Inherited a 18ft Jon Boat build along

[SMOOTHboar]

Hello All,

I found this site due to researching info on my new to me old Jon Boat. It is a 1972 Jon Boat. I don't know the manufacturer name. But here is the model number. Maybe one of you know something about it. He said it was made by Oshawa, or some name similar. His health is really bad and he is hard to understand.



This boat belonged to my father in law and has sat since 2002. They recently sold off some land to pay for his medical bills and this boat had been on that land. With no where to put the boat any longer, they finally decided to give it to me. Here it is when I went up to Oklahoma from Texas to get her.



I had to remove a lot of junk from inside, under, and around her to get to the wheels. Before taking her south, I put on new tires, rewired the trailer, and checked the grease in the bearings. I decided she was road worthy and pulled her out.



We covered her with a tarp and drove the nearly 500 miles without a problem.




As you can see I have a 30 hp motor with out the prop or shaft. It's pretty rusted up in there. But that's all I know about the motor at this point. I know nothing about motors. The linkages, cables, wires, and foam are all either dry rotted out or falling apart from neglect. I have a lot of decisions to make moving forward.



I started at the front of the boat. Removing all the old debris, rotten flooring, trolling motor, and the crumbling foam under the front deck. I plan to remove the small deck too and build a nice platform for general fishing and bow fishing.




I also cut off the aluminum seat backs. I plan on pulling out the bench seats, cleaning them up, creating some storage in the front seat and replacing the old foam. Then pop rivet them back in place or a slightly different configuration. Right now, the foam is really brittle I am not sure it would even do much if the boat got swamped.




This boat has a lot of holes in her. A lot!!! She has holes from the old ply wood decking and every conceivable fishing apparatus known to man. I have decided to weld these holes and clean them up. In the front 2/3 alone on the boat. From the console forward... There are 184 holes in the floor and sides of the boat.

My budget is tight so it maybe next year before I can get this girl back on the water. That is of course if there is any water left in Texas. But I will work on her over weekends and nights. Little by little.

 

[SMOOTHboar]

Here is the view of the inside where the prop shaft should be. What do you guys think?

 

[Zum]

Just wanted to welcome you to the site.
That's one long boat to mod up good luck with it.
Sorry about the motor,I'm no help to you there....I do have the same one but my lower unit is intact.
Kinda looks bad to me,I'd check out the power head before I did to much to the lower unit.

 

[Pweisbrod]

Wire brush and oil in that lower unit, I'd try and run it in a trash can of water and change the gear oil a few times over a couple hours. I agree with the other fella, make sure she's a runner before anything else.

 

[SMOOTHboar]

Thanks for the tips. I have located a 50hp Johnson that is in working condition. Meaning it does run. But the electric trim is out. I bought it for the motor, cables, steering console, batteries, and trolling motor. The fella that I got the motor from wrecked his boat trying to beach it. The insurance company paid him for it 18 months ago and he has since bought a new boat. The insurance company totaled out boat and he has kept the totaled boat in storage all this time at a cost of $35 a month waiting on them to pick it up. The insurance company told him that the claim has been closed and settled. I got a pretty good deal I think.

I plan to sell the ruined hull to a scrap metal facility and I will sell the trailer to recoup some money too. I took the boat to a boat Mechanic not far from here. They are going to pull the motor and needed parts and get the motor in good order. I think I may come out ahead on this deal. Time will tell.

 

[Flat Bottom]

Great looking bones you have there, sorry it comes due to a decline in health elsewhere. As long as your not using in a horsepower restricted area I would recommend a little larger engine. Welcome to the large flat bottom club. Not sure what your plans are but feel free to check out my build for thoughts ive got a 21ft flat bottom, again great looking bones cant wait to see what you do with it!

 

[SMOOTHboar]

Great looking bones you have there, sorry it comes due to a decline in health elsewhere. As long as your not using in a horsepower restricted area I would recommend a little larger engine. Welcome to the large flat bottom club. Not sure what your plans are but feel free to check out my build for thoughts ive got a 21ft flat bottom, again great looking bones cant wait to see what you do with it!

I did see your thread. It's a good one! I was able to glean a lot from your thread. I would love more hp!!! But I couldn't pass up this deal on the trashed 16ft tracker. I can use a lot from it and resale what I don't need. I believe I can break even on everything but the electric tiller, paint, and metal work on my boat. My goal is to do the entire resto for under a grand. Thus far I have spent $237.81. Plus $850 for the spare boat, trailer, and motor. I am pretty confident that I can get the $850 back out of the hull and trailer. If not... I'll get as much as I can.

For the 18ftr... I plan on having a fairly large shooting and fishing platform up front. This boat will be a jack of all trades. Perch jerkin, crapie bustin, catfishin, bass chasin, bow huntin, and even pullin the wee ones around on redneck skis (inner tube for you yanks!)HA!!! Might even take it out a few times to the cost for some reds and flounder pounder session. Versatility is what I'm after.

I want swivel chairs on the two forward bench seats. I plan on running some kind of lights inside and outside of the boat to accommodate night fishing. I plan on having a shooting/fishing/pole deck on the rear of the boat. I also want to be able to hide my batteries and gas tank so I will need to close that in cleanly too That will also help serve as the pole deck.

I got some more clean up done last night on the trailer. I replaced the forward crank, installed a new tung jack, and cleaned up several ugly welds with the grinder. I'm headed out of town for a few days and will be gone this weekend too. But I'll be able to think a lot about my next steps. Little by little progress is measured. I post up some picks before I jump on the plane.

 

[Lowe 2070 CC]

Looks like an old Ouachita jon built in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. They went out of business in the 80's and there isn't a lot of info out there. The owner of Weld-Craft was part of Ouachita.

 

[SMOOTHboar]

Looks like an old Ouachita jon built in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. They went out of business in the 80's and there isn't a lot of info out there. The owner of Weld-Craft was part of Ouachita.

That sounds right. He bought the boat in Missouri back in 1973. The trailer is a dilly. I'm waiting on my MIL to mail the title to us. Thank you Lowe 2070 for the information. The boat seems to be hell fer stout! I'm looking forward to breathing life into her. When my wife was little they called the boat the green weenie. I defiantly need to rename her lol.

Here are some pics of what was done last night.

 

[Ryno685]

For the 18ftr... I plan on having a fairly large shooting and fishing platform up front. This boat will be a jack of all trades. Perch jerkin, crapie bustin, catfishin, bass chasin, bow huntin, and even pullin the wee ones around on redneck skis (inner tube for you yanks!)HA!!

I'd say we definitely have the same ideas for our mods! You have a great platform to work with! Will definitely be tuned in and following. Now get to work so I can start stealing ideas! :beer: :LOL2: :beer:

 

[SMOOTHboar]

I'd say we definitely have the same ideas for our mods! You have a great platform to work with! Will definitely be tuned in and following. Now get to work so I can start stealing ideas! :beer: :LOL2: :beer:

I got some braising rods from tractor supply that will make filling in the screw holes fairly easy. I also have a good friend that says he can weld the aluminum. But I thought I would need a tig for that not a ac/dc welder which he has. The hull is... straightish. Just those dang holes. Maybe I should call it the "Holy Floater". It has a few scratches on the belly. But those are easily remidied. I aint gonna make it super smooth as I will more than likely sratch it up in these Hill Country waters.

Biggest problem I have is the foam. The foam inside the bench seating is trashed. You touch it and it crumbles into powder. UGH!!! I will have to remove the benches and replace the dead foam. So when I go to put them back in... I plan to create some storage in the center 2/3 of the forward bench and completly fill the other two with pour in closed cell foam. But that may be uber costly. So the other choice is to pick up some used marine foam on the cheap. Cut it to fit and use spray in foam to glue it up. With all the empty marinas and boat docks here in the Hill Country makes it easy to get my hands on right now. I dont know which way to go yet. What says you Tinheads???

For all the bracing for the platform I will use alluminum angle and rivet them together. I also found some alluminum threaded rivets that I can use to secure the removable platform too. So it would be rather easy to screw in and out the center platform with some round headed allen bolts. Heck it may be just as easy to leave it in all the time like you have it drawn up. I have two kids and a buddy that I always run with who has a kid too. That would be 5 people when we are running with the wee ones. Seating with be at a premium if the wardens want to float along too.

 

[Ryno685]

Are you going to put in a floor or leave it open with the ribs exposed? If you go with the floor, you can always get some closed cell foam insulation 4x8 sheets and cut to size to fit between the ribs. Then lay the floor sheeting over that. Extra flotation is always a good thing.

 

[SMOOTHboar]

Floor and yes foam in the flooring.

 

[Flat Bottom]

I think the engine you got off the scrap boat will better suit ya, I didnt see that when I first posted, a bigger one might pop up in the future even!

 

[SMOOTHboar]

I can only hope! I would love a 65 and a slaved 9.9 kicker.

 

[Flat Bottom]

It could happen! I use a late 80s 15 hp mariner as my kicker mainly because it came with a 14ft jon I already had, little overkill prob but my boat is heavy and it runs pretty good. I cant wait to see how your build goes, not sure if I said it before but I really like the bigger longer builds beause its neat to see other styles and get some more ideas for my boat

 

[SMOOTHboar]

I am going to remove the old motor this weekend and prep the boat to be removed from the trailer and sat on saw horses. I won't begin patching the holes or rivets with welds until I have cleaned the surface and removed everything that isn't staying. So that's the major plan for this weekends build.

Oh! Check this bit of news out. While out and about today, I found some 21ft of blue rope light at a swapmeet. There are seven 3ft sections! I bought it all for $21... Only a $1 per foot. All of them work. I plan on using these to light the inside of the boat at night. I will have maybe two of these left over so I can make some submersible lights out of those dudes. I am going to fed ex them back home in the morning. I'd say this has been a pretty good business trip. I fly back tomorrow evening. Little by little.

 

[Ryno685]

Just curious on how you plan on getting your boat off the trailer. Still kinda sketchy on that part of mine. Thought about getting three or four more guys and lifting it off the trailer, then again it sounds like I might get some more wrinkled up aluminium doin it that way. Lol!

 

[SMOOTHboar]

I plan on getting several friends over to help me get her up and off.

 

[SMOOTHboar]

I was told today that I can't simply swap drive systems from one boat to another without spending major coin. I was quoted $125 per hour with a minimum of 4 hrs per boat. Plus they would not be able to reuse any of linkages, wires, steering or throttle out of the ranger. The reason given is that the ranger components won't mount up to my boat. What says the Tin heads?

I know very little about these things. But it sure seems like one should be able to at least strip everything out of the ranger and move it over to the new hull. Maybe I just don't need a professional to help me. I'm a little deflated, a lot confused, and even more determined to make this happen. Thanks fellas for the advise.