Ouachita 1244 hand-me-down and 1st mod attempt

[NickWa1980]

I recently picked up a 12' Ouachita jon from Wisconsin. My uncle got it for free from someone, then he gave it to my old man and he in turn let me have it. Not too bad of shape, but needs work. I stumbled upon this site and for the past two weeks have been researching jon boat mods and here we go! I'm on a very tight budget and will have to use whatever I have laying around the house/garage and what I can find for free at the moment...any ideas or help would be great! Cheers!

 

[NickWa1980]

Here's some work I did to it just after those initial pictures were posted...I plan on making a deck from the front edge of the middle seat to the front of the bow. Not to completely disrupt the structural integrity i left the front panel of the seat in which in turn I will reinforce one way or another. I left about an inch of aluminum and folded it over. The wood in the back was completely rotted out and was removed. My poor sawzall blade got bent, but worked out great to cut the seat out along the floor

 

[Smokey496]

Keep up the good work.

 

[NickWa1980]

Began cleaning up the jon today with pressure washer...worked well and looks great. I filled it with water to find all the leaks...4 major ones and a couple rivets. Hopefully this weekend my cousin can weld em up for me and I'll be good to go!

 

[NickWa1980]

I've been contemplating what to use to frame the back and front decks out for some time now and was completely set on using wood when low and behold...I found aluminum! I was doing a job last week and the customer was throwing away some shade blinds for their green house off the kitchen. I took them thinking i could use them in my house when i realized that each blind contained 3 aluminum bars! I now have 6 over 10' long and 3 at 32"! This should be ample to frame out everything I need and then some!!! I was like a little kid at xmas ripping open gifts, tearing the fabric away and cutting all the lines intertwined throughout. These blinds must have cost a fortune!!! Good day!

 

[Smokey496]

Awesome