New guy here

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Joined
Oct 2, 2008
Messages
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Location
Orange, CT
Hello all,
This is my first post. I live in Orange, Connecticut. I haven't seen anyone from CT here on the forum so I might be the only one. I've become inspired by all the fine work I've seen here, and will be starting on my first mod shortly. I say First because I KNOW I'm going to do another after this is done. So here's what I have to work with. It is a 1970 Aerocraft 14 footer. I bought it last year for $200. It leaks a little nothing I don't think a little sealer can't fix. Here is some literature I found:aerocraftboat.JPG

This is what it looks like now:Picture 240-400.jpgPicture 242-400.jpgPicture 241-400.jpg

What I'd like to do is deck the front two seats, and put a seat up front and maybe one on the rear seat. I'm not sure how stable that would be. I'd also like to paint the outside to make it a little nicer for the wife....have to keep her happy.

For the motor, I had a 4 hp Johnson that would have pushed it around nicely. On my way home from picking it up I called a buddy of mine and told him what i just bought. He was looking for a small motor like that and asked If i wanted to trade it for a 7 1/2 hp Mercury. I get over to his house and it is a little older but MINT, not a scratch on it, it looks brand new. Plus it has electric start. I didn't even own the Johnson for an hour!

I have a small 4x8 trailer that I can put it on for now, but would like to get a boat trailer for it. I basically want to use it for fishing for Holdover Stripers in the Housatonic river in Connecticut. I'll keep you posted on the project and would appreciate any input you guys might have. Thanks for a great site.
 
Nice boat,sounds like you got a nice trade on the outboard.
If it works well,I'll bet you'll be happy with the extra hp and electric start.
Welcome aboard.
 
That’s looks like a great project boat...kind of looks like mine! My boat is a little older though, it’s a 1948 Arkansas Traveler. If you search for the boat name and the year you can see what I've done in my post, which hasn’t been that much recently…Oops! I’m going to try to work on it some more this weekend though, with a little luck I can take it out! Now I just have to finish decking the boat. I have some aluminum angle which won’t rust and is really light weight, but it’s really expensive. Working in construction I contacted an aluminum door frame and window company and got some that way. I put an 18 hp Evinrude motor that’s a ’76 model and got that going. If you use wood for the decking make sure you treat it since it will get water on it. It will be pretty stable when you deck it but it won’t be anything like a bigger boat since it’s such a narrow boat. Just make sure it’s really dried in (no leaks) before you start decking it. I also added an epoxy waterproofing to the underside of the boat to add slickness and to make sure there were no leaks. For the paint I used an automotive paint from Tractor Supply. It looks like you will have a great time rebuilding the boat the way you want it! Have fun!! =D> Oh yea and welcome to Tin Boats!!!
 

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