2000 Tracker Grizzly 1448

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meonline06

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 25, 2012
Messages
134
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Location
Richmond, VA
I recently sold my 16' Ouachita jon boat that i converted to a bass boat... I had a lot of fun building and fishing on that one but now its time to move on. My wife and I bought a 14' Tracker Grizzly last year from Copart, the auction house chain. It's not the first time we have made a purchase from an auction, but it is the first time we have used Copart. The company seems to have become very popular recently. The fees for this company are far higher than any other auction firm I have done business with and it certainly isn't my favorite company to do business with. That being said, I still got a good deal on it. The boat has just been sitting in our yard for a year, but now its time to bring it back to life.

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I live in Virginia, however I purchased the boat in North Carolina. When I went to get the title from DGIF, I had some difficulties that stemmed from the fact that this boat was never titled nor registered.

I was lucky that I could make out the decals on the side of the boat that had been painted over. This boat used to belong to Wilkes Rescue Squad in North Carolina. I was actually able to get in touch with them via facebook and get some background. After speaking with a Chief familiar with my Tracker, I discovered that this boat was actually damaged when a building fell on it. It was utilized when the hurricane hit and caused major flooding in the Carolinas. So I actually bought it from the insurance company. I also learned that since it was owned by a municipality, NC law does not require them to title and register it. That's why the VA DGIF couldn't find any info on it to issue a title.

After I explained the history to them, they verified everything with NC and now I'm starting my next build!
 
Before getting started on the boat, I needed to have a trailer to put it on. I decided to use the trailer from another boat I bought at an auction.

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This was an old 14' Starcraft trihull that i got for incredibly cheap. I would take this auction company over Copart every day of the week. The boat itself was in horrible shape, but the motor and trailer were useable. My wife and I broke the trailer down so that we could sand, prime and paint everything. One of the hubs had been replaced recently and looked almost new. The other felt gritty when spinning the hub so we new at the very least we would need new bearings. Both tires were also dry rotted. We ended up buying 2 new wheels, 1 new hub and new LED trailer lights. It had roller bunks on it with the glass boat, so we also picked up some 2x4's for new bunks and some new bolts since a lot of the old ones were rusty.... I came to the conclusion that i would just remove the rust from the bolts next time, because I was completely caught off guard by how much simple bolts added up to $$$.


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Tomorrow i will reassemble the trailer and hopefully start painting the boat's hull.
 
The trailer is back together. With the new wheels, hardware, bunks and lights this thing looks brand new.

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Before we flipped the boat over for paint, we decided to strip off the old greed carpet. This was by far my least favorite parr of the project so far. The carpet was old, dirty and dry rotted. We found that paint scrapers were the fastest way to get it up. We also tried heat, but that had almost zero effect on it.

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Once we flipped the boat over we managed to to get the hull prepped, primed and painted. We aren't going for a perfect finish. I dont mind a few dents and gouges on my aluminum boats; it adds character. All in all I feel like it turned out well. My wife picked the color so I wasn't sure what it would look like once it cured, but it actually ended up being a slightly shinier version of classic jon boat green.

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Next we are going to start painting the inside and framing it out for flooring.

We also have a video up documenting our progress so far. Check it out!
https://youtu.be/llhMpe3KAWY
 
Finished up the framing for the extended front casting deck yesterday evening. This is a fairly wide 14 footer but we decided to keep it low for stability. We threw a couple coats of spar urethane on it before a thunder storm rolled in. Today we were able to get the plywood measured and cut for the front deck and floorboard. We went thick at 19/32" which I know adds a lot of extra weight to the boat, but wanted it to be solid under foot. We are going to go thinner on the rear deck. We got one coat of spar on, but the Virginia hunidity is making for long drying times. Hopefully my wife can finish weatherproofing tomorrow while I'm at work. Next step will be carpet.

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Not a lot of progress on the boat itself. My wife finished sealing the deck wood with spar yesterday. We wanted to put the carpet on today, but didn't have time.

I am constantly buying old outboards and fixing them up. Recently, I was able to buy a 2010 25hp Evinrude Etec for dirt cheap. The previous 2 owners couldn't get it to run right. The last owner sold it to me after getting stranded in the middle of a lake and getting towed back to the ramp. Long story short, it had a bad fuel pump which i replaced(actually had to buy a whole new vapor separator tank whick sucked) and today was the day to test it on the water. Also, I never actually tested boat to see if it had any leaks so this was a good time to check it out before securing the decks and floor.


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The motor ran great! The boat floated...bouyantly. No leaks, so today was an overall win. I had forgotten how fast these small motors can push a bare metal boat with no weight added. I think I made my wife nervous a few times.

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I had every intention of selling the Etec and making a solid profit since it is so new, and was going to put an older tiller on the Tracker when I find one. Now after taking them both out together for the first time I kind of feel like they are an item now. Not sure what I will end up doing. There won't be anymore progress until next week; my job will have all my time thru Monday. Can't wait to get the wood carpeted and installed. I always feel like that step makes for the biggest visual transformation.
 
Alright, took some time off from the build for a while but now I'm back to it. The front deck and floor are done and carpeted. Finished that yesterday and let the adhesive cure over night. I used cardboard to make a template for the deck wood before putting the saw to it. And of course a liberal coating of spar urethane. The next step is to finish the wood/carpet for the rear deck, install the hatch hinges and fasten everything down.

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We also have a new build video uploaded
https://youtu.be/ANz38-642H4
 
Awesome ! Teamwork makes the dream work!

Trailer looks new. Maybe some guide bunks on the side would be nice. What a gem of a motor that is. I don't know many that want to work on etec outboards! Good for you!

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 
thedude said:
Awesome ! Teamwork makes the dream work!

Trailer looks new. Maybe some guide bunks on the side would be nice. What a gem of a motor that is. I don't know many that want to work on etec outboards! Good for you!

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
Thanks! I am grateful every day for my wife! It's hard to find a woman willing to get her hands dirty with you.

We are considering moving the axle back a few inches on the trailer to add some tongue weight. We got lucky with the Etec. There are a whole slew of parts that can go bad on them and they all cost a fortune.
 
Amazing job. Older riveted boat with no leaks. I've been shying away from a riveted hull but you seemed to luck out here. Enjoyed watching the vids. The 2 of you work together well.
 
FLBASSGUY said:
Amazing job. Older riveted boat with no leaks. I've been shying away from a riveted hull but you seemed to luck out here. Enjoyed watching the vids. The 2 of you work together well.
Thank you! We definitely were lucky with this one. This is the first riveted boat I have owned that has zero leaks from the start.
 
Despite the time between my posts, I have been working on the boat here and there. I wanted to make a post last weekend, but I somehow managed to drown my waterproof phone. Apparently after you have a screen replaced waterproof doesn't exist anymore.

Anyway, we have all the decks carpeted and secured. We also installed the front pedestal seat which I'm looking forward to using. I have never used a pedestal seat to fish from. I even had one on my first boat build, but never used it. Now that I'm a little older and a lot lazier I'm looking forward to relaxing while spending time on the water.

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We want to install another pedestal seat in the back, but we aren't sure exactly where we should put it. We would like to put the pedestal on the rear deck. Since we bass fish a lot, it is nice to cast and sight fish from an elevated platform. The issue we have is that since this is a tiller steer boat, it would not be convenient at all having the pedestal right in front of the motor controls. The seat and pedestal take less than 5 seconds to remove or install so I'm not sure if it really matters as much as I am thinking. The other option would be to mount the pedestal on the floor, between the two decks. Not sure what we are going to to at this point. If anyone has any suggestions please chime in. I know a lot of you have lots of experience with tiller steer fishing rigs.

For the two hatches in the front deck, we used stainless steel piano hinges. Experience has taught me not to use the screws that come with the hinges because they are too short and tend to back out and/or strip over time. I recommend using 1 to 1.5 inch stainless screws instead of the half inch ones that are included. We also decided to use pneumatic struts to help keep the lids open when in use. It's a small thing and very inexpensive on Amazon, but is very helpful. The struts not only help keep the lids open while digging through the compartments, but they also keep the lids from opening too far and putting extra stress on the piano hinges.

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And last night we added a small anchor light. Next step is to install the LED navigation lights and try to track down a trolling motor.

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After thinking on it for a while, we decided to install the pedestal seat on the rear deck a couple of days ago. The seat and pedestal will have to be moved when motoring with the outboard, but it seemed the most convenient spot for fishing. Time will tell if that was the right choice.

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The rear deck does not have much reinforcement from the manufacturer, so we used a 2x12 that we had at home to reinforce it. The 2x12 went under the deck and was secured using corner brackets. Then pedestal base, wood deck, aluminum deck and 2x12 were bolted together with 6 stainless bolts.

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We also found a trolling motor on Craigslist for cheap. We hope to get that installed and take care of everything electrical this week.


Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk


 

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