Hey all.
This would be my first post here. I bought an old 12' boat with trailer last year for $500. I started pondering on making the boat better. Most of the ideas I came up with came from this website so I thought it only fitting that I post the work here.
I started out with a simple idea of decking the front and putting seats in.
After months of searching, I finally happened upon a nice gentleman on Craigslist who had some boat seats that he was willing to part with. Site unseen I drove straight over to his place as I had searched for months and literally no one had any boat seats for sale. They turned out to be great seats and by pure dumb luck were red (which matches my red Ford F150).
After I had the seats, it sparked something that got the creative juices flowing, so I got to work.
I read on this forum that some folks had treated their own plywood to save money so that's what I did. I cut me out a front deck and a back bench cover and got to work. I treated the wood with a substance I found at home depot that is used for deck posts to keep them from rotting while in the ground. I made a door on the front deck so I could toss gear underneath and mounted it all with aluminum bolts and wingnuts for easy removal.
I took the boat out last summer and it worked great. It's a very small boat, but it works for what I use it for. We usually take it to a wakeless lake in Nebraska so the size wasn't much of an issue.
The boat has set in the garage for a few months until recently. My cousin found himself owning a Rhino-Lining machine and after a few beers, we decided it would be an awesome idea to Rhino-Line the boat so it would never leak, I could drag it across rocks with little worry, and I would never have to worry about scratches and dings again. So I ended up on this forum to find out if anyone else had done it. Some had Rhino-Lined the interior of the boat, but I couldn't find anyone who had done it on the outside. Some suggested that the texture from the rhino-lining would slow the boat down, but since I just putz around with a little trolling motor anyway, I didn't see that being much of a problem. Plus, Rhino-Liner can be put on with less texture, or no texture at all if you are careful.
So, we got to work. We stripped the boat down, filled small holes with JB Weld, straightened out the dents, and got everything sanded.
We used self etching aluminum primer that we got from the automotive store and gave it 3 coats.
We then painted a red stripe above the waterline ridge and Rhino-lined the rest.
And here it is on the trailer with the decking in.
I will post some pictures of the decking and the seats later, and get some pics of it on the water once the weather gets warmer.
There is quite a bit that I would still like to do. I am going to sand down and repaint the trailer and paint the inside of the boat. I want to put in a flat floor in the middle section. I would also like to extend from the back bench to the transom with two bins. One for stuff and the other for my trolling motor battery. I want to build in some cup and rod holders and have toyed with the idea of making outriggers (from an article I found on this forum) to stabilize the boat when I have a kid in it.
Let me know what you think and what other ideas you guys have that I should try out.
This would be my first post here. I bought an old 12' boat with trailer last year for $500. I started pondering on making the boat better. Most of the ideas I came up with came from this website so I thought it only fitting that I post the work here.
I started out with a simple idea of decking the front and putting seats in.
After months of searching, I finally happened upon a nice gentleman on Craigslist who had some boat seats that he was willing to part with. Site unseen I drove straight over to his place as I had searched for months and literally no one had any boat seats for sale. They turned out to be great seats and by pure dumb luck were red (which matches my red Ford F150).
After I had the seats, it sparked something that got the creative juices flowing, so I got to work.
I read on this forum that some folks had treated their own plywood to save money so that's what I did. I cut me out a front deck and a back bench cover and got to work. I treated the wood with a substance I found at home depot that is used for deck posts to keep them from rotting while in the ground. I made a door on the front deck so I could toss gear underneath and mounted it all with aluminum bolts and wingnuts for easy removal.
I took the boat out last summer and it worked great. It's a very small boat, but it works for what I use it for. We usually take it to a wakeless lake in Nebraska so the size wasn't much of an issue.
The boat has set in the garage for a few months until recently. My cousin found himself owning a Rhino-Lining machine and after a few beers, we decided it would be an awesome idea to Rhino-Line the boat so it would never leak, I could drag it across rocks with little worry, and I would never have to worry about scratches and dings again. So I ended up on this forum to find out if anyone else had done it. Some had Rhino-Lined the interior of the boat, but I couldn't find anyone who had done it on the outside. Some suggested that the texture from the rhino-lining would slow the boat down, but since I just putz around with a little trolling motor anyway, I didn't see that being much of a problem. Plus, Rhino-Liner can be put on with less texture, or no texture at all if you are careful.
So, we got to work. We stripped the boat down, filled small holes with JB Weld, straightened out the dents, and got everything sanded.
We used self etching aluminum primer that we got from the automotive store and gave it 3 coats.
We then painted a red stripe above the waterline ridge and Rhino-lined the rest.
And here it is on the trailer with the decking in.
I will post some pictures of the decking and the seats later, and get some pics of it on the water once the weather gets warmer.
There is quite a bit that I would still like to do. I am going to sand down and repaint the trailer and paint the inside of the boat. I want to put in a flat floor in the middle section. I would also like to extend from the back bench to the transom with two bins. One for stuff and the other for my trolling motor battery. I want to build in some cup and rod holders and have toyed with the idea of making outriggers (from an article I found on this forum) to stabilize the boat when I have a kid in it.
Let me know what you think and what other ideas you guys have that I should try out.
