Lowe 16x48 Restoration

[wyodeputy]

Well I've been away for awhile but I'm happy to be back. My last post was in October and I planned to have my new project by Halloween but the travel arrangements fell through. Luckily my brother went to Texas for Christmas and brought the project boat back. As you can see, winter has hit us hard in Idaho but I'm thankful to have a garage to work on the boat till next spring. Notice the trailer in the background. That'll be a project also, but I'm not sure when I'll get to it. (Can you believe that thing made it from Texas to Idaho?) Anyway, I always thought the boat was 52 inches across the bottom; a tape measure proved me wrong... its a 16X48. So I'll try to change the post headings as I get time .... there's a lot of them.

 

[Waterwings]

Cool pics! 8)

 

[ben2go]

Nice werk.Any clever plans to reuse the old bench seats,foam,and rod racks?

 

[Zum]

Looks like your well on your way.
Nice job,,,pressure washing in freezing tempetures,always fun.

 

[ben2go]

Locate an ice covered hill and go sledding in the boat.

 

[Big Buck]

Looks really good. Keep up the good work.

 

[bAcKpAiN]

Looking good! It always feels good to finally make some progress on a project after a long wait.

 

[wyodeputy]

Day Two: My mudbuddy 45 needs a 19" transom (tall transom). The sides at the back of the boat are 19" tall, so I've gotta match the transom to the sides (about 3.5 more inches). That required the removal of the corner braces. These corner braces are cast-aluminum and handles were molded into them. My Dad used to drag a small shrimp net behind the boat by these handles so I know they're built very solid and I wanted to use them again in the mod. Luckily, they were only welded in three spots; a little work with a saw and grinder freed them up and I'll weld them back on after I get the transom re-built.

 

[FishingBuds]

yep looken good, that thing is gonna be better when your done with it than the day it came out brand new :lol:

 

[wyodeputy]

Nice werk.Any clever plans to reuse the old bench seats,foam,and rod racks?

Ya-know, I really hadn't considered re-using any of those items. I'd like to build some storage boxes but the old seats were built out of thin material and dented up pretty bad. I have a better plan for rod-racks than using the old ones which never worked anyway and ... the old foam is gonna be a new archery target. But hey I'm open to suggestions ... which is why we post here ... right? 'all ears!

 

[Waterwings]

Lookin' good, and great step-by-step pics of the transom work! 8)

 

[Zum]

I have a question.
You have already probably thought of this but is 19 inches going to be high enough?Just was thinking that with the width of your boat plus the weight of your motor,mods maybe it will be to shallow?
No experience here, just thought I'd throw that out there before you start.
Theres always a jackplate mod,that I like watching people build as well.
Nice work,it's going to look great.

 

[taino_racing]

great job even in that cold temp! keep up the great job and pics

 

[baptistpreach]

Very impressive!

 

[Macgyver]

I have always thought that transom heights were @ 15" (short shaft) and 20" (long shaft) ?

 

[wyodeputy]

 

[russ010]

Awesome job! Those are some great pics as well...

Did you use a regular wood blade on your chop saw and table saw?

 

[wyodeputy]

Awesome job! Those are some great pics as well...

Did you use a regular wood blade on your chop saw and table saw?

Yep just a regular wood blade on both. It worked fine but it did get a little warm on the table saw, due to the aluminum pinching the blade on the long cut. Thanks for looking.

 

[CrappieReaper]

Best to use an older wood blade and turn it around backwards. It will cut the aluminum. I would suggest using one that does NOT have carbide tips. I've seen a tip fly off a brand new blade before just cutting wood. Went through to dudes eye and put it out. A fine tooth, non carbide tip blade, (cheap and cheesy) mounted backwards will suffice. I would not try this on thick, or hardened metal, but will work fine on a soft aluminum. Always wear a quality set of goggles!

 

[bAcKpAiN]

I knew a guy that uses a circular saw to cut rebar :lol: