Pweisbrod's 79 18' mr pike DUCK conversion/rebuild

[Pweisbrod]

Well it's official, the old turd on the back of big red is here to stay. Picked up one of these today...

Any suggestions as far as tuneups go?

 

[Pweisbrod]

Got some time to work on the boat while listening to the songs I'll be drumming for at church today, took off all te hardware that was on top of the carpet on the driver side of the boat, and pulled the transom end cap. I will be pulling the entire transom cap to get a look once I get my hoist from the shop for the 300lb pig on the back.

 

[Eddie Spaghetti]

Wow, I have not been "lurking Tin boats for a while". But, imagine my surprise when I ran into Pweisbrod's conversion. I may have the same boat 79 Lund Mr Pike, 16.5 footer. I'm still in the conversion process myself. Mine's taken a while though. LOL. I purchased mine for a fishing boat. Hopefully, I'll get a thread up on-line one of these days. I didn't want to hijack your thread, just a before and after shot as a little incentive. I purchased my carpet from Gary's Upholstery in Tampa, and had it shipped to PA. I used Deko dots on the main deck, and carpet on the casting deck. Marine grade ply for the flooring (one short piece running length wise under the splashwell, and two full strips for the main deck). A heat gun is your friend when it comes to removing carpet glue.

As purchased

Close, but not quite finished

 

[Pweisbrod]

Wow! Thanks for the reply, that's great! I'm hoping to have mine done in April so I'm ready for fishing season, but mine will be geared towards shooting diver ducks on big water with fishing as a secondary. Heat gun is a great idea I had never even thought of! Hope to hear more from you about that boat!

 

[Pweisbrod]

Picked up a few things....


Also got the last bit of carpet off the railing, still have two small sections on the front deck to attend to. Will get pics when I get to work on it next.

 

[Eddie Spaghetti]

Sweet, a shopping trip. Just wait until you start stocking up on stainless hardware. Don't be like me and end up with years worth of SS fasteners. LOL

 

[Pweisbrod]

Ha! I sure hope not to. Stainless is abhorently expensive, but it's unfortunatley what tin boats need! Hoping to get away with as few new fasteners as possible, but well see. Plan is to remove motor this weekend to get a solid look at the transom, and then start pulling up the floor and underlying foam

 

[Scott Mac]

WOW! That is an awsome rig, looks great. Thanks for sharing...keep it goin'.

 

[Pweisbrod]

WOW! That is an awsome rig, looks great. Thanks for sharing...keep it goin'.

Thanks! Hopefully it will turn out nicely.

 

[Eddie Spaghetti]

Ha! I sure hope not to. Stainless is abhorently expensive, but it's unfortunatley what tin boats need! Hoping to get away with as few new fasteners as possible, but well see. Plan is to remove motor this weekend to get a solid look at the transom, and then start pulling up the floor and underlying foam

Fastenal or McMaster-Carr are your friend! :lol: Is your foam bad? Even though my floor was crap, the foam seemed to be in decent shape, so I left it. Where is all the water coming from that ruined the foam? So, what kind of plywood you going to use? Lots of different opinions, so I say to each his own. I went with the marine grade (cha ching), and a couple coats of Boaters Choice Fiberglass Resin. If you go with the resin, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS. I kind of lack in that area :LOL2:, and I learned real quick. One thing I struggled with was finding a good screw to attach the flooring to the stringers. I ended up (under the carpet) using a "coated" screw that they use when building aluminum utility trailers. We'll see how well they hold up. Where I put the Deko dots, I face screwed, and used a SS self-tapper, and a finish washer. Gotta be careful, those stainless heads rip right off! Did you find any carpet yet? Don't skimp on that or the glue. I used Henry 663. I think I got some from Ace Hardware. Get the trowel they call out as well - you get good coverage, and not a lot of "slop". I don't know if you've seen this - https://www.lundboats.com/pdfs/old-catalogs/1979.pdf. If you are not on the cover, you are on page 3 for sure. Just pretty cool to see how these looked back in the day.

 

[Pweisbrod]

I have no idea if the foam is bad! I need to pull the floor to get a look at it. My understanding is that the bottom of he foam can soak up water while the top looks fine, so I was goin to poke around a bit and see if its waterlogged or not. If its in good shape, I too will definitely be leaving it as is. I haven't decided on a carpet yet, not I may not even use carpet! There are so many options. Again this will be a duckboat first, and comfort for the rest of the year second. But I sure like the feel of carpet under my feet in fishing season.... I chose an exterior or interior rated sanded plywood that i will be either resin coating or spar varnishing.

Whatever I use to screw the floor down will be better than what Lund used. Ruuuuuuuusty.

Thanks for the reply Eddie. Any tips on removing the very forward most piece of ply with carpet on it, that's half covered by that "hatch?" I need to take a picture.

 

[Pweisbrod]

Did a little work today....

 

[RAMROD]

I like this boat!

 

[Pweisbrod]

Thanks, me too! Just not right now. LOL

 

[Eddie Spaghetti]

Thanks for the reply Eddie. Any tips on removing the very forward most piece of ply with carpet on it, that's half covered by that "hatch?" I need to take a picture.

I'm guessing you mean the front casting deck? I pulled the panel and hatch off, and then the floor. I think the panel was screwed into the floor using "L" brackets, and a couple nuts and bolts up top. Mine was still in pretty good shape, but I decided/had to replace it. I raised the front deck up 4", so there was no "step down" from the live wells. Also, I had purchased a couple hatch covers from Tempress, and they no longer quite fit the original opening.

 

[Pweisbrod]

Good to know Eddie, I'll try and get that piece out tomorrow.

 

[Pweisbrod]

Good news and bad news!

Good news is, there is no more carpet anywhere in the boat. Ripped out the front "storage" and last remaining piece of carpeted ply, which is the only rotted piece I've found so far (surprisingly)

Bad news is, I HATE STRIPPING OUT CARPET GLUE. I'm doing my best to be patient, but the wire wheel and grinder combo is looking pretty good right now....



Things left to do before I can start rebuilding:

-Get rid of all carpet glue, one way or another. I am losing my patience, even though the kwik strip from ACE Hardware works very well in my opinion. I am done with carpet glue, it's taking too much time! I've already spent 10 or 12 hours on trying to get it off the nice way. I'll give it one more session with the strip and scrape method, then I'm busting out the weapons of mass destruction (grinder and whire wheel)

-remove floor, use as template on new ply, possibly remove foam to be replaced.

-use old livewell lids as templates on new ply

-make new covers for rear "pods" where rear casting deck used to be. with cardboard templates to be used on ply

-powerwash the dirty sucker, I'm tired of getting dirty every time I work on it.

-remove wiring and controls from entire boat

-remove motor, store on... something. Not sure yet?

-Inspect transom, probably replace (Actually doesnt look that bad to do, only appears to be a few bolts going all the way through.)




How do I remove the wires that go from the controls to the motor itself? Do they disconnect on the motor side, or the control side? I don't want to ruin anything while trying to take this thing apart. This is going to be fun once I can start putting it back together! I will get some pictures once I get all carpet glue and residue gooooone.

 

[Eddie Spaghetti]

I'm no expert. But, I would guess that, the control wires go up into the motor under/thru the cover. You should be able to unplug the connector, and pull the wire harness back to the console/controls.

 

[Pweisbrod]

I grew a brain and looked in manual, looks like the control cables detach from inside the controls with a screw and a clip.

Ps, I started wire wheeling the remaining tough carpet glue, man does it feel good to get violent on that stuff! Pics this weekend, hoping to get all flooring out, cut new floor and remove the very last bits of glue.

 

[Eddie Spaghetti]

Sweet. Just don't put too much pressure on that wheel! I had a couple spots where the glue didn't get totally cleaned off. As long as the loose stuff is gone, you'll be ok. If you were closer, I'd bring out a rod locker for ya. The 16.5's had a rod locker in them. I took mine out so I could have two seats right next to each other at the console. I'm going to try and ice fish this weekend. By next week, I'll try and get a post together so you can see how I got from tear down to almost done. Just don't take as long as I have LOL!