My 1986 15 Foot VALCO Mini Bass Boat Build

[WISHBONE]

Ok everybody sorry it took so long to get these pictures out to everybody, I have just been so busy trying to get this boat done before the 4th of July weekend which is only four days away now. I will throw in some little bullet points to some of the pictures. I hope everybody enjoys the build process as much as I am. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I took some pictures of the equipment going into my bass boat. The colors are going to be light gray seat trim with Burgundy trim as well. The outside of the boat is going to get a professional job at my Buddy’s Dealership shop. His shop is a Certified Corvette Builder and repairing service. His team repainted my entire car because I wanted the actual Color that was perfect to prime from the Factory, so $13,000 later and almost 2 months I got my car back. So he is more than qualified to paint the boat. Anyway back on topic, the outside color is going to be burgundy metallic with pearl sparkles. The Banini top is light grey, and the carpet is a dark grey to break up the colors.
Here are some pictures of the weekend I took the girls to San Diego to pick up the boat. Ryan had a really nice new VALCO boat which was 16 foot and had a captain’s pedestal in the middle. It had a whole foot wider at the beam then mine. But this boat was clearly for the ocean, nice rig though and needed some work. He told me it was going to take I’m a long time sense money is an issue.
Ok so here we ripped everything out of the boat.

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[WISHBONE]

Cotinued!!!

Here you see me doing a leak test; OUCH the ocean can be hard on these boats if you come in towards the reef. I spent probably about 25 hours on the underside and I am not done yet. I probably have at least 5 hours left till she is where I want her to be.

 

[WISHBONE]

Continued part 3
Here are pictures of my NEW 1967 Evinrude 18HP OB. I completely rebuilt the lower gear housing assembly and put in a complete seal kit. I also purchased a couple of the gears just for piece of mind. New Prop, spark plugs, impeller, turned her over and she was running like a banshee.

 

[WISHBONE]

Here you see the brand new Transom I built from scratch. It is Fiber Glassed and epoxy resigned the entire transom. I wanted to really beef up this area so I can make plans for the near future to throw a 50 HP motor on the back of it with no problems. I also put on Diamond Plate on the rear so people can get some bling bling looking at my rear end.

We have done a lot more tonight but have not been able to catch up on all of the pictures. Thanks for looking at our bass boat. We are scheduled to have it completely done by Friday evening so we can go out Saturday to the lake.

 

[MallardAddict]

Wishbone

Your right she has seen some better days, but that is a killer hull and trailer for the price you paid and the drive time to get it. those are some seriously stout boats.

It sounds like your well on your way to patching her wounds and making her fit for duty again.

great job so far and i look forward to seeing what it looks like when you have it all done

 

[WISHBONE]

Mallardaddict,

Thanks, Yes she had been in serious battle. I did a lot of welding, molding, hammering, fiberglassing to really hurk up the back end in preperation for the 50 HP motor I look to get in a couple of months, who knows. I still have to do some bodo work so I can smooth out anything left so I can have a real smooth as glass bottom.

Tonight, My wife and I put in two out of the 4 decks and the new design of the bench the kids will be using.Stay tuned I will post pictures tomorrow night.

 

[Zum]

Made me laugh when i was scolling the pictures.
Was looking a your water test thinking,nice no leaks...then holy cow,how'd you evn get water in the boat to check it.
It's looking great,WTG.

 

[WISHBONE]

Ok, to give a little history of what I did to it. The bottom of the boat had TAR on maybe a quarter of the bottom. I stripped all of it off so I could see where the holes were. The damage was not nearly as bad as the TAR made it look like which was a relief. So some of that water is coming from the front end of the boat that was coming down on the carpeted platforms which made it look worse than it is. But yes the boat is now in better strength and condition then it was brand new with the added new strength.

I will say this, My Bass Boat will be treated right and wont get damage like she has been through in the past EVER. But WOW the boat is all welded and besides the hull being thinner guage aluminum then the new expensive boats have. Other then that she is really tough for all of the abuse she has encountered and still survived the storm. In all of my years in the sea going military our can aluminum boats took a lot of abuse and this new boat of mine sure could hang.

 

[Ictalurus]

Looks like you have 2 spray heads on your livewell, what are your plans?

 

[WISHBONE]

Good catch,


Actually I cannot take the credit for the system I have to thank russ010 for that. What we have here are two complete air rating systems. The system with the yellow system is bringing in fresh water and is for the winter when the water temps are cool for the fish. the second system is fo the summer which is a closed recirculating system which takes water from the tank and airrates it and sends it back into the tank. Per russ010's experience adding ice will keep the water temps nice and cool.

MAKE SURE you purchase the correct pumps if you plan on doing this style settup. They are not anymore expensive then the others, but they add air when the water is pumped through them.

 

[clarkbre]

Hey not to rain on anyone’s parade but that leak test looks a little concerning. Not the fact that the boat was leaking but the added weight of the water. A rough estimate is that there was about 2500# (about 40cubic feet of water X 7.48 gallons per cubic foot X 8.35per gal.) of water just sitting in that boat. In all honesty, you were lucky that your boat, trailer, or both didn’t collapse under that kind of stress.

 

[WISHBONE]

clarkbre,

:wink: Thanks for your concern as I am well aware of water calculations. As a Fire Captain for the Fire Dept for 15 years, 9 of my 15 years on the Dept was the engineer of the fire truck, I am very much aware of weights and measures. The boat being all welded could definately handle the stress exerted from the flood test. I was also checking welded seems for rips and tears. I wanted to make sure the boat did not have any unforseen problems when I take my family out on the big lakes we have here in Arizona.

As for the trailer, I was going to rebuild it and was not concerned with the tires as they were going to be replaced.

Thanks again for your concern. :mrgreen:

 

[Froggy]

That is too much water, I would agree with clark, these boats are not build for that kind of stress. just my opinion. Nice Job fixing it up though. Bravo!

 

[Bass Daddy]

Sweet, another Valco!!!
Just one question, did your transom have additional triangle bracing? How easy was it to take out. I have a similar boat it looks a little wider than yours though.
Looks good, nice to see
another west coast guy.

 

[bobberboy]

It's cool to see all the new stuff laid out like that.

 

[WISHBONE]

Yes it did have one angle bracing in the middle but I took it out. I will put more bracing back in it's place. Tonight we got a lot more done and we should be done with the boat this weekend except for the painting on the outside which is going to go to my friends paint shop. VALCO Boats Rock.

 

[Froggy]

Where did you get that hydrofoil? looks good on that small motor.

 

[RBuffordTJ]

I love what you have done, there is a lot of work in that boat. Looks like you got a first mate ready to hit the water and fish with ya too, I hope you both have a blast out there.

Bufford in Orlando