Mizzie
Well-known member
Hey everyone,
I have decided to put my build 'journal' on here. It is not finished and is not nearly as nice as the projects I've seen on here, but it's my little project and I love it! :mrgreen:
Ever since I sold my old 12' jon, I've been looking for another one. I have a 17' Whaler for saltwater but nothing for fresh. I didn't want a nice one, I wanted one that I could "save" and give a second life. I also wanted one that was cheap enough to leave budget room for plenty of fixes. A couple of weeks of Craigslist searching and I found it. 1987 10' Sears Gamefisher semi-v. The seller had it listed as "in great condition"... Horrible condition would have been a better description!
The boats bottom was coated in what looked like old roofing tar or something. It was full of leaves, dirt, old bees nest and had a big fiberglass patch in the bow and was overall, junk. I tried haggling on the price, guy didn't want to work on the price so I left. I got a call a few hours later saying that somebody else came to see it and declined the boat as well. He said he was sick of dealing with it and if I didn't want it that it was going to the scrap yard in the morning. Long story short, I bought it for less than half of what he had it listed for. However, I still feel I overpaid, but I felt bad for the boat. :roll: I threw it in my old rusty utility trailer and took it home.
Here it is the day I bought it... Isn't she pretty?
He notified me that there was a couple of small leaks, so I took it to the pond to see exactly where. Sure enough, the big peeling fiberglass patch was leaking as well as a small leak near the transom. When I got it home, I sanded her down and peeled off the fiberglass patch, to my surprise, what I thought was a minor leak, was a BIG hole!
Halfway through sanding, This stuff was a pain to get off! (I leaned about aircraft stripper when it was to late!)
Here's the keel rip! Can't believe somebody thought a fiberglass patch was going to hold this!
So I began searching for ways to fix this, I thought welding was going to be too expensive so I pondered other fixes. After posting a thread here, a couple of members talked me into welding. After some calls to a few places I found a Marine repair shop that did the job quick and reasonably priced.
Here she is after welding.
Testing the new weld!
I then caulked up some seams and got ready to lay some bed liner on the hull under the water line for peace of mind and abrasion protection. (I know some guys are against using this stuff but it worked great on my last boat, I do a lot of beaching and fishing in weedy areas).
edit: more new pics below!
I have decided to put my build 'journal' on here. It is not finished and is not nearly as nice as the projects I've seen on here, but it's my little project and I love it! :mrgreen:
Ever since I sold my old 12' jon, I've been looking for another one. I have a 17' Whaler for saltwater but nothing for fresh. I didn't want a nice one, I wanted one that I could "save" and give a second life. I also wanted one that was cheap enough to leave budget room for plenty of fixes. A couple of weeks of Craigslist searching and I found it. 1987 10' Sears Gamefisher semi-v. The seller had it listed as "in great condition"... Horrible condition would have been a better description!
The boats bottom was coated in what looked like old roofing tar or something. It was full of leaves, dirt, old bees nest and had a big fiberglass patch in the bow and was overall, junk. I tried haggling on the price, guy didn't want to work on the price so I left. I got a call a few hours later saying that somebody else came to see it and declined the boat as well. He said he was sick of dealing with it and if I didn't want it that it was going to the scrap yard in the morning. Long story short, I bought it for less than half of what he had it listed for. However, I still feel I overpaid, but I felt bad for the boat. :roll: I threw it in my old rusty utility trailer and took it home.
Here it is the day I bought it... Isn't she pretty?
He notified me that there was a couple of small leaks, so I took it to the pond to see exactly where. Sure enough, the big peeling fiberglass patch was leaking as well as a small leak near the transom. When I got it home, I sanded her down and peeled off the fiberglass patch, to my surprise, what I thought was a minor leak, was a BIG hole!
Halfway through sanding, This stuff was a pain to get off! (I leaned about aircraft stripper when it was to late!)
Here's the keel rip! Can't believe somebody thought a fiberglass patch was going to hold this!
So I began searching for ways to fix this, I thought welding was going to be too expensive so I pondered other fixes. After posting a thread here, a couple of members talked me into welding. After some calls to a few places I found a Marine repair shop that did the job quick and reasonably priced.
Here she is after welding.
Testing the new weld!
I then caulked up some seams and got ready to lay some bed liner on the hull under the water line for peace of mind and abrasion protection. (I know some guys are against using this stuff but it worked great on my last boat, I do a lot of beaching and fishing in weedy areas).
edit: more new pics below!