1997 Landau 1648 Jon Boat

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meonline06

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Apr 25, 2012
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Location
Richmond, VA
Hello all. I purchased a 16ft flat bottom jon boat back in April and have been fixing it up every since. The boat was in bad shape when I first brought it home; it's still in pretty bad shape but it at least floats and goes. My original purchase included the boat, two 1985 35 hp mercury outboards(not running), trailer, and a few extras like an anchor and fuel tank; all for $500. I've been looking at the builds on TinBoats since April and have got a lot of great ideas for my own build. I saw a tutorial on how to add photos to a post but don't remember where I saw it. Could someone point me in the right direction of tell me how? I'll put some pictures up as soon as I figure it out. Up to this point I've only done what was needed to get me fishing and enjoying the river. My plan during the off-season this winter is to go back and really give it a thorough makeover!
 
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Ok, I think I figured out how to attach the images. This is what it looked like when I first picked it up. It is definitely beat up, but I like to have something to work on and I figured it should be a fun project. The mercury outboard shown in the photos is complete, but not running. I also got an identical spare motor that is missing some of its electrical components (don't have a picture of it). I will get together some photos of the work I've done so far and put them up here later.
 

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The first thing I did is tear this thing down to a bare hull. I built a motor stand with spare wood laying around the garage so I can work on getting the motor running. After pulling the motor I determined that the transom was in ok condition; it wasn't rotten but it wasn't in great condition either. Since my goal was to hurry and get this thing sea worthy I left it as is for now. I decided that it would be too hard for me to get the dents out of the bench seats and I also wanted to use that space for storage....so I drilled out the rivets and removed the two benches and the front deck. At this point the side of the boat was full of holes between the drilled out bench rivets and the livewell holes, so my next task was to get this thing floating. Before I started replacing rivets I filled it up with water to the livewell holes, that way I could make note of which rivets on the bottom were leaking (and there were quite a few).

3/16 closed end rivets were ordered online from Drillspot.com and 3M 5200 marine sealant was picked up at Home Depot. The 5200 from Home Depot doesn't cure as fast as the Bass Pro Shops offering but it is somewhere around $10-$15 cheaper. I drilled out all of my leaky rivets then wire wheeled around all of the holes that needed new rivets. I think I plan on putting in a livewell at some point, but I don't really need one for the type of fishing I do. If I ever need to keep a fish on the boat, it's because I'm going to eat it and it can just go in my cooler. so.... for now I picked up a couple through-hull fittings from BPS and some plugs that would fit them. I picked up two different rivet guns. I bought one from Lowe's because it had a swivel head that would make it easy to get in tight places (comes in handy when doing aluminum deck framing), and I got one from Harbor Freight which has longer handles for more leverage and ease of use. Ironically, the one I got from Harbor Freight was manufactured far better.

After redoing a LOT of rivets I put a running water hose in the boat and proceeded to forget that I was filling the boat up. By the time I remembered, the boat was completely full. The good news was that all my replacement rivets were water tight. I did find three more leaking rivets which I replaced afterward. The bad news is that the old dry rotted tires on the trailer didn't survive all of the extra weight, so I went to Walmart and picked up two new tires for $70.
 

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I skipped over painting the boat since my main concern was getting in on the river. I kind of worked on the motor and framing/decking at the same time.

The outboard is a 35 hp Mercury 2 stroke built in 1985. I started out not knowing anything about outboards. I didn't even know how to change the oil in these things, so the first thing I did was download a service manual which gave me a pretty good foundation.

I first tried manually turning the flywheel and it wouldn't budge. After reading about outboards, this had me pretty worried; if the flywheel won't turn then the motor can't run. I next checked the oil in the lower unit. When I pulled the drain plug nothing came out except rusted metal flakes. I figured that had to be responsible for the flywheel not turning. After pulling the lower unit I confirmed that is what was locking up the flywheel. The good thing is that I got a spare parts motor with my initial purchase. Luckily the spare lower unit was in good shape. Before I put the spare on my motor, I went ahead and changed the impeller and replaced some gaskets. There was a lot of sand and small rocks in the water pump, so it's a good thing i decided to rebuild it.

The swivel bracket that mount the motor to the transom was also messed up so it wouldn't turn at all and wouldn't shift gears either since the shift linkage runs through this piece. I had to completely pull the powerhead in order remove the swivel bracket and replace it with the spare. I ended up cutting a pretty big corner here and I will need to fix it in the off season. Since I didn't anticipate pulling the power head I didn't order a gasket that goes between the powerhead and the exhaust housing. I ended up using red, heat resistant RTV to seal in place of the proper gasket.

My next goal was to see if I could get the motor to start. First I checked the compression and found that the top cylinder had 140 psi and the bottom had 135 psi. I had bought a transom mount trolling motor that came with a deep cycle battery which I used to try to crank it. Unfortunately, it wouldn't start. The starter would turn slowly but the pinion wouldn't engage the flywheel. After taking the starter apart and doing to internet browsing I managed to solve the problem by lubing the pinion shaft and upgrading to a 2 gauge battery wire.

Now I had the starter successfully engaging the flywheel and cranking with plenty of speed. I still couldn't get the motor to turn over unfortunately. Eventually I got the motor running by putting the motor in gear and giving it full throttle. I had to bypass the neutral start sensor by hot wiring the battery to the starter. It would run fine at full throttle, but as soon as you cut back the throttle it would cut off. So, I ended up rebuilding the carburetor and fuel pump. I ordered the carb rebuild kit from boats.net, I got the fuel pump diaphragm and gaskets off eBay, and a buddy of mine had extra fuel line that I used to replace all of the lines on the motor.

After some idle adjustments and a new primer bulb for my fuel tank, I have a running outboard motor!
 

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Since I ripped out all of the benches I figured I needed to do a good job of reinforcing the hull when I did my deck framing. My goal was to make the hull as rigid as possible while keeping the weight down. I'm about 215 lbs and most of my fishing buddies are around 200 lbs as well. So I decided to use aluminum for the framing. I picked up most of my materials from Home Depot, which was half the price of Lowe's. I found out later on that buying directly from a metal company would have been even cheaper; that's something I'll keep in mind next time I redo a boat. I used 1" square tubing because I wasn't sure how sturdy using angle would be. I started out using a hacksaw to cut the aluminum, but after the workout I got the first day of framing I quickly changed tact and used my miter saw. The saw works beautifully with a regular wood blade. It is loud however so I suggest using hearing protection if you are going to use this method.

I started with the rear deck, which I also tied into the transom to help reinforce the older wood. It is designed to have 3 storage compartments. It will also house the gas tank and cranking battery. The goal with the front deck was to make it large enough for 2 people to fish from. It has a 7ft rod locker along the right side and 3 other compartments for storage. The deep cycle battery is up there. It powers my 12/24 volt 55lb thrust trolling motor, fish finder and accessories.

I used 23/32" plywood on the rear deck and 19/32" for the front. I went with the thinner wood in the front after doing the rear and realizing that I could get away with the thinner piece. It' amazing how much lighter the thinner wood is. I picked up some grey indoor/outdoor carpet from Home Depot. I already had some carpet adhesive sitting around. Three coats Spar Urethane was applied to waterproof everything. I picked up some stainless piano hinges from Lowe's. The hinges were much cheaper online, but I'm a part of the "I want it now" generation so I paid the extra money. I was trying to figure out a way to make the compartments stay open when accessing them when I came across some springs in the hardware store that would do the trick. I don't have any pictures of how they work, but I'll try to take some tomorrow and post them in case anybody else wants to try it out. The springs work well to keep the hatches open, and they close easy enough with a little bit of pressure.
 

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Looking great. I like the 1" aluminum framing, looks strong and simple. How are you connecting the vertical pieces to the horizontal pieces? Also, I'm not sure how you are connecting the horizontal pieces to the hull?

Thank you. It's going to be nice when you're done.
 
Thank Scout. I cut a stick of aluminum angle into small pieces and used them to connect my framing. I'll attach some picture below, but everything is held together with pop rivets and small pieces of aluminum angle. The horizontal pieces that run from port to starboard sit on top of the vertical pieces. The horizontal pieces running fore and aft are pop riveted to the other pieces. I had plans of using an elaborate framing layout but once I actually started cutting metal and squeezing the rivet gun those ideas simplified themselves very quickly. I must have used somewhere around 400-500 rivets when it was all said and done.

I used two different methods to connect the tubing to the hull. On the rear deck, while I was still learning, I actually riveted a piece of angle to the side of the hull, bent it to the proper angle and set the tubing on top of it. I ended up getting some flex around the edges doing it like this, so I had to go back and reinforce it to get rid of the flex. By the time I got to the front deck I had my act together. I connected the tubing to the actual hull using angle and pop rivets. I first made sure I cut the square tubing to the correct length and angle so that the ends fit perfectly with the contours of the hull. then I used the angle and rivets to secure them in place. Doing it this way helps to keep the hull rigid; that's especially important since I removed the benches.

The decking turned out to be very sturdy with the aluminum. It probably took a lot longer than it would have if I were using wood, but it is extremely strong and lightweight and I don't think I will ever do it any other way.
 

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Very nice and very clear explanation and details. I understand your method perfectly. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Please keep the thread going with your progress.
 
Hey, I want to post some pictures of what the boat looks like right now. I haven't done any real work to it in a couple months with the exception of some electrical. I've added a fish finder, cigarette adapter, LED lights and bilge pump. The wiring is all fused and switched, but it is just thrown in there for now. I plan to make it look pretty when I redo everything this winter.
 

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The weather here has been pretty nice and it is supposed to be in the low 70's for a couple days so chances are I won't start working on the boat again this weekend. Instead I'll be out catching some fish, but when I do decide it's too cold for me to sit out on the water I have a few ideas of what I would like to do.

The plan is to:
1. take all of the electronics and wood off and flip it over.
2. I want to strip off all of the old paint and start from bare aluminum.
3. I also want to fix the bent and missing rub rail on the port side. Not sure where to start with that.
4. I'm not sure that I really need to, but I'm considering using Steelflex on the portion of the hull below the waterline and then I will give the boat a decent paint job. It's very fishable right now but it's not much to look at at all.
5. I want to add some additional aluminum framing to replace the wood for the bench seats that I added.
6. I intend to clean up the electrical wiring. I will add a nice marine fuse block. I will also add a switch panel to the console. I have an old car stereo that I will use for music on the boat and I will install two small speakers as well.
7. I'm going to enclose the compartment spaces so that the different storage areas will not be connected.
8. The cranking battery will be moved towards the front of the boat where my trolling motor/accessory battery is.
9. I am considering adding a livewell which would be in the storage area directly behind my bench seats. Not sure whether to fabricate something from aluminum or just use a cooler.
10. I need to get a jack plate for my outboard and add something to deflect water on back of the transom because when I'm driving the motor hard I get some splash over the transom. If anybody has any advise on how to deal with that I would be grateful.
11. I want to add more LED's (maybe red) to light things up while night fishing.
12. I already have a fish finder up front with the transducer mounted on the trolling motor; I would also like one on the console with a transom mounted transducer so I can see what's under me while at the helm.
13. I want to add a few rod holders for cat fishing.

I may or may not do all of this, or I may add some things. It depends on the time and money I'll need for it. So this winter I've got my work cut out for me if I want to have it all set up for the spring.
 
#10 The cavitation plate on the motor is no doubt catching the water coming off the transom and spraying it up into the boat. If you can raise the motor so the the cavitation plate is level or slightly above the bottom, then that may fix it. If you can't raise it, then a jackplate will fix things as well, plus give you a better hole shot and a little better top end. You do have power trim, correct? Does the splashing get better when you trim it up some?
 
Man that's a nice lookin boat as is, gonna be sick once you get all the above listed done! nice work! =D> =D> =D> =D>
 
Thanks Gators!


Scout,
Thanks for commenting. Looks like my cavitation plate is around 3-4 inches below the bottom of my transom. I don't have power trim on my motor. I will try manually adjusting the angle of it next time I am out on the water. I don't know much about how to determine the best trim setting for an outboard. Right now I have it set to where I think the prop shaft would be parallel to the water surface when on plane. I honestly never considered whether that was the right thing to do.
 

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