Blue's project boat

[New River Addiction]

Looking good! Can't wait to see how the boat turns out. Most people neglect the trailer...glad to see you knock it out first.

[Bluebasser86]

Tires came in today. Almost looks roadworthy now.

[Bluebasser86]

Lights are mounted (they even work!). Switched the jack to the other side so no more worries about busted knuckles from the winch handle. Did have a minor setback when I discovered the bunks seem to have significant wood rot and will need replaced. Probably for the best to just put new ones on now and not have to deal with it a month or two down the road or have one break while loading the boat. Decided I'm going to paint the boat in a camo pattern for duck hunting. Watched enough Youtube videos on how to do it to feel like I can manage to not mess it up too badly, I'm sure I'll prove myself wrong there though.

[Bluebasser86]

Ordered a set of Ultimate Bunk Boards for the trailer on Monday. Had them on my Roughneck trailer and liked them. Very nice for unloading on shallow ramps common on little lakes and rivers. Tried my hand at a camo paint job on the boat after watching several Youtube videos, turned out pretty well for my first time doing it.

[boostr]

What boat, I just see a field of dried grass...

[lo n slo]

booster beat me to it

 

looks good blue!

[Porkrind]

Ok I have stupid rookie question. What’s the easiest/safest way to get the boat on and off the trailer when redoing the bunk boards, working on the bottom of the hull, etc...?

[Bluebasser86]

2 minutes ago, Porkrind said:

Ok I have stupid rookie question. What’s the easiest/safest way to get the boat on and off the trailer when redoing the bunk boards, working on the bottom of the hull, etc...?

For working on the trailer I just take it to the nearest lake and tie it to the dock while I do my trailer work. If you're working on the underside of the boat, will depend a lot on what type/side boat.

[Porkrind]

@Bluebasser86 primarily for working in the underside of the boat. My boat is pretty much the same model as your project boat. It’s an 86’ 16ft MonArk with the single console. the reason I ask is because I seen your thread and I thought what the heck I got the time to redo it so I’ll be starting to work on it soon. Only real reason I need to get to the underside is to strip the god awful paint that someone used on it. Hull is in good condition, so the boat is off the trailer for that I’ll be redoing the trailer as well.

[Bluebasser86]

2 hours ago, Porkrind said:

@Bluebasser86 primarily for working in the underside of the boat. My boat is pretty much the same model as your project boat. It’s an 86’ 16ft MonArk with the single console. the reason I ask is because I seen your thread and I thought what the heck I got the time to redo it so I’ll be starting to work on it soon. Only real reason I need to get to the underside is to strip the god awful paint that someone used on it. Hull is in good condition, so the boat is off the trailer for that I’ll be redoing the trailer as well.

I just pushed the boat off the trailer and flipped it over myself.

[Porkrind]

Ok cool, my mind must think my body is a wuss. Lol

[Bluebasser86]

12 minutes ago, Porkrind said:

Ok cool, my mind must think my body is a wuss. Lol

It was not an easy task. Thankfully I still have some youth and size on my side.

[Fishing Rhino]

I'm having problems with the pictures on this thread.  The first pictures came through fine then something happened, that blocked the photos from that point on.  Does anyone have any idea as to why?

 

 

 

Thought I'd start this for anyone wanting to follow along. I'm not at all a professional repairman, not even very good at it, but I'm going to attempt to fix up the boat and trailer I recently stumbled across. I only gave $300 for it and all appears to be in pretty good shape, just needs a little TLC and it could be something pretty nice for the little lakes I often fish. 

This is what I'm starting with. Could be used as is, so I don't think it's in that poor of condition, but I want to make it a bit nicer and have something that will last a long time hopefully. It's a 16' MonArk semi-V johnboat.

It has obviously been sitting for quite some time and had a ton of leaves and debris in the bottom, that's all been removed as well as all the old foam and anything not welded to the boat to make things easier and so I don't damage anything that might be salvageable. 

It's a nice wide boat and pretty deep so I'll be able to take my boys out in it once it's fixed up.

Not the 14' it was listed as being.

I've removed the boat from the trailer and hosed the interior of it out to get all the debris out and let it dry really well before I start working on it. The trailer clearly has a lot of surface rust and the old paint looks bad so I'm planning on grinding the surface layer to remove it all. Going to be a lot of work, but I plan to break it down into hour or two blocks of grinding to make it more tolerable. I tried to start it yesterday but my grinder lasted about 5 minutes before it quit working. With a new one in hand, I got about an hours worth of work in on it this morning.

I decided I wasn't going to deal with switching my hitch every time I wanted to use it, so the 1 7/8" coupler had to go.

I got both sides and top of the tongue cleaned off and called it a morning. Probably won't get much of a chance to work on it the next few days at least with Christmas, but hopefully a couple mornings next week.

[J Francho]

41 minutes ago, Fishing Rhino said:

I'm having problems with the pictures on this thread.  The first pictures came through fine then something happened, that blocked the photos from that point on.  Does anyone have any idea as to why?

No idea, I'm having no issues seeing the pics.  Maybe clear out your cache and restart your browser.

[Fishing Rhino]

24 minutes ago, J Francho said:

No idea, I'm having no issues seeing the pics.  Maybe clear out your cache and restart your browser.

It must be the browser.  They open in Chrome, but for some reason, they are not compatible with The Edge browser in Windows 10.  A security setting, perhaps?

[TimberTodd]

The camo looks great. Very nice job on the trailer also.

[J Francho]

16 hours ago, Fishing Rhino said:

They open in Chrome, but for some reason, they are not compatible with The Edge browser in Windows 10.

Edge.  There's your problem.  The worst.  Keep surfing in Chrome.

[Bluebasser86]

Got the bunks installed. Trailer is done.

Power washed the inside of the boat out to get it ready to start the fun stuff.

[Bluebasser86]

Been too busy and the weather has been too bad to do much with it lately but finally got a break today. Got new transom wood installed, which was way more work than I expected. Got the new livewell pump installed, and I got the trolling motor bracket in place. Just run some wires and it will be fishable, but still needs a deck. I have some deck boards for it, but haven't decided exactly how I want to do it yet. Feel like I might need to add one cross member to the front part of the frame. I'm not a little guy and my fishing buddies are all bigger than me, might need a little more support up there. 

[boostr]

On 3/31/2018 at 1:47 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Been too busy and the weather has been too bad to do much with it lately but finally got a break today. Got new transom wood installed, which was way more work than I expected. Got the new livewell pump installed, and I got the trolling motor bracket in place. Just run some wires and it will be fishable, but still needs a deck. I have some deck boards for it, but haven't decided exactly how I want to do it yet. Feel like I might need to add one cross member to the front part of the frame. I'm not a little guy and my fishing buddies are all bigger than me, might need a little more support up there. 

Nice, moving along. Are you gonna seal the transom wood with some polyurethane? What brand TM is that? 

[Bluebasser86]

On 4/2/2018 at 10:55 AM, boostr said:

Nice, moving along. Are you gonna seal the transom wood with some polyurethane? What brand TM is that? 

I already sealed it before I installed it, hopefully last a little longer. The trolling motor is a 45lb Motorguide X3. 

[Bluebasser86]

Haven't done much lately other than install a G-force handle on the trolling motor. I did score a new tiller handle for my 15hp motor I'd planned on using on it though. The knuckles on the original had gotten busted off from the handle bouncing around during hauling when I used to loan my old johnboat out (something that won't be happening with this one, everyone wants to borrow them but nobody wants to take ownership if they break something). I was going to just by the piece that runs through the handle that has the knuckle on the end, but I found the whole handle on Ebay for considerably less than what I was going to spend on that one piece. I'm hoping to get it out for it's maiden voyage this week. I want to use it a bit so I can decide how I want to do the layout for the deck and where I want things like tackle and battery storage before I build the deck. Plus, if there's any leaks they'll be much easier to fix before adding a deck. 

[Bluebasser86]

Took it out for the first time yesterday to a creek off of a reservoir. I was hoping for the big push of spawning bass to have started but wasn't happening. I did manage to catch a fat spawner white bass and a crappie getting ready for the dance, so no skunk on it's first run. 

 

Floated nice and high and didn't seem to have any leaks. I feel like I know how I want the deck to be now too, which was the main point in taking it out and using it before building it. 

[Catt]

And it catches fish to! ?

[TimberTodd]

Awesome the boat is working out and you were able to take the skunk off her.