How to restore a 1648 Jon boat @TBNationOutdoors

[Music] we all know what this boat is we've seen it in the back of your neighbor's yard or maybe even your own and time has seemed to got the best of it but it doesn't have to be that way imagine what this boat can be redone to knowing what we know now it doesn't have to be crazy there doesn't have to be a whole bunch of hatches everywhere we just have to build it better with systems that will allow this boat to last more or less forever if done correctly new things that were never done back when this boat was originally created we can do now boats like these were the original Champions and Pioneers of everything we have today their progress led to massive strides in Tournament Fishing and outdoor recreation countless memories from families made on boats like these it only takes one memory to change somebody's Destiny shift their interests and mold their future so it's time to rebuild this thing from scratch better than it ever was before so it can give new memories to the next generation of Sportsmen and leave an imprint to mold their future the way ours was it just needs one thing it needs you [Music] all right first guys I want to do something I've never done in any other video before was talk about the entire process from start to finish if you just want to see how we built this boat go ahead and Skip to this time I understand this process should help you decide whether or not you want to restore that boat you have in your backyard or whether you want to find one on the Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist go through the entire building process from low to high see which one is better for you and whether or not it's actually comparable or able to be the current crop of stuff like this because this is our competition essentially this is what we're going to try to compete against we're going to try to build a better boat for cheaper let's see if we can pull it off so it's 16.8 ft which is like a whole foot longer than I think the boat we're about to build it's just slightly under 16 4' 6 in bottom beam 6 in wider Max is a 58 horse that's about the same feel 6 gallon fuel so three persons 5 F5 1,700 lb that's crazy probably that motor adds quite a bit more weight to it I mean the whole package pre-prep with Freight and this is not including this might include taxes but it's really close to 20 grand right now so what do you get for that let's check it out get a solid aluminum frame that's good you would think they would get rid of this but apparently it's just like a key thing where they love to have that little bottom side hatch that you got to bend down to get anything out of got a Mota Edge I'm hoping that's a 55 lb but it's likely a 45 a 45 lb minota Edge believe or not will pull that boat pretty good the side storage for the rods I do like that we can integrate that idea some courtesy lights some basic carpet which I think we can maybe do a little better than the carpet a fairly spacious cockpit which I think because we're going to make a rental boat the space inside the cockpit is a very key thing to do so we're going to probably go ahead go with that little standard fish finder Little Hook Forex we can do that gauges ignition throttle controls cup holders we can do that too storage underneath the seats pretty good considering there's not a whole lot of places to add the storage in the boat because it's so small so you either eat up on cockpit Space by making storage or you got to put it somewhere else so storage underneath the seat seems like a pretty good idea the back deck looks pretty basic back hatch for the gas tank and probably the batteries yeah there it is even still more room to put stuff back in there it's pretty spacious that wider top and bottom beam matters likely on the sides of the front and back compartment that's all foam this is what we're looking at for like the max amount of storage we can duplicate that but probably not right there we're going to probably duplicate this in the front and get rid of that little bottom side hatch thingy in the front the live well this is I've never been a fan of it I understand why they did that because they integrated the console into the live well but that just makes the boat probably lean more on the right when that thing is completely full plus that live all is just small and I think insufficient for any sort of real Tournament Fishing it it would it would make it but it's that's not impressive so I think this boat would definitely need at least a 50 horse I don't know that boat's pretty heavy I don't know if it'll run with a 25 but our boat doesn't need it it's rated up for 50 I think rated up even for 60 but a 20 it probably would plane with a 20 horse and a 25 would be more than sufficient to get it around 20 to 25 mph okay I really like this boat but not for 20 grand truth be told I can probably replicate this boat build it a lot better in certain spots and even if I have to get a motor I can still get away with pretty much the same exact boat for only 10 grand and if I can get uh cheap boat with a working motor it's even maybe a third of that cost here's how I would do it first off if I didn't already have this boat sitting in the back of my yard waiting to be redone I would just go on Craigslist or the Facebook Marketplace like here and generally there's a steel of aluminum boats some people have them overpriced they want too much money for junk so you just got to shop around and find the right ones some of them you can find with a steel with a fairly good working motor maybe the interior's a little shot they just want to get rid of it and those are the ones you need to move on like this one is a pretty good deal this one this one's sick it's not even a jbo but man I like that man I can't figure out why I like that boat so much check out this one that's a steal for a working motor like less than 5 grand oh but this one is the one we were looking for the gem 1,900 could probably talk him down to 15 if I'm really serious so I'm going to sit there and haggle with him and get on a consenting price even if it is, 1900 it's still a steel it's a perfect frame for what I need after you've got your project boat hop on over here to TB nation.net this is where we're going to be sourcing pretty much everything we need to build this boat we're going to be using the 1648 johnboat to bassboat Kit which will work on 16 to 17t John boats but you can also get smaller weekend warrior kits for like 1436 John boats and up as well as aluminum deep V build kits so anything you really need but this is the base kit we're going to be using today you have three choices to choose from the standard which is just the basic Betty bare minimum we give you one more hatch that you can use as a live well and also this is the deluxe with a rod locker and you can also just search dry hatch and then a bunch of other size hatches can pull up and you can just add and put stuff wherever to make your own specific kit for yourself but right now this is just a good base that gives you all these things by the time you get a 16ft boat you have the actual option of adding a console without cramping everything else in the boat so I really do want one so if you can reuse the one in your boat right now great if you have to weld one you know that's great too but it's so much easier and cheaper just to go check out our RPD consoles the 1422 side console kit is actually very good quality I know these pictures don't do it much justice but they are pretty rad very thick durable they're everything you need they even got a little side bevel that Contours to the side of the hole to keep your throttle control straight they have brackets add-ons and they even have center consoles and a bunch of other stuff we're also going to get por foam we're going to get three kits each kit equals 200 lb of Reserve buoyancy 900 lb well over whatever the boat had in it initially we're also going to be needing wiring kits we're going to be using a basic kit which is the basic Betty run-of-the-mill the deluxe if you're just want to install a lot more including a breaker and six gauge wire for the trolling motor and then we have our premium which is you're trying to wire a whole lot of things and then our Supreme which comes for all of that plus a safety kit and I think a wiring base for all the new age UHD fish finders which is why that like six gang fuse block is there but we are going to choose the basic kit because that's what we actually installed in the boat but then we also went and got our electrical safety kit which is the bch pump B hose and nav lights which is the bare minimum that anybody should ever have in their boat and now on to the decking now we're huge fans of EVA foam the lids if you get them stock with the kit um they're gap for EVA foam or paint or whatever and we are specifically fans of hydr turf because of how robust and durable and how awesome it looks and there's a million different cam colors anyway from actual true outdoor camo colors two flamboyant flashy ones it whatever fits your style but we also have our TBN camos this is our dark but we're going to be using our light camo for this build we're at 4658 with with all the basic run-of-the-mill stuff assuming we're running wooden decks and sidewalls and subfloors because that's what even most companies today will do because wood inexs are really good at just staying there and not causing any problems when you start adding wooden hatches it becomes a problem that's why we recommend aluminum Lids but um installing them in here and glassing them over with epoxy we'll be talking about the entire process but first let's go look at what we would use for as wood now half inch or 15 30 seconds which is about as close as you're going to get to/ inch is pretty good for most people if you're like closer to 300 lb 5/8 is probably a little recommended you can probably get your boat done in two but three is recommended cuz you'll be doing odd cuts that you can't reuse that piece of wood and you'll just need a whole new sheet we're also going to look at sidewalls hardwood plywood there's this one qu inch thick hardwood which is about 30 bucks of sheet there's even this thinner red stuff which is like less than 20 bucks of sheets at 316 that stuff is even better sidewalls are not low bearing they're going to be attached to aluminum frames and I mean that's just the perfect stuff to use for sidewalls inner walls so for the dec ins side walls were at under 200 bucks for all the wood you have to include uh one sheet of 3/4 inch plywood if you're going to be redoing your transm you'll need to cut out the template and double that up and epoxy it so that it lasts in fact you're going to have to preserve all the wood in order for it to last now you can use standard rol oilbased enamel which is pretty good but it's not going to last you like a long time the best stuff to actually preserve wood which you'll get a lot of longevities to Glass it over with a deep penetrating epoxy resin West systems 105 with a slow hardener or its equivalent some where else is what I recommend for sealing wood ironically the epoxy costs just as much as all the wood you're going to need to build your boat but we're still under 400 bucks for everything and that is a steal but for those of you who are trying to build a very robust boat that is built to last through immense punishment we're going to just go there because that's on the higher end for sure for one we're going to add aluminum transom because we could just redo this would but see what happens well this is a tree to plywood transom let's be fair but I've redone epoxy transoms and I've had to replace those those after extensive like wear and tear on the boat and I'm just like I want a oneandone solution I don't want to put up with this plus all the damage that happens to it let's just go ahead and stick an aluminum transm in here because aluminum much like this boat will last a very long time so aluminum transm will arguably last the life of the boat so will an aluminum deck ironically so we'll be adding our sheet pack I'm picking the 1648 sheet pack kit which if you just choose that add-on at the beginning when you're going to the 1648 kit it gives you that add-on drop it just knows to give you that kit and this is pretty much the result of what you can get from it comes with 16t uh wide by 4T long sheets and you run your cross beams that wide and put your sheets just like so very easy process it's actually easier than would if we're getting technical but let's talk about some accessories I want some accessories let's start with the most basic but still a really important one these through hole brackets that we designed to go on the very back of the transom I mean the old primitive ways to run it through the sidewall out the side of the boat this is so much better secondly if you have a true jum boat you're probably going to need a trolling motor bracket these bass booat style John boats that are kind of retrofitted um a lot of times they have a bow that allows you to bypass the step we still added one anyways cuz I think it's actually better in fact I modded mine and cut out aluminum pieces from the sheet metal pack and then put them over here just to cover the sides I thought it looked a little cleaner and also most of this boat will be an open layout with very little hatches and that gets very annoying very quickly so we made these vertical tackle storage these vertical day boxes are killer like enough of them will replace the need for you to even add more hatches like I put one you know you'll end up getting six by the time you're all done also these gear caddies we have one actually have two of these one on the side where the passenger is and one up there to help you out while you're trolling motoring out and navigating from the front and we're also going to add a trolling motor tray we have like four versions to choose from just choose the one that's right for you but nobody wants to have their foot stud up there like a stor when trolling is very uncomfortable over time so most people like it to be flushed with a deck one thing we did forget is the live wall kit we specifically tailored our live wells to be fitted for these Flite kits because they are the best in the market so we have the premium kit which includes everything under the sun all the fittings the Live Well timer everything that's premium then we have the starter kit which just gives you the basic fittings of what you would need the truth be told you still got to buy your own hoses and your own hose clamps and by the time it's done you're not saving a whole lot of money versus just getting this thing so I would tell you just to get the premium kit but for those of you who are just like n it's too much we went with the starter kit in fact we actually got the starter kit for this boat so we'll be adding it to our cart here now let's go look that is the last thing what does our cart look like e it's pretty up there but uh this is a build that's going to be robust remember we bought all these things well some of them are just for bougie comfortableness like all these accessories and a lot of it like the aluminum decks and sidewalls and transom the turf the major wiring kid job all that stuff is meant to last for a very long time despite the abuse is somebody who has started out here with a cheap route just to get a boat out there that can fish and do everything it's supposed to do it's it's the biggest let down when something starts to fail and you realize you'd have to rebuild it again to fix it so here it is one of the oldtime 1648 jambos that were retrofitted to be bass boats you might be a little terrified when you open this thing up and start to gut it I'm finding things that just don't pair well guessing it was pretty Lawless back then with not a whole lot of real regulations or anyone to hold their feet to the fire so you just get what you get doesn't really matter cuz we're going to rip it all out anyways starting with these endcaps they're notorious welded on endcaps around the treated plywood transm that's got to go and should be told this back platform was actually built pretty okay but it wasn't going to fit the live well so we'll just cut it out too do not let previous framing in the boat dictate the creativity and the ultimate purpose that you want your boat to achieve you'll regret it later only keep what you think is beneficial and get rid of the rest like all that foam in there who knows what it actually is let's take a look at it it doesn't appear to be closed cell cuz it looks like swiss cheese and there's also kind all kinds of debris in here from I think there was green AstroTurf and the mud and look at all the AstroTurf there is no drain holes in the bottom gussets like there's no gussets like I don't know how how did it all get in there like it was a sealed floor with foam surrounding the middle I just don't get how all that hydr Turf made it down there it's kind of mindboggling another thing that is surprising but good is that though this foam looked like swiss cheese none of it was saturated with water one thing you have to look for is corrosion damage around where they would put the foam notoriously it's always in the back beams in the back of the hole where there's this oxidation imp pitting this white stuff and you need to grind that away to look for actual holes in the aluminum that's pretty bad we'll have to do something about that but luckily it's only on the rib and not on the hole but truly no boat like this is complete without a rotting treated plywood transm that is somewhat preserved with all the two cycle motor oil that splashed onto it over the years this is problem number one to solve after the plasma cutter cut that transm on fire I felt it was probably best to use a circular saw and anything else to try and get these caps off they're kind of a pain we'll figure out a way to replace them later one thing's for sure the transom just look at it it's got to go to build a whole deck around this with a transm busted is just to risk everything like playing Russian bullets cuz there's no telling when that thing is just going to implode D it's pretty good back there except for like one no never mind that's oh that's real bad no well most of it's not that bad there's only a oh JC that's pretty terrible there that's some bad stuff well we can fix that oh so if we order one of our transoms 12 see this 20 in we're trying to keep as much as we can in obviously we lost that that was actually bonded in so there was problems here earlier cuz that is pretty much chewed away you can see some Bondo right there this transm has some pretty serious like problems so I was dra I was draining that and then obviously clean the inside as best we could getting that all out that was a big mess we drilled uh 38 inch holes on the bottom should have went lower there probably we'll have to finagle a lower hole there that's how we got the water to drain from the inside out because there's no drainage in the middle I would like once the transm is in to paint the whole boat including the inside that way the inside has some protection against galvanic corrosion like all that is corrosion not near as bad as this but it's still there fact is it's there and it should not be but it is super common for these these old trackers and lows these pre 2K holes like this but other than that the rest of the Hool is in fantastic shape right time to replace that old rotten transm with the new transm kit which is pretty much an aluminum equivalent of the pieces of wood you would have to glue together in order to make a new one you cut it just like plywood in much the same way and in 20 minutes you can have it lightly installed like so cuz it's very simple you don't have to seal it with epoxy like you do W but this only solves one problem there's still the matter of the GI cheese holes from the corrosion that we have to deal with I figured hey since it's aluminum transm we can just weld the aluminum sheet right to the transom and then voila I don't have to replace that whole back sheet but in honesty I should have just probably done that if I could do it all over again but I didn't and I did that instead and you want to know what it does work and like they say a grinder and paint will make you welder you ain't quite quite solid and firm feeling it's very reaffirming just in a state when it's only half put together got down here accidentally welded the stupid Hardware that's going to be a problem figure that out without screwing up the transm more I lucked out that this boat came with aluminum sidewalls and subfloor like so if you get one of these old boats and it has a wooden subfloor that's pretty much the norm this was an exception so I will take it because if this boat is ever going to last as long as I need it to it can't have any wood in it now let's go on to the frame the lids that you get are already in a frame track so all you have to do is stick that frame track on top of the actual frame you're putting in your boat so all you're really doing is framing the whole size for the hatch to drop in and then you're T framing all the aluminum so one angle turns backwards the other one needs to be butted up right next to it facing forward and in the case of a live well there is a right way to frame it and a wrong way to frame it we're framing it the wrong way right now so you don't have to later so you cannot box the live W in with angle because the lid won't fit includes several sticks of tubing for the live wall because it has to be boxed in with tubing as its own so compartment inside the boat like so that way there's an end for the angle to T frame against that you cannot actually install it without tubing unless of course you're making your own hatches from scratch but that's like a whole different thing from what we're doing the live wall will need to be elevated at least 3 in off of whatever floor it's on in order to clear the through hole fitting from the bottom which is the drain you'll need to add additional under supports with the live well under underne so that it can hold all that weight with the water as the boat is shuttering down the lake in this case we're using the boat stock angle frame to go ahead and reframe this but you might have to actually Bend some angle and make those side brackets yourself while the live wall is in position you can go ahead and run the plumbing if you wait too long to fit and you know Plum the Live Well it actually gets very tedious the longer the build process goes on and the more stuff is in the boat it's better to get it out of the way it should be the transm then the subfloor then really the live wall before you get too deep into the [Music] framing the next thing I need to plan before I get too far ahead of myself is running all the cables and the wiring to the console I have this old used Gen 2 25 horse Merc that's just been waiting to have it day so finally will do it it's already rigged for a console so it'll be pretty easy just to convert it but just so you know if you wanted to convert this back to a tiller it's about the same money it would be to convert it back to a console if you had a [Music] tiller [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Applause] [Music] [Applause] what [Music] a [Music] hey if you guys have made it this far in the video it means you have at least had to like it in some capacity please leave a like and a share and a comment and even subscribe if you want but hit that like button all that funky stuff you saw me do in the back I'll explain all that later cuz it really doesn't matter until we get to later what matters now is finishing out the rest of the frame but I can't see us going too much farther forward until we get the seats like figured out [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] whenever I can rivet I do but sometimes you have to weld because rivets just aren't going to work work and I had to actually make one extra hatch which was not planned but if you're going to do it DIY you can do it this way and you can actually do that zck same way out of rivets just not as good one thing these will do is last so no how to worry about the screws stripping out of the plastic or any issues like that I can't foresee these ever really going anywhere I kept wanting to do a console first but there was just no way for me to form in my head how far away it would have to be from the seating if the seating wasn't there so the seating had to come first first really I build a boat generally from front to back at this time there's just no way if you're going to build a console boat you need to build it from back to front and hopefully if you got one of these old bass boats it came with a console that wasn't trash and you can just reuse it because trying to remake a console stinks but if you want to upgrade a console or just get a brand new one I would definitely go with those RPD consoles I would have totally taken that thing over this even though this came out pretty sweet and it's aluminum and it kind of just matches our whole theme Here backs all finished here minor tweaks here before that gets dropped in and installed I held off on here we got to run the conduits because they will go in here down there we're going to install this very basic fish finder I bought three of these a long time ago for like a screaming deal four rental boats cuz I had I had to launch of three so I got three of those this is the compartments I end up grinding the ends of the rivets down because we'll be tping these in there you won't be able to see those rivets it's the bottom we used our hat Channel we sell hat Channel just like this we'll probably include it in the bass boat booster kit for people who want to replicate this design but and then we'll probably end up moving these hinges up a little bit and Gator matting this so doesn't just slam on aluminum it Slams on an actual mat just for comfort and just for vibration and all that stuff we'll probably be doing that but just right now for the sake of design everything is kind of loosely in here and obviously on top of these these plates will be turfed the only deviation where I really truly went off the line here is one I made that console and then two I made this hat because I had to elevate the hatch to make sure the starter batter is going on I add these lithium batteries power Queen again awesome batteries but you can't use lithium as a starter battery so really we got a group 24 lead acid starting battery from a decam marine down here in like half from like USA battery and because it's the terminals are so high they sit right high with they're too easy to start a fire so in the midst of making traps and tracks for those batteries to not ever move we made a a hatch that's elevated just kind of put it together real Loosely that's o9 on top of E8 inch angle with hat channel in the middle and that's just because I know people will be stepping on this constantly to get up to the backtick this will have be under constant serious stress at any given time and that will be here and this will also be on a hinge it likely might be on a hinge they can't open that way so it's going to have to open forward so that is what it is all these will all have to be open forward like this because that's just the way it's designed ran into problem with the root steering didn't come with all the parts but that was actually super easy to install in there I did this with all the sheets from the kit I just uh well I se two pieces together right there and then everything else this the whole area is bent and the front is all 1/8 in plate on the 063 and then the back is all 0 plate but overall the whole thing together is very solid we have to get different shifter cables that are 2T shorter we 10t about is about as long as we're going to be able to go um the shifter's got to be like right there now we're going to move to the front deck which is going to be very easy cuz it's already built up we're just going to have to do some improvements like this angle here that's all basic stuff we have one piece of tubing left and we I saved it specifically for this area that we'll need it all right so here this front deck is not looking too bad it's already fairly built up like all this this is like street sign aluminum and I know that's that is what it is but it it works and they already got side walls already got T framed angle all we're going to do is build onto this so underneath here that's angle and tubing we put one piece of tubing right here that'll be a main structural beam that's reinforced by the angle which just allows me to have an overhanging lift and then this is some of the sheet metal that we used for everything else and we just cut a piece of it out to to kind of level it out cuz this is a big drop anything over 116th you want to level it out and this is definitely I think closer to 090 it's very thick so leveling that out also leveling it out here and then the hatch will drop right in there obviously we won't be sheet Ming at all until we pour the foam in and we make sure all the wiring is ran for the navigation and in trolling motor so we had to run a conduit with there but aside from that it's looking very good so we're still a few steps away from actually being able to attach the deck to the frame but we can still make it right now to see how it fits and make any adjustments if needed we are using Graphics durar which is a clear plastic film templating material that does not crinkle it is the best stuff I have ever used you can see right through it no more having to a construction paper or cardboard and guesstimate where you need to cut you only need to make sure that it's straight and cut correctly so just make sure that it's pulled tight before you cut it then it's just a matter of taking that straight edge ruler and making your lines around the hatch around the pedal tray around pedestal mounts if you have them framed in and then once you've double checked your lines maybe even triple check them cuz remember however straight this template is is however good your deck's going to be when you cut it make sure your cuts are equally as straight as your lines because if they are off then it will definitely show when you go to template this out in the aluminum and put them on there then we take three sheets of the 090 out of the sheet metal pack lay that on there tape it so that it's straight and firm trace it with the template and then just cut it all out with electric shears then once they're laid out then you can go ahead and run cross beams where you need to for the deck but we're really not even quite there yet we still have to figure out how we're going to rig this side console so this is a rotary steering column that we got from seite and we I bought an equivalent one from Amazon from vber and that one is really just as good I don't really see a huge difference the rotor steering is super basic and simplistic it runs off the same type of cable system so I think so in this case going cheaper is going to be fine if you're going to run hydraulic lines then quality actually matters you need to go with like sea light or eulex but I've never heard of anybody's rotary steering column ever going out on them I got conduits and these are pretty tight just PVC with with sharp short elbow fittings right there they're just open I mean that's where we're going to feed the starter wires we're going to feed the fish finder the transducer you know things that kind of just in the way will feed we'll also have to run a con like a thing here the Conduit on the right side is something that was really common practice for a boat like this back in the day and I just didn't take it too seriously into the early framing process and pay for that later cuz it was a real pain to make it after everything was already framed in I should have truth be told made a much better one early on but I got it done I did it with welding so it looked a little bit cleaner we could have done it all with rivets but yeah I got it all done but definitely something you should prioritize first had to custom make our own little top part to stick it all in there once it's all rigged it was actually very tight um I definitely should have done this first because it almost didn't fit I almost really screwed myself there that actually put me back 2 days to do that whole thing once I got that in there I realized I couldn't really go any further without painting the boat and painting the console and then I could start installing things the boat already had some really robust primer on it and I didn't feel like taking it down to Bare Metal so all I did was just scuff that up real good with like 40 grits sandpaper and then I cleaned it with aceton and denatured alcohol and then hit it with self-etching primer so I just got like the best possible etch and stick from the primer that I was going to get the best way to do it is bring it down to Bare Metal hit it with like 40 grit sandpaper then et wash it and then primer it with like epoxy primer that would be the key best stuff you could do but well this is a pretty close second and let's be honest it's going to be a jumo it's going to get beat up whatever not putting a whole lot of investment into to this paint JW but it does need to look better than it does once you spray paint it let it cure for 24 to 48 hours depending on the weather and then give it a nice roughing up with a scotch pad do not use sandpaper the scotch pad does a much better job of roughing up the surface without actually breaking into the aluminum again which you would have to re primer do this to every cice of the primer because once the primer cures it does seal and you need to break up that seal or the paint will start fcking off after you try to apply it when you go to prep the surface after scuffing it WIP be down with denatured alcohol do not use acetone cuz it'll start to take the primer off today we are going to be using just straight up Rustoleum oilbased enamel the smoke gray they have black white blue red you can choose whatever but that stuff is really the easiest most accessible stuff to get you just need to get some paint thinner because it is thick so thin it up to like a skimmish milky consistency and get those little white foam rollers and spread it real thin just thin thin thin and do multiple thin coats until you're happy with it this case I only had to apply like two coats three in the back and it came out really clean came out nice probably if IID have tipped or used something a little bit more fancy we could have got a really super nice finish or if ID have spray painted it but I do feel that running the oil based enamel over this is going to be the more robust and most long-term solution in terms of what people will do to it or how long it's used I even went over it here I did spray paint this initially then I went over it with oil Bas enamel because is the same exact color that it's a smoke gray the other stuff smoked gray this stuff smoked gray I'm pretty sure this stuff is just that stuff but in aerosol which means there's thinner in here to thin it so it's thin enough to spray and then the obviously the thinner dries out and the paint clumps and starts to dry and it's just oilbased enamel anyways my running Theory because it's so eerily similar I mean that's it that's spray paint and there's that so I mean like it's like a verba a match well it didn't come out I couldn't I don't know why everything else came out fine on all their sides this front though gave me a few problems it's kind of very maty after after reworking it a few times the best so I could probably come back in here and sand this down and and repaint it with the spray paint just the very front of this and then we're truly done we're ready to rig this thing and it's ready to go I mean this that was the Last Frontier I held off on por foaming I held off on completing all the wiring completing all the console in general specifically because of the paint drop now I can finish installing things yay I've never fully rigged a console before put them back together here and there but just I was pretty excited to get this thing finally done now to make the raw tubes because we're going to have to make all conduits and tubing before we can ever pour the foam we go ahead and heat the end up so it gets pretty hot and it likes to stay hot for a while so when you put it on that wine bottle keep it on there for a good minute cuz it takes a long time for that PVC to let go of that heat and if you pull it too fast when it's too hot then it'll unfl flare and you'll have to redo it again but once it does flare it's perfect find the bottle with the whest space you can it gives you the nicest flare and The Wider the flare the better it is so let's go ahead and install these seats but before we do that we need to lay some Turf and some rubber matting down there to kind of finish the Cosmetic layout so I want to Turf in all the compartments that's really the only internal storage I have besides the front storage which is going to just be a robust throw anything in their wet Stow but this stuff is like holding the batteries and so foam in there is going to keep it cooler and also just more cushion it's just going to be better for the atmosphere of the batteries later on I realized that I had no conduit to actually run the trolling motor wire to the battery so I had to remove one of those Rod tubes with stunk so that I made like one of those pieces of angle into a conduit and I actually did that on the side over here that way we can run the trolling motor wiring through there and it was pretty nice the bottom conduit was actually a really good idea I wish I have thought of that in other builds cuz it looks pretty clean you can barely tell it's there and it's not very invasive because we're running a low horsepower and we're trying to make the boat really light because of that we were running lithium back batteries that's [Music] crazy that's how big a normal 100 A5 lithium battery is look how much smaller that is that could fit literally inside there it's only about a/ inch taller that's fantastic it's exactly what I need I was going to have to use a 50 or 60 amp hour battery which is a smaller one but Power Queen sent me this one and it's freaking dope look at that right there the good thing about these lithium B you could lay them to the side so if you have low profile hatch like this ain't no big deal anymore just lay them down here and we'll also put some some attachments here to ratchet it down the post will be this way the breaker will probably be right here very very visible and easy to to check if you need to and also a lot of people are talking about Chargers you got to get a charger that charges lithium this one is going to be a three Bank battery charger that charges the different variety of batteries we have in here but um specifically it's always nice to really if you're just going to have to worry about One battery it's very nice to go with the proprietary all battery companies make proprietary [Music] Chargers all right let's get into this I procrastinated this part there's really nothing else left to do but do this or I can't move forward so it's time to pour the foam this is two-part polyurethane por foam from us composits that we got directly from our site I do like this stuff over the total boat mainly because of the slower work time and ease of use because of that so you can go go ahead and stir it to a golden consistency and just work your way around it with a little spatula thingy I don't know what the hell that's called a whisk yeah we just use that it's way easier than stirring it with like a popsicle stick or something that's terrible with a total boat by the time I got it to a golden consistency like that it's already expanding out of the bucket and that's bad you don't want it to do that you want it to be still liquid when it's a solid gold like that that way when you pour it it's going to actually stick if it's foaming arguably it's weird but it doesn't like to stick to whatever it doesn't contact when it's just bare liquid and notice that it'll pull away after it it heats up and then it starts to retract when it cools down it'll pull away from the actual aluminum it's not the worst thing but it's you kind of want that mechanical Bond cuz when the stuff is seated in there right it does smooth out the boat tremendously in terms of ride quality plus this is the only foam we're going to actually stick in the boat we're going to do three giant horseshoe like shapes of this stuff in the back and in the front we'll show you but the reason we're doing a lot of it here is because well we didn't put any foam back in the subfloor or the sidewalls looking at that foam after inspecting like there's been no boat I've ever ripped up ever in a John Boat where that foam was still good and not damaging the hole but if there's no foam down there to damage the hole then the hole just stays clean and water can freely run up and down the subfloor anywhere it wants and the boat will still be unscathed and so will the foam foam won't ever be exposed to the water the front here slopes up into a contour so water naturally flows down and funnels inward but toward the back back all of that elevated subfloor paneling and sighting and duct tape and GAP filler that we stuck back there was to elevate that foam off of the back of the subfloor because all the water likes to gather and sit in the back of the boat where the foam is most vulnerable we had success with the elevated subfloor for the foam in the Starcraft so we're going to go ahead and carry that forward in this [Music] build [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right it's time to TP this thing no more turfy getting spots here and there let's just do the whole boat everything is done there's nothing left after this but the final rigging which is fairly simple cuz this is a simple build speaking of Simplicity this stuff is very easy to install you do not need to cut out cardboard templates and put them on there nope you just have to make your deck like this and lay it right over the deck but a cleaner safer way is just to cut that wax paper and just slightly make a cut across it not to cut into the foam but just cut through the paper and then rip it off in sections that way you have usable space to grab the foam and work it with your hands without actually touching the adhesive which is which is not good remove all your latches if you had them in there make sure you hit it with acetone or denatured alcohol as a prep before you actually put it on there and just make sure it's straight As long as it's straight the cut Groves will match right up to each other one after another they butt right up and the camo hides all the seams and then you just follow the groove of where the hatch is and where the hinge is and you just cut it out with the cheapest I I get those little dollar uh utility knives from Harbor Freight right at the checkout station those actually work the best don't nothing really fancy using here it's extremely simple process we only got what two hatches to cut out of the back deck and then the very back end of the three sided open and hatch find the groove with your fingers push down the foam to give an imprint and then just cut right alongside it rip it out if the foam is kind of bowing up on the hinge go ahead and just after you cut it out get a screwdriver and just slly press it all back in there to get it all flat again that's just a normal thing that happens when you cut out the strip because it never lays flat to begin with when you get the foam sheets with it adhesive it's like literally minutes versus hours to install if you're going to get it without adhesive get it because you just want some traction mat somewhere that you can remove and throw around places that's the only reason I would ever get it without the adhesive otherwise if you get non-adhesive sheets and you try to buy your own adhesive you're going to have to get contact cement that stuffs expensive it's very risky you only have one chance to make it where with this adhesive um unless you press down or leave it in the sun you can go ahead and pull it up and refit it and make sure it's straight the sheets themselves are not wide enough to span the entire top beam of the boat for the deck but it doesn't matter as long as you cut down the cut groove right in between and you make sure the other piece is straight it butts right up and you cannot even tell that there was a cut is very cleanly done that way even in spots that little square section back there once we cut it in C overlap it's going to look like nothing was ever there this process takes a little bit of time but it's generally very quick and very easy it's the easiest stuff to install you got to have it just some confidence to do it and an extra sheet just in case you mess one up [Music] if you noticed when we were pouring the foam earlier we have those T frame brackets running right where each of those aluminum sheets needed to be mounted so now that it's all leveled out it's just a matter of a lot of rivets a lot of counter sync this is a pretty timec consuming task you wouldn't think it is because all it is is just Drilling and riveting but I tell you the whole day will go by and you'll wonder where it wins during this process metal shavings get everywhere and it's kind of common practice to just seal off the gaps on your lid so they don't just fly in there and create a mess then pull it off after you're done riveting the entire hatch in we're also going to be adding struts and cam lever latches to these hatches because they're heavy don't want to hurt anybody and just struts are just nice practice and they're going to last because this hatches aluminum unlike wood where they generally fail [Music] Guys these are our trolling motor trays like our mounts they come with a bracket here they have they have bolt points you would want to bolt them not rivet it in this case we welded it and we'll probably stick up rivets in there just to reinforce the end and then they kind of just meant to go there and slide right over this and they have an adjustability the screws are back here to where you can adjust them on a rail like that so have height so a lot of jboats are like this and other V holes are like this you kind stick it like here and you have your angle here and then you can just trim and cut this which we will probably be cutting it at this angle and then bolting it here and then I could have attached it here but it was kind of like hanging down so I put this right here just to raise it so it's a little bit more flush so the trolling motor goes over but this is so much easier so you can bolt this you can generally people are attaching it right to the gunnel and you can just bolt right through there this one will be a little bit difficult to do that so this is helping us but you can you can do that that way you can always take the the plate off through here and over here and it's serviceable and so if you ever want to trade out the trolling motor cuz otherwise I was going to have to go a really odd route to make this just this little bit skip because this plate I really don't ever want to take it off once it's on it's just a huge pain to do that I only want one area in we had to reweld a spot right here for the actual nav light pole and that's really all I want I was going to have one for the uh trolling motor but I'm going to end up being able to run the trolling motor right through the tray the power so it'll be much easier just to do it that way hey guys just so you know we're not just on YouTube We're on all the other major platforms Instagram Tik Tok Facebook so if you're on those be sure to check us out there too got a little a [Music] [Music] little a little [Music] along the road to figuring out what some customers were like in a rental boat somebody suggested putting in speakers in a radio that was a real pain I had to add the only place I going to be able to do it is on this wall and I had to make a little aluminum box just a box of speakers in so they wouldn't get damaged by gear in there that sucked really bad but whatever it came out all right it looks pretty good we just got a huge hole saw that I specifically bought for speakers and we now have a safe base to install them once we Turf that wall that middle hole is the stock little vertical like compartment that they all had and even apparently still have today we're going to definitely cover that up and just make it a serviceable like door to access any wi we need to run through there we're down to the wire we're just really going to start testing all the accessories and get this starting battery in there so we can finally just get to do a once over of the boat because it should all actually work sure it looks unrigged because it's not finished but it's more or less finished enough for us to start testing things test all the accessories test the electronics test the motor then this boat is only a day or two away from being on the water can't wait of course why wouldn't it fail I mean why give me the twoe personal record it would have tooken me to build this boat and and just throw a big huge monkey wrench I mean the motor is the other half of the boat let's be honest you can't have the peanut butter without the jelly and so this boat sat a whole another month it just sat there collecting dust it was kind of sad and miserable it's never happened to me before but somewhere down the line of sitting that motor became a lemon so I just broke down and didn't want to deal with fixing it because it was going to end up being more to fix it than the motor was worth and at that point in time you really just got to start looking at a new motor like be realistic does anybody want to buy a brand new outboard no but sometimes maybe getting a loan for one the the longevity and the warranty and the ease of use and the Sher lack of problems that I'm not going to have because it's on the boat is going to be great yeah I was a little iffy about putting a brand new motor on a rental boat because they might cut too close in and just destroy the lower unit on I don't know a point or something it just it's just the risk you have to take and I would have much rather taken it with a used motor that if it went then it is what it was but it's too late to turn back now we got to do [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this [Music] that's what it's supposed to [Music] do hey guys thank you so much for the entire audience all the patrons channel members this started out as an idea it became a movement and now it's the most incredible journey thank you all for getting us here check this [Music] out [Music] oh [Music] God the long story short it performs exceptionally well and I think anybody who rents this boat will be very happy with what they can achieve on this Lake if I just achieve that in a matter of a day and a half I hope that people who use this boat can have similar experiences on this boat and have long lasting memories I don't know what this boat was way back in the day but I know what it is now it was was 100% totally completely worth it to restore this thing I hope you feel the same way guys tight lines peace

Channel: Tiny Boat Nation

Views: 118,852

Keywords: TBNation, tiny boat nation, jon boat to bass boat, bass fishing, googan squad, FLW, bass boat, fishing boat, aluminum boat, woodworking, DIY, michael lopez, mercury marine, mercury outboard, Michael Lopez, Custom Boats, welding, rivet, tin can crew, pelican bass raider mods, bass fishing tips & tricks, budget build, 1648 jon boat, bass tracker, jon boat, tbnation framing, tbnation wiring, tbnation electric, tbnation jon boat, weekend warrior

Id: VspE4Em2KDg

Length: 51min 3sec (3063 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024