1980 LOWE 16' total rebuild

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Hi Salenity

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Nov 24, 2012
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Location
KCK
I've been wanting to start a build thread for some time now but I havent had the time. So now that the boat is all but done I'll start the thread. LOL
After a LOT of cleaning this is how the boat looked the day I brought it home.
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A little background on me and the boat project. I live just south of KCK and found a 17' Tracker I wanted for $3500. It was supposed to be super nice! I drove several hours away to Arkansas to look at it and it was a total piece of JUNK AND NOT WORTH BUYING AT ANY PRICE! The next day I went and knocked on a local guys door that had this boat sitting outside knowing it hadn't moved in years.
Anyhow I ended up buying the boat 40hp Mercury and Rollco trailer for $300.
 
As you can see the foam must have been open cell and was extremely water logged! It had even expanded to the point it was lifting the decking and bowed all of the surrounding aluminum!!! (does anyone think this was the factory foam)?
 
The next step was to try and brighten up the outside. I thought about painting it but once I saw a few video's on Utube about Aluminum Brightener I was sold! I got the Aluminum brightener from Orileys for $10 and diluted it with probably 3 parts of water.
Before
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After
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I wanted to raise the casting deck up to almost the top of the boat but also keep it low enough to keep stuff from rolling off into the water.
This left a section between the casting deck and the back deck that needed to be painted (nice to have a father that owns a body shop)
The first pic is of the self etching primer and the next is the paint. I also painted the console but apparently didn't get any pics.
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Next was replacing the foam. I had some 2'' pink foam laying around and a bunch of closed cell spray foam (I own a Remodeling construction company).
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I did the same to the front of the boat but didn't get pics.
 
The boat, motor and trailer is a steal for $300. =D>

That aluminum brightener works wonders.
Keep us posted and the pics coming. I'm sure it will come out nice.
 
I originally did all the frame work with steel studs. I have used them before on another boat and they worked great. as for plywood I wanted to use treated lumber (and regret not using it) but after seeing everyones recommend regular plywood and Epoxy resin that's what I used and after the Epoxy Resin I also put on a coat of Epoxy paint (oil base) and once I screwed the decking down I put a coat of paint over the screw heads.

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Hi Salenity said:
I originally did all the frame work with steel studs. I have used them before on another boat and they worked great. as for plywood I wanted to use treated lumber (and regret not using it) but after seeing everyones recommend regular plywood and Epoxy resin that's what I used and after the Epoxy Resin I also put on a coat of Epoxy paint (oil base) and once I screwed the decking down I put a coat of paint over the screw heads.
A548E00E-8F1C-44F0-BBB1-CE215229F988-8554-00000478B41D55AC.jpg

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After I had rough cut the plywood and cut the holes for the compartments I was vacuuming out the boat before I added the floor's braces. I sat down on the steel studs and accidentally bent them!!! =D> #-o [-X :evil: Back to the drawing board!
This time I used treated 2x6 They don't touch the hull so I shouldn't have any corrosion issues...
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Looking good so far!! Your boat looks kind of similar to my 87 Bass Tracker. Is that a Lowe Commander? Cause another member has one and on my mod thread he said about how his looks almost exactly alike to mine. Its weird how two different boat companies have almost similar boat layouts.
 
I still have to order the hinges and latches for the compartments and get a new horn (the origional doesn't work) but the 3 batteries are installed along with the 3 bank charger it's getting close to the time to get her wet.
 
Kochy said:
Looking good so far!! Your boat looks kind of similar to my 87 Bass Tracker. Is that a Lowe Commander? Cause another member has one and on my mod thread he said about how his looks almost exactly alike to mine. Its weird how two different boat companies have almost similar boat layouts.
Thanks, I'm not sure if it's a commander or not. I was told wen I bought it it was 17' but I got it home and it's only 16' it's also a little narrower than a 17' Tracker.
 

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