for the trolling motor and bilge pump and misc other things and then a 4th house battery strictly for the Garmin and Lowrance units. Going to be battery heavy :shock: