Hi,
I've been lurking this site for months, and finally decided to start mods to my own boat. Last summer i picked this 1985 landau 1436 jon boat up on craigslist. since it was mid july, i did to it only what was neccesary to get myself out on the water for the rest of the summer. patched some leaks, re wired the trailer lights, etc. since spring is now on the way, i finally decided to get going on my modifications. I have come to find out that its a good seaworthy little boat after a summer of use, and still has many fishing trips left in it. but as you can see, it is about as dull and average as a jon boat gets. NOT AFTER TODAY. I have HUGE plans for this boat. I will Put a carpeted floor down, build a front casting deck, add pedestal seats, and of course, build some storage. I started today, and well, heres where im at:

DAY 2 SO FAR: I'm pretty happy with the progress we've made so far, and whats good is we have yet to run into one of those "UH OH'S".
the pictures from todays progress are posted. like i said i have to give RBuffordTJ the credit for this idea. Except i changed it just a little bit to suit my own needs. I have Cut the bench out, added wood to the sides to keep the structure of the boat strong, ran all of the wire for my lights, and added storage underneath the cut out bench.

Great start! Do you have any plans drawn up that you could post? It always helps me visualize what is happening in any pics posted. Good luck with it!

That looks real good. Are you going to replace the wood in the transom with a full size piece? That might have been part of the reason you had some cracking of the aluminum back there.

what i'm going to do is re-inforce the transom by putting a piece of steel on the top lip of the transom, and screwing it down so the crack disappears. i'm also going to put another piece of wood on the outside of the transom as well, to cushin the transom metal between the two peices of wood, so that the motor doesn't squeeze into the aluminum, and do anymore damage to the transom. i'll be working on the boat more today, and i'll take some pictures of the transom, and have them posted by tonight. i also do have somewhat of a plan, but it keeps getting re-adjusted a little everytime we run into something. i'll try to take a picture of my original plan, and have that posted up here tonight as well.

day 3 complete. today, i cut out, and put down the foam underneath my floor, i also cut the floor out from plywood and got it layed down. the floor is not fastened yet, because i want to make sure that i got everything i wanted unerneath there, before i just start mindlessly screwing boards down. extremely happy with my progress in only 3 days. i'm now starting to see everything in the boat come together. i can now really get a mental image of how its all going to look when im done, and i can't wait!

More pictures of todays work.

I was really planning on getting some work done to the boat this weekend. UNTIL I woke up yesterday morning to find a giant puddle in the basement coming from my water heater. it's busted. spent the entire weekend messin around with that. no progress until further notice.

Finally got some more progress done in the last couple weeks. i am extatic about the way this build is coming along. right now i am almost done with all the wood and ready for carpet. I can see it all now, and it's Lookin GOOD!

More Pictures of The Past couple weeks Progress.

I have a question for you. Where did you get that 1" foam from? The thickest I can find at my local lowes is half inch and my foam needs to be atleast an inch and a half thick.

dc3232: I picked the 1" foam up at my menards for $10 or $11 a sheet. I'm pretty sure I saw inch and a half there as well. It only took one sheet of foam to do my entire boat, and i still had some left over. if you can't find anything inch and a half, maybe try layering the half inch foam to make it one and a half inch. Hope this helps!

Very nice work, looking forward to your progress

Yea thats what I had in mind, except it would take like 3 or 4 sheets to do it, & the price of the sheets are about 10 bucks as well. Where did you say you got yours?

Froggy: me too. im close to bieng done with all the woodwork, and almost ready to start carpeting.