14' Lund rebuild and modification

TinBoats.net

Help Support TinBoats.net:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Centrarchidae

Active member
Joined
Aug 20, 2013
Messages
39
Reaction score
0
Location
West Michigan
I have been reading posts on this sight for a couple months now and I have to say there are some really talented people with some awesome boat builds! I have learned a lot about what I would like to do with my boat by reading what others have posted here and I would like to share my ideas and plans as well. Maybe some one else can be inspired a little from what I will attempt to document here.

A little info about how I ended up with the boat I currently have. I had a 14' sea nymph for about 10 years and really loved the boat. I didn't do too much mods on it other than add some lights, electrical improvements, painting inside and outside of the hall. The issue I had with it was the motor, a 15 HP Force I think was about a 1984. It was nothing but trouble. This past summer I was able to get it running as good as ever, though. My Wife and I were camping at Muskegon State Park with my brother and his family. One day, after a morning of fishing, I was giving my nephew and niece a boat ride out in Muskegon Lake. We were about 3 miles from the boat launch when the motor started acting up. I was able to get it running and we turned around, when, you can probably guess, it died for good. Locked up in a way I knew it would never run again. My brother and I ended up rowing about a mile to a place we could pull the boat out of the water and get a ride back to our campsite. That's when I started looking for a new motor in earnest! I ended up at Sportsfisherman's Service Center in Muskegon - really nice people! They told me for the price of a good motor they could provide a package deal on what is now my current boat. They even gave me the same price I bought the boat for in trade-in value. Still hurt to part with the boat, but no love was lost on the motor.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0368.jpg
    IMG_0368.jpg
    154.5 KB · Views: 7,821
  • IMG_0366.jpg
    IMG_0366.jpg
    180.2 KB · Views: 7,821
Welcome aboard, Centrarchidae.
Nothing more frustrating than a motor that won't run.
Hopefully the new rig brings you years of enjoyment.

jasper
 
It looks like a nice "new" old rig. Those lunds are nice and stable and ride nice even in rougher waters. good luck on your mod. looks like my old lund (that i sold), so you can check out what i did with mine.
 
Thanks jasper. I was able to get some good use already this summer. The "new" boat is slightly bigger than the old boat, but with the 10 more HP from the 'rude it moves really well. There is no substitute for HP!

jdsgrog - your lund looks like the same base boat as mine. You did some really nice work on that boat. I have been thinking about what I might like to do, and your finished boat is very close to what I would like to try.

I have two basic configurations I am contemplating. One is with side boxes on both side and a small front deck like in jdsgrog's 14' lund, and a similar idea with side boxes, but asymmetric so as to create more open area in each "cockpit". One of the major design criteria I used in both is to have pedestal seats mounted on the floor to keep the CG low. I followed some advice mentioned on several builds on this site - stand up on the seats and see what it is like. I took the boat out on th river and started walking on the seats, especially the front one where I would like to put a deck. I tell you, at 6'7" and 235 lbs, it got a little squirrelly for me. Might not have been so bad if the boat was a little more loaded or if someone else was in the boat, but it made my mind up - keep the CG as low as possible.

Here's some models of what I am thinking:
 

Attachments

  • Boat assy - asymetrical walkthru.JPG
    Boat assy - asymetrical walkthru.JPG
    47.1 KB · Views: 5,725
  • Boat assy - straight sides.JPG
    Boat assy - straight sides.JPG
    49 KB · Views: 5,725
I'm in the planning stages of changing things around in my 14' Polar Kraft. One of my ideas is very similar to your first pic. I am thinking about removing the center bench and make storage boxes down the sides that run from the split rear bench to the front bench. Also close in the bow for more storage.

I hate having stuff laying around in the way. I want to have a place for all my gear on the boat.
 
Nice boat! I like the full length boxes better. Can't you still offset the rear seat to make more comfy for tiller with that configuration?
 
Let me just be the first to say that I like the motor size in your drawings, that is a MAN'S motor on the back
of that 16 footer. looks like about a 150 hp. Keep up the good work.
Tim
 
Thanks for the kind words. I am also thinking the full-length boxes on the sides would be the best simply because it offers a lot of support for the sides. While I am still sorting it out though I have been cleaning up the hull.

There is/was a somewhat heavy scum line on the bottom of the boat. There is a lake association sticker on the boat, so I think the PO left it in the water a lot of time. If I lived on a lake I probably would also. I wanted to get it cleaned up. I have read some concerns on this site about using acid to clean aluminum so I decided not to go that route. I did a little research on how to polish metals, and after a few attempts I devised a method that seems to work quite well. Time consuming but it does work. I started on the bottom port side and just worked on about a 2' length at a time. Using a 1/4 sheet pad sander, I sanded the area with 100, 220, 400, and finally 600-grit crocus paper. Then using a 1 HP angle grinder with a buffing wheel, I buffed it out with an aluminum cutting compound, and then polished with an aluminum rouge compound. A 2' length took a little more than 1 hour. I probably have 8-9 hours into cleaning the 1/2 of the boat I have done at this time. The first attempt at polishing I skipped all the sanding and started with the cutting compound. Big mistake! The surface turned black from all the debris coming off the aluminum. I guess that's what happens when I try to take shortcuts. What I learned is that it is very important to clean the aluminum after each grit level, especially before the cutting compound on the buffer wheel. In between sand paper levels, I just wiped it off with a rag, but for the buffing compounds I wiped it down with mineral spirits to remove any of the remaining buffing wax. Also, the sand paper does not last very long - a few times it took more than one sheet of sand paper to complete the 2' section, especially the 100 grit. I guess that makes sense because the sand paper is aluminum oxide, which is basically what the aluminum surface is. At this time I have 1/2 the hull cleaned and I am liking the results.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0669.jpg
    IMG_0669.jpg
    24 KB · Views: 5,640
  • IMG_0665.jpg
    IMG_0665.jpg
    27.3 KB · Views: 5,640
  • IMG_0666.jpg
    IMG_0666.jpg
    42.7 KB · Views: 5,640
That's too funny earl60446! The motor is just a free 3D model I found to put into the boat model to represent a motor. If I remember right, its actually is a 150 HP model! The real thing will just have a little 25 HP Evenrude. It pushes the boat plenty fast for the fish I chase!
 
If elbow grease were money, a shiny tin would be the most expensive boat in the water. :)

Nice work. Yeoman effort.

=D> =D> =D>
 
Have you ever fished the muskegon river? Have been wanting to fish it but wasn't sure how deep it was. Hopefully next summer with my daughter. Nice job on the boat.
 
fishingmich - I have fished the Muskegon river from the Muskegon lake end - about a mile or two up the north channel. It is fairly deep there and didn't have any issues. I have also fished a little from shore below the Croton dam in Newago, and also on Hardy Dam Pond in a boat, from the state park boat launch. I would recommend, if you are coming from SE Michigan, to try Muskegon Lake and the river from that end as it has a bit of everything, being connected to the big lake and all. I can tell you also that the river below the Croton dam is quite busy on weekends with canoes and tubers. We took our daughter and some of her friends canoeing there this summer and it was BUSY! It is also quite shallow in spots so you would need to watch out for rocks.

Not much progress lately on the boat. Started polishing up the starboard side bottom, maybe 20% done. Probably won't have too much time until Thanksgiving weekend to do much else as I had other commitments all this week and next week I will be travelling for work. I "jumped the gun" a bit and ordered one seat pedestal from Iboats.com for one of the seats I have planned. I only ordered one because of $$ and I like to try things out a bit before going all in. Slowly moving forward.
 
Update since the last post. The hull is finished being cleaned and polished! It took a little bit of time, but I am happy with the results and even happier to be moving on. There are two reasons I wanted to have a bare aluminum hull; 1 – I painted my previous boat and saw how much damage painted hull takes over the 2 or 3 summers it was painted. It looks great when first painted, but I think it would take a lot of work to keep it that way. It might be a lot of work to keep the aluminum looking nice also – I guess I will find out. 2 – If I were to paint the hull, it would be next April before there would be enough warm days to get all the painting done. As it was, I finished cleaning and polishing yesterday with the garage door open since it was a nice sunny 45 °F day. Can’t paint at that temperature!

Following are pictures of the finished hull. Not perfect but I like it. Since this is a 30+ year old boat, there are many battle scars on the hull still visible. These might have been better covered or hidden with paint, but why cover up all that character?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0709.jpg
    IMG_0709.jpg
    49.5 KB · Views: 5,213
  • IMG_0706.jpg
    IMG_0706.jpg
    47.2 KB · Views: 5,213
Thanks rscottp. The boat is really in quite good shape and the transom is still very solid. I see you had to do quite a bit of work on yours. The basic overall layout is very similar between our two boats.
 
Before I flipped the boat over and put it back on the trailer, I discovered something about the trailer. It is a folding design! I don’t think I ever saw a folding boat trailer. What is the benefit? Does it make loading in shallower water easier?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0718.jpg
    IMG_0718.jpg
    83.3 KB · Views: 1,879
  • IMG_0717.jpg
    IMG_0717.jpg
    86.4 KB · Views: 1,879
I think they call them tilting trailers. Better for shallow ramps, I have never used one. I think it would be good for storing the boat outside, keep it tipped up so the water drains.
 
The boat is now on the trailer and I am starting to disassemble the inside benches. I got the floor removed and all the flotation as well. Earlier in the summer, I had removed all the wooden bench covers and sanded, stained, and coated with urethane. I put it back on so I could continue using the boat, it an improvement that could be done without taking the boat out of service.
Now everything is out and I am going to make changes to the benches. The current plan is to remove all the benches and put quite narrow side boxes or benches along the side up to the point of about where the front bench is. I was planning on putting a deck on the front to create a place for putting the gas tank and battery, but it depends on how high of a deck it will need to be. The fuel tank is about 10" tall, so a deck about 12" above the hull might be enough to hide the tank and the battery. I want to keep the deck as low as possible because I am planning on putting a third pedestal seat there and do not want it to be too high.
I was gone all day Saturday, but spent about an hour looking at the empty boat and measuring what the deck could look like, just trying to figure out what would be best. Didn't actually do anything, - it was quite cold (~20 °F), so I went inside and watched MSU win the Big Ten championship. Go Spartans!!!

Question I have - how high of a front deck could be put in a 14' V-hull without making it too unstable? I am setting this up for three fishing seats. The back and middle seats are easy to figure out as they will be on the floor. The third one will need to be elevated I am thinking about 15" or so to make a wide enough deck to make a third comfortable fishing location, as the shape of the hull gets quite narrow up front - the curse of a V-hull. What I don't want is something that is unstable. I am thinking that if the deck is about 12-15" below the gunnel it would be OK. Any thoughts?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0749-1.jpg
    IMG_0749-1.jpg
    48.3 KB · Views: 1,840
  • IMG_0737-1.jpg
    IMG_0737-1.jpg
    47.7 KB · Views: 1,840
  • IMG_0736.jpg
    IMG_0736.jpg
    48.9 KB · Views: 1,840

Latest posts

Top