1979 12' Mirrocraft - first boat, need some inputs

Hey boaters!

New guy, new to the boat world. I live in a lake town and the last time we had a boat (my fathers) I was too young to really make use of it. His only real memory of the boat was the maintenance it required and not really the fish we caught lol

So here's what I got.. 1979 Mirrocraft 12' V hull, 1987 Shoreland'r trailer and a 1989 Evinrude 9.9hp. He still had the original receipt for the 9.9 for $1000 back in 89. I paid less than that for everything :lol: I bought it from a real nice older gentleman who seemed to of taken care of it properly in the many years hes owned it. Here are some pictures..

https://imgur.com/jY3sGVd
At first I didn't care for the yellow color, but its kind of growing on me. Plus the hull looks really good, so I am going to leave it yellow for now.

https://imgur.com/BAXzL8Q
The inside, I got right to work as soon as I got it by ripping out the two front seats. Ive decided to leave he last one in for now to help keep the hull intact and to prevent stress on the rivets. I am probably going to strip and repaint the inside a battleship grey.

https://imgur.com/OG7d21o
This is what all the seats looked like. Old rotted wood, rust on panels and 35yr old water soaked foam.

https://imgur.com/pm1SjrQ
1989 9.9hp Evinrude. I'll be using this in freshwater lakes only, the previous owner used it in the delaware for shad. It looks like its in very good condition though and it was winterized. I havn't tried to start it yet.. I am pretty clueless when it comes to marine outboards.

https://imgur.com/hBJxSgr
I noticed the prop was pretty beat up. Will this get me through the season? Or is this something I should look into changing soon?

I am debating on weather I want to make a front deck with some storage or not. If I do, I was thinking of having the wood come down and mounted in the front brackets where the front bench seat would go. My buddy works at a metal shop so I can have him fabricate me up some aluminum no problem. The back also needs a bit of attention. There are two cup holder / arm rest things in the back that I probably will pull out. But I also want to get this thing in the water, its fishing season!

Okay. So, id like to put a small casting deck / storage compartment up in front of the bench seat on the bow. I came across this framing idea here : https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7861



That is what I am shooting for. However, I dont have those awesome side brackets attached to the bow of my boat (see pic below). I am still working on a frame idea for it. Id like to have a hatch in it, id also like to have 2 hatches in the front seat as well, but that might come later on.

I am okay with screwing aluminum angle right to the ribs of the boat? I am assuming use SS self tappers?

Do you have any plans to box in the bow and rig this for a bow mount trolling motor? if so it won't matter too much if you don't have that 1/4 bench mount up there.

Nice looking boat, lots of potential.