1978 Lowe Line Hustler 16 V-Bow Complete Rebuild

[Hustler16]

I got my 1978 Lowe Line V-bow 16 last fall. My goal was to get the boat exterior pretty dang close to the original including the Low Line starburst diamond striping. I originally was not going to post anything about it and just get it done and fish. This is my first mod, and I really wouldn't be where I am with it now if it were not for everyone else who took the time to post. So I thought it was important to do the same. The only real problem is I did not get good before pictures. The first pictures I have of the boat, I had already begun to take things off and tear out the blue carpet. Besides the captain seat everything else was basically original.






View attachment Hustler 16 V-bow & Hustler Pro 17.pdf

 

[gillhunter]

Welcome aboard! Good looking boat, should be a great project. Post lots of pictures.

 

[Hustler16]

So after I got the boat home and stared at it for a few days I started tearing everything out of it as shown in the previous pictures.
Mistake 1 - was not taking as received pictures.
Mistake 2 - was not really paying a lot of attention to where things were before ripping them out, most importantly electrical stuff. I didn't really have a plan, except I wanted to rebuild the boat into a bass boat, which included rewiring.
Mistake 3 - not really having a plan first. It was not until I ripped everything out that I started searching what I wanted this thing to look out and how to do it.

Lesson learned...

Have a plan and pay attention to how things were not really to repeat but at lease to have an idea of what it should look like when you replace.

Here is what I came up with as a plan, only after I tore everything out including the console that I wanted to remount further back for more front deck:


Console move picture is hard to see, but once you do that you are in for several more expenses, steering cables and in some cases controls for your outboard. If I would of known I was going to have so much trouble with my steering cable I would not have messed with it.
You can see if you turn your head sideways that it was moved back around 16" from the non faded area.

 

[Hustler16]

Once I felt I was able to start doing things, one of the first things that had to happen was move the deck up. I used the same rails that the previous deck was on, and popped all the riots. This was done mainly to not have to try to bend aluminum in the same that was required. Although its tough to see you can see on the left side of the picture where the rail had been moved up.

The very front of the boat is being left as is and the newly raise supports on the side will meet up to the bottom of the bend, of the deck that I left up front, which will make more since when I can post pictures of the front deck closer to completion.

Also in this picture you can see where the live well was mounted through the hull on the right side. I still have not figured out how I was going to plug that. but I decided to scrap the old metal live well and will replace it with a plastic insert you can buy almost any marine outfitter.

The entire mid section to the back of the boat is capped and is very sold and foam filled. I knew right away that was going to stay, and I would build around it. so you can see in the front where the boat is naked and only the supporting ribs are left uncapped after the rail was raised.

 

[Hustler16]

Shes almost all framed up. I will add additional support after I mock up the deck and step on it to find spots that are to flexible. I used all 1x1 angled aluminum and 3/16 rivets, the angled aluminum was around $.38 per ft.

 

[Hustler16]

looking like a boat again...more importantly a bass boat.

 

[Hustler16]

Primed and Painted. I used a 7" grinder to hit the old paint and surface rust on trailer, and a wire wheel to get stuff off and scuff the hull. It took an entire day to prep. I used Sherwin Williams Procryl primer and Pro Industrial DTM acrylic system. I rolled the trailer and sprayed the hull. The interior of the boat was painted the same color as the trailer.

 

[jparrishbt]

Awesome looking build. I am going to take my boat off my trailer today and go at it. Mines has some rust that I need to hit with a wire wheel then I will be able to get going on new paint and all the assesories. I am thinking of doing either tractor paint grey or Bedliner on mine. Everywhere I go with mine will be on dirt roads so it has to be durable.

 

[Hustler16]

Trailer upgrades include lights, new winch, and jack.

 

[jparrishbt]

Yours turned out nice. My trailer is in worse shape then I thought. Just pulled the boat off. I might need a couple wheels to get mine done.

 

[Hustler16]

Almost caught up with with the posts to real time progress, a couple of odd mods...include sealing a hole in the bottom where aerator pump was prior. I plan to move it to the rear rather than on the bottom. I was uncomfortable with the pump and strainer hanging below a boat I plan on being shallow, and in a lot of flooded timber in. The solution was a sandwich of sorts. The hole was 1" so we put some billet on a lathe and made 2 pieces one male and the other female to fit the hole and threaded to sandwich together with sealant in and around. It looks giant and is probably a bit overkill but thats ok. The other mod was easier routing the rear deck to fit the live well I didn't plan to have sticking up over the rest of the deck. I had to shave the new steering column some in order to fit the giant awesome EZACDC panel, also shaved the ignition color to fit where the whole is.

 

[Hustler16]

Ready to be buttoned up and carpet less a few extra details, like rod locker rod tube inserts, trolling motor, and doors. Working on fabing some custom doors. The reach storage will use 18x18 plastic inserts no wood boxes, so that they can be removed for easy access the batteries, fuel tank, and pumps.

 

[Hustler16]

Yours turned out nice. My trailer is in worse shape then I thought. Just pulled the boat off. I might need a couple wheels to get mine done.

Mine had a lot of rust and I thought it was going to be bad. but it was all surface rust. The hardest part was removing the pen striping before I hit it with the sander. I actually blew the motor on the 7" grinder while doing this. I ended up using a 4" angle grinder with 80G disk. It would have been easier had I started with the angle grinder, it was much faster. I went through 6 7" disks and another 4 of the 4". I didn't spend to much time trying to get every bit off either. If it stuck after I hit it once, I figured it wasn't going anywhere. I used acetone to clean up and went to town on the primer and did 2 coats of the topcoat. Id say as long as your fenders and mud guards are good you shouldnt have to much trouble with the paint no matter what you use. The dust wont hurt it like rocks hitting it would.

 

[Hustler16]

Easy view before and almost complete after.

 

[kbeazy35]

Where are you getting your inserts at? Like that white trapezoid one.. I'd probably do all square to make it easier . How is the 1" angle holding up? Is it 1/8th?

 

[kbeazy35]

Also for inside your hatches are you just putting in a thinner plywood? I have an 18' Lowe big Jon that is about to get a similar layout! I checked out the metal by the foot and it's definitely worth the hour and 45 min drive... Going to probably go overkill on a load just cause it's so sffordable.. Any idea how many feet you use?

How much was the cutting fee or do they come in standard lengths?

 

[Hustler16]

Also for inside your hatches are you just putting in a thinner plywood? I have an 18' Lowe big Jon that is about to get a similar layout! I checked out the metal by the foot and it's definitely worth the hour and 45 min drive... Going to probably go overkill on a load just cause it's so sffordable.. Any idea how many feet you use?

How much was the cutting fee or do they come in standard lengths?

I think it comes in 25 ft sections but you can get it cut to any length. I've done all mine in 8' sections, and I've used around 175' way more than I ever thought, but a lot of that had to do with running angle back to back making Ts to make it easier to tie it all together but at. 36-40 cents it's doable. If you went to a hardware store it might coat you 15-20 dollars per 8 ft section. The plywood is all the same everywhere. The white insert is a live well from nitro, you can buy them on eBay. I wanted something smaller because of lack of space n the back. My other inserts are basically square trashcans that fit into the back sections. They were about 3 ft high and I simple cut them to size. The angle I used was the thinnest 1x1 and it will flex and seem as if it won't support anything until it's all secured and then it's sold.

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[kbeazy35]

Yeah I think it's to a 1.06$ a foot for the 1x1 and 1.26$ a foot for 1.5x1.5 that is 1/8th" thic.. Which is nearly 2 dollars cheaper a foot than every store where I live.. Now I can do everything I want with my boat no problem. I like the live well idea.

Are you doing marine vinyl or carpet? Best prices I found for both with free shipping is boatcarpetoutlet.com

 

[kbeazy35]

Also what specifically did you use for paint or the procedure before painting? After seeing yours I like the sheen and will not do the flat Lowe green on mine anymore. Does where your driver/passenger seat flip up for under storage?

 

[Hustler16]

Also what specifically did you use for paint or the procedure before painting? After seeing yours I like the sheen and will not do the flat Lowe green on mine anymore. Does where your driver/passenger seat flip up for under storage?

I used Sherwin-Williams procryl and pro industrial DTM acrylic. Basically I use the 7 inch grinder until I burned the motor up, and then I switched to a 4-inch angle grinder, which ended up being faster and better anyway. I grinder on it until mist of the paint was off of the trailer not so thoroughly that it was all exposed otherwise I would have sandblasted it. I I hit it so that it was good enough to get all the surface rust off, anything that was left after I passed over it, I figured was stuck well enough to where it wasn't going anywhere I just wanted to make sure I got all of the rust off. After that with a 4 inch roller I I rolled the trailer with the primer and 2 coated it with the DTM. The boat I used a wire wheel on the end of a drill and just hit specific spots and I took a sanding pad and just kind of stuffed up everywhere else and then washed it with acetone, I sprayed it with the primer and 2 coated it with the DTM acrylic, which was semi gloss. Semi gloss or gloss will always clean better than flat, and if prepped right looks just as good.

I didn't box in the front seat. so rather than mess with a seat that flips for storage I left the front open to put stuff under the entire bench.

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