Duracraft duck build

[DuckSmackinDuraCraft]

New to the website. New to aluminum boats. Just wanted to share my current project with everyone. It's a duracraft 1436 (model 1517 I believe). I'm gonna be turning it in to a duck boat. I'm very new so always up for suggestions. It's in pretty rough shape but that's the fun part right? I'd love to hear some ideas. So far I have sort of put together a priorities list (not including trailer and motor, they will come haha).

1. Remove the transom. It's beat to heck. I'll be drilling out rivets and using bolts with washers. I know a lot of people throw some gluvit under the washer. What do y'all think?
2. Of course sand the whole thing and get it prepped to paint. I know a lot of people have removed bench seats and I know that in order to do it right I will need to take these out to really do a good job on the paint. How do y'all re attach seats? It will be tough to do rivets with how low the bench comes down.
3. Get it primed and get the base coat at least painted. I haven't come up with a pattern or colors. I'm very open to suggestions. I do most of my hunting in Georgia. Not the coast though.
3b. I know steelflex is always a controversial debate. But my thinking is I occasionally will have some beaver dams to cross. I'm only gonna have a 9.9 on here and I don't want to try jumping it (haha I haven't gotten my gator trax supersport yet ). I feel like if i do it right, it should add a little strength and I'll be able to drag it over mostly anything. What do y'all think? Waste of time and money or good idea?
4. I already have a pretty good idea for a blind setup, but I wanna get the boat functional first.

I'm excited to get the project started this weekend. Hopefully get 1 and 2 done

https://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j400/ckasten2/duck%20boat%20build/532310b3.jpg

https://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j400/ckasten2/duck%20boat%20build/c30e1949.jpg

 

[papa]

I like to use neoprene washers under the flat washers on any bolts going through the transom or any place prone to leaks, on the outside against the hull, no gooey stuff needed. Just a thought

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

I used 3M 5200 on bolts that are under the waterline and rubber washers on bolts above the waterline that I might have to remove.

 

[DuckSmackinDuraCraft]

So the plan for the weekend was to strip the paint down with a product i got at lowes. While reading the fine print (glad I did), it can only be applied in less than 85 degrees. It was above 100 so I am going to try again early in the morning of the 4th of July.

On the transom side of the project, I think I'm gonna use the 3m 5200 for all the bolts/screws under the water line. My question is, do you think I should try to find the same size screws and bolts or maybe re-drill the bolt holes and go a bit bigger. The some of the bolts are in rough shape (rusted) so I bet the aluminum under might be in bad shape too.

On the underside of the boat, I guess a previous owner used some sort of epoxy to fix a hole, and then tried welding from the inside and it kind of burned a little bit off of it. When i patch this hole up right (I said I'd be using gluv-it so not exactly right) do I need to completely remove this epoxy first? Or do you think I need to repair it another way. The whole is about 1/2 inch by 2 inches.

Sorry if these seem like dumb questions. I'm trying to learn, without learning from mistakes haha.

Thanks, hope everyone has a great 4th and God Bless America!

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

When I did my transom I re-drilled for 1/4" stainless hardware. Get rid of the old epoxy and have it mig or tig welded.

 

[DuckSmackinDuraCraft]

Made a little progress this weekend on the boat. The paint stripper did not work as well as expected, but thank goodness for a brother with a wide variety of power tools. The wire wheel and angle grinder made pretty easy work of the old paint job.

I moved on to the transom. Half of the bolts were actually on pretty good shape, but the bolts holding the transom brace are rusted very badly. I could not unscrew them so I attempted to drill them out. What is the best way to go about this? My drill bit actually wore down. Do I need to grind off the head of the bolt and drill or do i just have poor drill bits?

Thanks in advance guys, ill try to post some more pictures later in the week.

 

[vahunter]

I believe your supposed to use STAINLESS wire wheels. Not positive though. Make sure that is what was used (if I'm correct)

For drilling, it could be cheap drill bits. Buy a couple decent drill bits and drill the steel slow, with a good amount of pressure and something like WD40 or even motor oil to keep everything cool and lubed. Worst case grind then, carefully.