Hello folks:
Just getting a start here on a modification to a 1436 I picked up at Sportsman's Warehouse. These are labeled under the Coleman brand, but are actually Lowe boats according to the title. They have these labeled at weighing 197 pounds, but no way-- more like 135 pounds. This is a super lightweight boat that hopefully won't get torn apart too quickly. On the plus side, since it is so lightweight it will allow for a bit more weight for my modification.
I used rigid foam insulation for the floor, which will be covered in FRP ( fiberglass reinforced panels). I beveled the edges to fit the support ribs, and also used a router to notch the bottom of the panels at the transition area where the gunwales meet the floor.
I'm covering the open area at the Stern in 3/8 inch exterior grade plywood, which will also be covered with the FPR. While I'm going to go ahead and put a deck in the front, I'm allowing a large removable panel just forward of the front bench seat, so a person can stand inside the decking area or rest their feet there.
My plan at this point is to also put the trolling motor battery upfront, but I can quickly see going overboard on weight. My modifications are going to include a movable steering console that will slide on the vertical section of the front bench seat, and a small windshield of some kind. Here in Alaska with 45 to 50° water temperatures, it can get mighty chilly traveling along at 20+ miles an hour, so a windshield is just about a must if a person doesn't want to freeze to death.
Here's a couple of photos of the start of the project. I'm using 1" x 1" x 0.125 of an inch aluminum angle, and 3/16 of an inch pop rivets. The shop unfortunately only had the rounded corner variety of the aluminum angle, so having to round off all the edges for fitting, which is definitely slowing me down. I was able to get 50 feet for $40, and one sheet of fiberglass reinforced panel was $34, and the 3/8 of an inch plywood was $24. Pop rivets are about five dollars for 50, so that's where I'm at so far in terms of expense.
I will update as I go along here. So far, this is taking way longer than I expected, but now that I've got my feet wet a little bit with the aluminum angle installation, it should move along a bit faster. I'm finding that nothing in the boat is square, parallel, symmetrical, etc. It's pretty much a custom build, and I bet most boats are this way. I suspect it really doesn't matter if your bench seat is a half-inch out of square, but when you're trying to cut plywood for a deck, it can be a real pain creating parallelograms.
More to come...
Just getting a start here on a modification to a 1436 I picked up at Sportsman's Warehouse. These are labeled under the Coleman brand, but are actually Lowe boats according to the title. They have these labeled at weighing 197 pounds, but no way-- more like 135 pounds. This is a super lightweight boat that hopefully won't get torn apart too quickly. On the plus side, since it is so lightweight it will allow for a bit more weight for my modification.
I used rigid foam insulation for the floor, which will be covered in FRP ( fiberglass reinforced panels). I beveled the edges to fit the support ribs, and also used a router to notch the bottom of the panels at the transition area where the gunwales meet the floor.
I'm covering the open area at the Stern in 3/8 inch exterior grade plywood, which will also be covered with the FPR. While I'm going to go ahead and put a deck in the front, I'm allowing a large removable panel just forward of the front bench seat, so a person can stand inside the decking area or rest their feet there.
My plan at this point is to also put the trolling motor battery upfront, but I can quickly see going overboard on weight. My modifications are going to include a movable steering console that will slide on the vertical section of the front bench seat, and a small windshield of some kind. Here in Alaska with 45 to 50° water temperatures, it can get mighty chilly traveling along at 20+ miles an hour, so a windshield is just about a must if a person doesn't want to freeze to death.
Here's a couple of photos of the start of the project. I'm using 1" x 1" x 0.125 of an inch aluminum angle, and 3/16 of an inch pop rivets. The shop unfortunately only had the rounded corner variety of the aluminum angle, so having to round off all the edges for fitting, which is definitely slowing me down. I was able to get 50 feet for $40, and one sheet of fiberglass reinforced panel was $34, and the 3/8 of an inch plywood was $24. Pop rivets are about five dollars for 50, so that's where I'm at so far in terms of expense.
I will update as I go along here. So far, this is taking way longer than I expected, but now that I've got my feet wet a little bit with the aluminum angle installation, it should move along a bit faster. I'm finding that nothing in the boat is square, parallel, symmetrical, etc. It's pretty much a custom build, and I bet most boats are this way. I suspect it really doesn't matter if your bench seat is a half-inch out of square, but when you're trying to cut plywood for a deck, it can be a real pain creating parallelograms.
More to come...