Alumacraft mods 1442 MV

First of all I want to say thanks to the members who have posted their build threads, because of the inspiration and ideas I've gotten from this site.

My project is a 97 Alumacraft 1442 MV I've had and fished out of for over 10 years. I bought it with a strong running 97 Johnson 9.9 and an unknown 83? Yamaha 25hp that was supposedly running when it was taken off another boat, and a 50# thrust MinnKota AT.

So far I've taken out the previous owners wood front decks, pulled the middle bench out, done much of the front deck support work, and prepped most of the holes to be filled. I put a 15hp carb on the 9.9 and worked on the intake, reeds, and reed plate. So far it doesn't want to run well, I'll sort that out this winter. I got the 25hp Yamaha running good after sitting in my basement garage for the last ten years. I'll finish working on it this winter and paint it sometime too.

I plan to finish the front deck with carpeted .110 aluminum sheet to include hatches where the middle bench area was, make a rear floor out of a FRP wall panel and closed cell foam boards. I already have an aluminuim floor, but I need the material to do the hatches. I have the rest of the orginal 4x8 .110 sheet to do the unhatched portion of the front deck. I'm going to build a setback and lifting plate out of .250 aluminum angle so I can easily adjust height and swap between the 25hp for the river and the 9.9 for the hp restricted lakes. Some 40watt led's for running the river at night, and led running lights are in the plans too. I hope to get it painted and decks,hatches, carpet done this fall, motors and electrical done this winter so I cam enjoy it by next spring.

test pics

I'll post some more boat pics when I get that sorted out.
Thanks for any feedback, questions, comments.

you will be really happy with that thickness on your floor. just right.

looks like you are really going to sort this one out. looking forward to updates.

Thanks Ben. Looking forward to hearing how your boat does on the water. I thing you will be glad you dropped the deck to it's present level. Good score on the motor. Do you ever get over to fish the hp restricted lakes in Farmville? I haven't fished them much in the last couple years but I use to fish them often. My 1442 is ideal for that.

I've got lots of holes in my boat, most on the top rail ( lots of average size but some are large ), anybody have a suggestion? I'm thinking gel epoxy or JB Weld putty.

Previous owner liked screws. You can see most of where I'm at now in the first pic of this set. You can see the back side of some welding I had done years ago to close up a separation in the aluminum in the bow in the second pic.

yep ive had my boat out twice now. its done really well and im very pleased with it so far. as far as taking my boat out west, no, havent done that yet. i dont trust the wheel bearings on my trailer because the previous owner didnt install the castle nuts right :x offseason repair! hey at least i will have something to do this winter.

your method for filling those holes probably depends on what youre going to do after you fill them. if youre just going to paint over them id fill them in with epoxy, sand, and be done with it

It's definitely getting painted. I'm going to fix the rivet holes below the water line with closed end rivets, 5200, and rubber washers. The rest I'm going to try some gel epoxy first because that's what I have on hand that I think might work.

I'm so looking forward to having these holes fixed, and painting it so it doesn't look so ugly.

depending on the shape of your holes, just bucking the rivet should fill it in nicely. oblong or ovals on the other hand might need something better.

I just came in from doing the below waterline rivet holes.
I was careful taking the old rivets out so nice round holes to work with. I only had aluminum 3/16 1/8 to 1/4 grip range in a closed end rivet, so I used SS rubber backed sealing type washers to get my grip range right. A little 5200 and a little prep and I'm sure it will be fine.

All but a couple of the holes have been fixed. I used about 1/3 or more of a bottle of Loctile gel epoxy, and about a 1/4 of a bottle of a Devcon epoxy gel to fill over a hundred holes. The Devcon product was easier to use because it only required one application where the Loctile often required two applications because the first would usually sink into the holes. Both were pretty easy to level with a 4" paint & rust removing wheel ( silicon carbide, extra coarse by Gator ). It doesn't work as well as a wire wheel on paint and rust, but it worked great on the epoxy. I finished hand sanding with 180 or 220 grit. Nothing about fixing all 100+ holes was hard, but it was time consuming.
The Loctite along with some painters tape on the outside of the hull did a nice job on the higher though the hull holes where the old bench rivets were.







One thing I didn't count on was the front bench not being flat or level to the front of the boat. You can see how much it dips down at the tip of the bow in the pic with the drill. I want something flat and level to the nose just under the rail to mount stuff to. My old setup was just plywood on top of the rail. It worked fine for mounting things, but I was always loosing things I would set down there and forget they where there after it got dark, so I would end up kicking them off the boat, or they would bounce into the water running back to the dock #-o . I'm thinking of pulling the small bench that's there out and reattaching it under the rail with solid rivets. Any thoughts on this?

everybody that has pulled a boat apart has run into that level/true/plumb issue. amazing that they get any of those boats together and without cracks.

typed by ben said:

everybody that has pulled a boat apart has run into that level/true/plumb issue. amazing that they get any of those boats together and without cracks.

Click to expand...

brazing does wonders at taking care of those cracks and splits... Especially on the bench seats. Just don't get the base aluminum to hot.. (Experience speaketh on that one)

The way that front bench is mounted reminds me of how an 11 year old would put together his first bird house.
It looks like if I straightened, leveled it out, and trimmed or removed that large mounting lip it would fit under the rail.

Know what you mean. I stood back yesterday, from the front and took a look at mine, and it' like. Why didn't I see that a long time ago. (referring to the way the bow swings up). Makes me have to rethink the bow deck a bit...