duracraft 164822sv DUCK and FLATS BOAT DONE!

[lbhansford]

Hey guys, first post but gained alot of knowledge from reading on here over the last few years. I bought my 16ft tinboat a couple years ago with a 30 mercury and a trailer for 1600. bought it for duck hunting and flats fishing on the chesapeake bay. Floor was starting to get soft and boat was feeling a little flimsy so pulled out the middle wood seat and the floor and found quite a few cracks in the stringers. SOOOOO... looks like i am going to tear this bad boy down and rebuild it. First off not sure of make and model. any guesses? First off i am going to remove filth and all accesories, then ladder brace the floor and reinforce sides a bit. adding a bunch of custom mods and steelflexing the hull inside and out..

I hear PT wood is a big no no so my question is if i take regular plywood, prime it, then bedliner it, will it last?

Also any ill wanted side effects if i brace the floor with 1.5x2 inch aluminum tubing from rib to rib to tighten everything up?

Would also like to add float pods but afraid boat being so old that welding on transom could produce holes. Already some pitting showing. My main objective is to get this thing back to a 10 and to where it will last for many more years.

Boat before


boat stripped down and ready to power wash

 

[Brine]

Welcome to the site. If you haven't done so yet, do a leak test. Better to address any leaks now than later. Don't use the steelflex to stop leaks. Fix the leaks first. I'd follow the instructions on the can of whatever product you decide to go with for your plywood. I like 3/4 exterior, and yes.... non-treated.

Keep us posted!
Brine

 

[NLaudy]

lb, welcome to the site. Your name rings a bell so your probably on one of the many hunting forums I browse/own

Pressure treated wood is definitely a big no no. From reading other peoples posts on here it sounds like most people are putting a few coats of spar urethane on the wood and that holds up pretty well. I am in the process of doing that to my transom currently. You could do bedliner but in these smaller boats we really need to watch the weight especially when it comes to hunting (people, dogs, decoys, guns, lights, etc...). Its of course up to you but I would look into some aluminum sheets for the floor then maybe put tough coat on it? It will be like a 1/4 of the weight of plywood with all that other stuff on it and should last forever! I know you mentioned the bay and I am thinking that I have seen you on a VA hunting forum so maybe you are near Richmond... if so I just bought some 14ga 8x4 Aluminum sheets from a guy down there for my boat. Picked them up today and drove down from Fredericksburg.

As far as bracing the floor, I have seen a few guys brace the floor with some angled aluminum pieces and they just rivet it to the ribs that are there so that should work.

I have been thinking about getting a set of pods for my 1648. My uncle always told me "what can be broken, can be fixed" so I have always stuck to that motto. If you get holes in the transom you can just re-inforce it or install a new one Seems like a lot of guys here on the forum have bought boats with severely corroded transoms and were able to fix them so you should be safe... I reckon it just depends on how much money you want to spend.

On a side note... looks like a nice boat you got there!

 

[lbhansford]

thanks for the advice nluady. Im on DHC if you are around there... After much alcohol and late hours got the subfloor bracing completed. Also built a trolling motor bracket fro the front while i was at it.

boat cleaned up ready to start working on it in my garage


seat brace and some floor bracing done...


floor done and seat cut and tan bedlinered. FYI If you want to texture your bedliner coating to a non skid finish, i sprinkled saw dust in it after primer and with 2 layers of rustleum spray can liner, it has a great texture.


trolling bracket parts


assembled bracket

 

[vahunter]

Sell it

 

[lbhansford]

you just want the motor


dont you have a 23464467865776 or some number at the end of your user id and put that catfish back in the pond behind your house where you found him!

 

[vahunter]

vahunter wasn't taken 2 years ago. No need for numerical codes.

I'll keep my 97lb motor

 

[lbhansford]

got the boat over to the welder today. Will get some opics up of the finished welding job when she returns. In the meantime had to work on something so camo patterned the seat, rear floor board, and battery boxes.

 

[Pweisbrod]

Great work, glad to see another duck boat! I will be following with interest.

 

[lbhansford]

Pweisbrod, got my eyes on your build as well. I like whatcha got going on so far.

 

[lbhansford]

So got the seat posts mounted and seats installed, got my 1115 tempress tackle tray hatch painted up in camo and got the motor primed and repainted with a fresh camo job. Now just waiting on my pods to arrive and get them to the welder so i can start to wrap up this project. stilll have a lot of painting and epoxy work in my future.

 

[lbhansford]

alright finally got an update for you guys. been busy working on the boat. Heres where its at...

Got all the cross bracing i was adding cut and in place to try and make her more sturdy...



got all those welded in along with new angled aluminum pieces on port and starboard for middle bench seat. Also added float pods since its going to be a flats fishing/ duck machine



Primed the whole inside and the pods with self etching green today after giving everything a thorough vinegar bath. I then used lowes 3M foam board and level the floor in between all the ribs and bracing.



I scored a killer deal on a 4x8 sheet of aluminum so ditched the wood floor and cut out and layed the floor as well

 

[lbhansford]

Saturday had a warmer day so decided to go ahead and do the inside of the boat in rustoleum tan aerosol bedliner. Worked great and took the slickness off the aluminum floor( bare aluminum and wader boots do not go together very well). The tan should get too warm either in the summer time. I noticed the bed liner also deadened the vibrations in the boat as well.





After that had dried we had to get the heavy son of a gun off the trailer... not a fun project for me and buddy and my 75 year old dad. did it though thru some ingenuinity. Once the boat ws off and up side down we commenced to stripping the bottom of the rig.

Got that down pretty good and decided to switch gears to the trailer while nothern tool was open. Original i dea was new bunk holders and leaf springs bc the others were pretty rusted up. Turned into might as well dot he axel too. Bad idea... had to do some fabricating to make new axle fit due to factory welded leafspring cups int he wrong place. Three trips to northern tool and by 1am we finshed up the trailer rebuild. Everything is now brand new besides the trailer lights. If spring will ever arrive here in VA and it quits raining and snowing i might be able to get bad bottom spots marine tex'd up and the super slick steelflex on her. Come on warmth and sunshine!

 

[lbhansford]

Sio finally got some nice weather and getting the project wrapped up. most work was done at night so not many pictures of the progress but here she is....

gonna be a flats fishing/ duck slaying machine. took it out today and she handles wake a whole lot better and the pods make a world of difference on getting on plane and overall handling/ ride quality. I believe it keeps the bow down and put more of the V into the wave instead of slapping on flat bottom portion of the hull.

 

[Pweisbrod]

That looks awesome! Really great work!

 

[lbhansford]

So got out on the first fishing mission and managed to catch 4 rockfish from 16 to 22 inches fishing the lights last night. boat is a million times easier to fish now.

 

[NLaudy]

I hate you for having such a nice looking boat

Mine is coming along so SLOW... lol

 

[vahunter]

I hate you for having such a nice looking boat

Mine is coming along so SLOW... lol

Haha x2!

 

[Country Dave]

Hey man you did an awesome job, looks great. =D>

 

[sbritt23]

looks great man! nice build. Where did you end up getting the flotation pods at? Im thinking of maybe adding some after this summer