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It finally happened. I pulled home a 1996 Ranger R70! Its mostly in pretty good shape, but I suspect it has been fished pretty hard since its loaded with a nice amount of accessories. It has a 2001 125 Mercury ELPTO that appears to come off of a Tracker boat based on the cowl decals. As far as accessories it has: 80 lb 45" shaft Ultrex w/ iPilot Humminbird 898c upfront Humminbird 997c at the console MinnKota MK330D 3 bank charger 2 Optimum Blue Top Trolling motor batteries Hydrowave Deck Extension I am making this thread because I am going to do some relatively simple upgrades and couldn't find many details online about the specific upgrades I am wanting to make. 1) FIRST I am going to add a keel guard. It is very clear that this boat has seen some hard beaches. There are a few spots on the keel where the matting is showing that range from 0.5 to about 1.5 inches in length (almost kept me from buying the boat). Fortunately, a guy in our bass club does gel and glass work and all of the areas can be repaired and covered with a keel guard. 2) I am going to add a recessed trolling motor tray. Based on whats out there on the web, there is not a lot of room under the deck to add a tray as the front livewell goes really far up. I plan to add some measurements and nice pics to the web for others to use as reference to avoid losing any structural integrity and to avoid getting into the front livewell (I may convert this livewell to some kind of storage). 3) The boat has a bench seat with a single 6" tear in it. Additionally, its not a big boat and could use some more storage space. So, I plan to replace the bench with some buckets and add a center console/step. I can only currently find one instance online where someone has replaced the seat with buckets and the measurements weren't very detailed. I plan to leave some space behind the passenger seat to fit a net behind and make a place either under the seat or in the center console where a bump board can slide into. More pics

I just purchased a 99 G3 Pro 185. I had it painted with a custom camo scheme, and I had the carpet removed and camo hydro turf installed. A buddy of mine had an extra windshield that is an American flag pattern and it goes great with the boat. The seats are my next project, and I’m thinking about having some custom seats made in an American flag pattern to match the windshield. I’m located in New Orleans so if anyone knows someone near me that would be a plus, but that’s not necessarily a deal breaker. Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

I'd like to install a pedestal seat on my boat's aluminum bench seat. Here is the pedestal I have. Since I can't get under the bench seat to use bolts, any ideas how I can attach the pedestal to the bench? I thought sheet metal screws would be too flimsy. Considered toggle bolts but I'm afraid they might not be strong enough. Any thoughts or other ideas?

I am getting ready to adapt a new 15 foot Wenonah Backwater (square back, Royalex) canoe for smallmouth river fishing and canoe comfort. I plan to rig it with front and rear remotely operated anchors, 55# electric trolling motor, oars and removable padded swivel seats. I want to make all these adaptations without undue damage to the canoe. The bass-type seats are my greatest concern. I don't want to add too much weight to the canoe. I want to secure them (7 inch base) to the 6 inch webbing canoe seats without drilling holes. There was a pretty good discussion of bass seats in a canoe on this forum in May 2007, but no photos. I am sure that some well cut pieces of 3/4 inch marine (?) plywood would be of use. Has anyone recently installed bass type removable seats in a canoe recently? I found some good, but pricey, complete seat units on the NuCanoe site. Mike Creel SC