This will be a long going thread over the next year or so. So I bought an alumcraft boat from a fellow TBH'er and its going to be a full overhaul. Its a 1990 super bandit made by alumacraft. Motor was blown, paint was ok from a fishing standpoint, needs a new deck and carpet, new center console, new controls, trolling motor looks broke, and needs new seats. I actually bought this a few months ago but am getting around to work on it.
I was planning on rebuilding the 90hp motor but really I would dump $1000 into it and could still have issues I don't know about. So I figured my best route for now is just to buy a similar motor and use the old one as an extra parts motor. Eventually I would like to upgrade to a 4 stroke but I'm just trying to get it on the water. Going to look at an 1977 85hp Johnson tomorrow, it'll be a pretty good candidate if I can get it for the right price.
I'm going to repaint this bad boy a tree camo. Haven't worked out what colors yet but I want it to look like a stump as much as possible. Today I used aircraft aluminum stripper to pull the paint and decals on the side off. I'm going to the paint on the bottom and transom and just paint over it. After removing paint I found some bad stuff I didn't see before. Somebody was haulin rear in this boat and hit something pretty hard and cracked the hull in the front on both sides. One side looks like it was welded back together, the other side the crack is pretty easy to see. The reason I didn't see it was because it was covered with fiberglass and bondo then paint matched. Luckily it's an aluminum boat and can be fixed. After getting under it and looking even more I found lots of what looks like jb weld. This could be an ok thing or bad thing. It's ok if it doesn't leak, it's going to really suck if it leak and I have to fix the rivet. Luckily I picked this boat up for scrap value basically so I at least have that going for me. I'm just praying they don't leak, and that the welder can weld/fill the cracks. I figure worst case scenario I'll just put fiberglass back over it again.
The interior is rough as stated before. Luckily the carpet comes up super easy and the glue comes off super easy with a flapper disc. The front and rear deck are wood, I'm going to change that to aluminum then put hydroturf over it. The biggest issue I'll have is reframing the decks using aluminum square tubing so it can equal the same thickness as the compartment lids. Won't be hard, just time consuming. I found somebody on Craigslist a while back that has "aluminum composite" or something of that nature for $15 a sheet. I'm thinking about getting two sheets and using that. I've never used it before so if somebody has any input on that please chime in. I need to find another center console, this one is made of half aluminum and half plastic. The plastic is pretty much dilapidated. Not sure if it's work having an aluminum top made or if I should just buy a whole bother center console.
Need new seats, I'll be getting duck camo. Can't decide whether to get single seats or a bench. Single seats are cheaper but I wouldn't mind a bench. I would love to hear preferences from anybody that has one ore the other.
I want to ad a jack plate and pods but the transom has rivets in it so it would be hard to add pods. I can cut the backs out of pods so they could weld it flush but I ant decide if that's a good idea or not. From what I understand jackplate and pods go hand in hand. Opinions on that are needed as well, which one is more bang for your buck?
Add ons that will probably come after this duck season:
Radio
Bow fishing stand
Polling platform
Duck blind(might come before then if the extra cash is there)
LED light bars for bow fishing
Pics to follow!
I was planning on rebuilding the 90hp motor but really I would dump $1000 into it and could still have issues I don't know about. So I figured my best route for now is just to buy a similar motor and use the old one as an extra parts motor. Eventually I would like to upgrade to a 4 stroke but I'm just trying to get it on the water. Going to look at an 1977 85hp Johnson tomorrow, it'll be a pretty good candidate if I can get it for the right price.
I'm going to repaint this bad boy a tree camo. Haven't worked out what colors yet but I want it to look like a stump as much as possible. Today I used aircraft aluminum stripper to pull the paint and decals on the side off. I'm going to the paint on the bottom and transom and just paint over it. After removing paint I found some bad stuff I didn't see before. Somebody was haulin rear in this boat and hit something pretty hard and cracked the hull in the front on both sides. One side looks like it was welded back together, the other side the crack is pretty easy to see. The reason I didn't see it was because it was covered with fiberglass and bondo then paint matched. Luckily it's an aluminum boat and can be fixed. After getting under it and looking even more I found lots of what looks like jb weld. This could be an ok thing or bad thing. It's ok if it doesn't leak, it's going to really suck if it leak and I have to fix the rivet. Luckily I picked this boat up for scrap value basically so I at least have that going for me. I'm just praying they don't leak, and that the welder can weld/fill the cracks. I figure worst case scenario I'll just put fiberglass back over it again.
The interior is rough as stated before. Luckily the carpet comes up super easy and the glue comes off super easy with a flapper disc. The front and rear deck are wood, I'm going to change that to aluminum then put hydroturf over it. The biggest issue I'll have is reframing the decks using aluminum square tubing so it can equal the same thickness as the compartment lids. Won't be hard, just time consuming. I found somebody on Craigslist a while back that has "aluminum composite" or something of that nature for $15 a sheet. I'm thinking about getting two sheets and using that. I've never used it before so if somebody has any input on that please chime in. I need to find another center console, this one is made of half aluminum and half plastic. The plastic is pretty much dilapidated. Not sure if it's work having an aluminum top made or if I should just buy a whole bother center console.
Need new seats, I'll be getting duck camo. Can't decide whether to get single seats or a bench. Single seats are cheaper but I wouldn't mind a bench. I would love to hear preferences from anybody that has one ore the other.
I want to ad a jack plate and pods but the transom has rivets in it so it would be hard to add pods. I can cut the backs out of pods so they could weld it flush but I ant decide if that's a good idea or not. From what I understand jackplate and pods go hand in hand. Opinions on that are needed as well, which one is more bang for your buck?
Add ons that will probably come after this duck season:
Radio
Bow fishing stand
Polling platform
Duck blind(might come before then if the extra cash is there)
LED light bars for bow fishing
Pics to follow!
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