1987 tracker tx17 rebuild

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Jbower

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Well I ended up buying a 87 tracker tx-17 last fall that was pretty well taken care of. It was all factory with a 1988 mariner 45hp on it. Actually fished a few tournaments in it at the end of the season. I had added a helix 5 to the bow and a motorguide 75lb trolling motor. Well I decided to tear into this winter as I am a marine tech by trade, self employed so to speak, anyways I started ripping up deck,floor and carpet and pulled out all the waterlogged foam and started on the front deck lay out. I am going to have 7ft of front deck, a center rod locker that should hold pretty close to 8 foot rods, 2 large storage hatches that hold over 10 3700 boxes and 2 smaller ones that will probably hold soft plastics. The main floor is complete, the rear is gone threw and almost finished being carpeted, the deck framing is done and painted and the deck is cut to fit and painted all I need to do is cut out the hatches and troll n tray. I am lowering the seat bases 4 inches to be a little more comfortable and not feel like I am driving a tri axle dump truck. I also ordered a new console out of a g3 boat which should be in in a few days. Here are a few pics, sorry I don’t have a lot my phone had shattered a few weeks ago and had to get a new phone and believe it or not I was out of cloud storage smh.
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Last pic is the Console I have coming


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Nice boat. I really like the huge front casting deck.

Water bouy - it depends on a lot of factors. What type of wood. How was it sealed/treated. Will it be sitting in water. Carpet vs vinyl.where the boat is stored.

Wood is surprisingly durable.

My boat for example has marine grade plywood covered by vinyl as seats. The boat sat outside in the water 6 months out of the year the rest of the time it was in a garage. The plywood hasn’t been replaced in 17 years and it just now starting to weaken.

The frame on the bottom might not last as long. Wood is cheap and easy to replace.


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Thanks guys. Motors just hanging on there for now. Not sure what I am going to run on it yet. The woods all coated with 2 coats of oil based paint now and also boat never stays outside. I have just under 300 boats inside stored so during the summer I have plenty of room for to sit.


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Yes 300 lol. 6 buildings. 4 of which are 64x160 1 is 60x220 and 1 40x80. All are full
I personally winterize about 95% of them


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Not at all. Usually see a few pontoons in the spring that people want to get rid of but that’s about it


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New console showed up late yesterday afternoon and I’m also meeting up with a guy for some seats tomorrow. So I will update with some pics later on. I got the deck hatches all cut out last night. My goal this weekend is to get the front deck pretty much completely done and carpeted. That will leave me with some wiring and finishing up the rod locker also need to figure out what electronics I am going to run. I have a helix 5 but I’m really thinking about selling that and running a couple of Garmin 7s


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Well i was at the shop today rebuilding a etec 225 when a buddy came by and was bored so he pretty much finished up my deck and laid the carpet and mounted the console. I need 1 more cost of paint on the hatches and carpet them. I’ll do that this weekend and hopefully just have dash and trolling motor wiring left.
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Started working on the dash today a little while I’m waiting on hinges and hatch pulls to show up. Still have a ton of work left but I’m on the downhill side
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Looks awesome! I just had to order more foam tonight for the back (which was painful) and tomorrow getting more foam sheets and plywood to start cutting the sub-floor out over the next couple days.
 
It’s slowly coming together. I need to swap out that steering wheel it looked grey when it wasn’t close to the boat but it definitely looks tan in the boat. I ran a bunch of wiring tonight,mounted my control box, ran throttle cable to hot foot, ran transducer wire, finished mounting console. I think I am going to be switching motors to a 75 possibly. And I’m going to go with a 6 inch jack plate. I am trying my hardest not to spend to much money on this project as I don’t want to be upside down in it. But I don’t have much in carpet nor wood. paint that I used for the outside is the same I used on the wood, console was only 175$. My end goal is to be able to go places that the guys I fish in tournaments with can’t. Shallow waters and creeks and my lake has a loch that goes to 7 other lakes, a normal sized bass boat won’t get threw it. Anyways I’m going to end up with more time than money in it and in a few years I’ll either decide to keep it or sell it.
Kalninm it sounds like your doing a great job. Just take your time and everything will turn out great. I on the other hand am kind of rushing mine mainly because I have a few pontoon redecks scheduled to come on the shop and won’t have the room for my boat in the shop while those are going on. But don’t get me wrong I’m doing everything as right as I should but somethings that I’m rushing now will need attended to more towards spring


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Jim said:
Love the pictures on the walls!

Haha seems every time i order a jet ski engine I receive one of those. Not sure I could have to many
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Well I finished up a lot of odds and ends today. I’d guess that I have just a few weekends left on it. I need to do front hatch hinges, put trolling motor back on and finish wiring switches in dash. I am waiting on a jack plate and steering wheel. Other than that stuff it’s paint the bottom and do my trailer lights. I just became tournament director of a trail in my area and finished my schedule. First tournament is April 14th and I’m guessing we will have ice covered lakes until end of February maybe 2nd week of March.


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Nice! I didn't get much done this weekend, went ice fishing instead.....which sucks lol Where are you a tournament director?
 
kalninm said:
Nice! I didn't get much done this weekend, went ice fishing instead.....which sucks lol Where are you a tournament director?
Anglers dream. It’s based in Indiana but there is a few divisions in Michigan and Illinois. Should be a ton of fun. I’m just really hoping to qualify for the TOC it’s at lake chickamauga first week of October


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