Josh in FLA's Lowe 151 Remodel

[Josh in FLA]

Been lurking and reading on this site for a little over a year. I figured it was time to get a boat to work on join in the fun. I recently picked up a 12' Sears V-Hull, but after fishing for a few weeks with just me and my 12 year old son I came to the conclusion that a bigger boat would be nice. I loved the ease of the 12' with a '66 Evinrude 3hp, but she is a bit tippy and with the Florida storms the water can get nasty quick. I also wanted to be able to occasionally bring the wife along, she grew up on a 35'er on Lake Erie and is no fan of tiny tippy boats.

The one that started it all: "Gator Bait"

This 15' Lowe Mod-V popped up on the local Craigslist, and after a little negotiation came home with me. It's a decent boat as it sits, but I plan on changing it up a bit. I like the fact that it was built with an aluminum interior. The front deck and framing is aluminum as well as the rear floor. I'm not a fan of wood in boats as I don't have indoor storage and prefer not to have material that will rot. The only wood I've found in this boat is the transom which is encapsulated in aluminum. It will be replaced with an aluminum assembly when its time comes. My major issue with it as it sits is the location of the live well. The live well is nice sized, but sits in the middle of the floor. My beginning plan is to remove the rear seat and turn the livewell into a rear bench seat. This will open plenty of room up on the center floor. The aluminum floor will have to be patched or replaced and the interior will either be re-carpeted or possibly put down some type of mat. There are also fitting on the bottom of the boat for the livewell that I will weld up and relocate as necessary.

Pics from Craigslist Ad:

The electric-start 9.9 Johnson had a recent carb rebuild and checkup and runs perfectly. It will stay for the time being. It moves the boat a decent pace and is decent on gas. If the budget allows I know of a pretty decent deal on a 25 Johnson that needs a little work, but would probably kill my gas budget.

Any input? Anyone taken apart a similar boat? I haven't started pulling the carpet to figure out how the floor is held in place. The previous owner has recently re-carpeted the floor but had no insight on how it was put together.

 

[fool4fish1226]

Nice boat - Should be a fun project :beer:

 

[bigwave]

Nice boat Josh, You would be surprised with the fuel consumption on a 25hp, I go all day long on 6 gallons of gas. Sure it burns more than the 9.9, but with a spare tank for insurance you should have no problem going all day.....and much faster too. When one of the summer T-stoms blow up on you, you will want to go as fast as possible back to the dock.....I hate lightning, and we get plenty of it where I live.

 

[Josh in FLA]

Guess it's time to update this thread. I'll try to keep this in order, but I was in a groove so all work has been finished, now time to document.

We fished and toyed around in this boat as it was until a few weeks ago.

The only changes I had made were adding some carpeted panels on top of the bow and rear flotation covers. As I'm in Florida the bare aluminum gets warm these were made to keep these areas cooler to the touch. Where we mainly camp, the boat is beached and accessed from the bow so bare feet were now safe.

 

[Josh in FLA]

A few weeks ago we got caught in a storm and trying to push out to load up in the rain I accidentally ripped the transom cap up and what I saw wasn't to reassuring. With the 9.9hp it was never a problem, but I finally got my hands on a 20hp Johnson, so I wanted to make sure everything was up to snuff. The transom was pretty rotten so removal was pretty easy. Removed the extruded cap and two cast handles. What didn't pull out in chunks, chipped up pretty easy with a long screwdriver and was vacuumed out.

The original 1991 transom



All cleaned out


I made a template out of fiberboard, cut 2 pieces of 5/8 plywood, sealed with spar urethane, glued together with 5200. The transom was the reason behind this redo, but it was nearly the last thing to be installed. I got too tied up with the interior.

 

[Josh in FLA]

At this point the project took on a life of it's own. I wanted to have it done by my friends birthday 9/14, I finished putting it back together the night before we were supposed to head to camp at the lake.

I was never satisfied with the "panfisher" layout of this boat. I bought it because I loved the hull design, but the large livewell didn't work with my vision. I prefer a pretty open floor plan. I fish with 3 boys aged 5, 12,and 13; so a little room to stretch and move is always needed. Since the boat was going to be down for a lil bit for the transom, I decided to see how hard it would be to remove the livewell. The other part that sold me on this boat was the aluminum floor, being lighter and rot proof compared to plywood.

With the livewell removed, there were only a couple of smaller holes in the aluminum floor for the plumbing. They could be easily covered with a patch that was riveted into place.


At that point it was on to gut and refinish the boat to my preference. So the deconstruction began. The previous owner really used the point that he had just re-carpeted the boat as a selling point, but it was less than a stellar job. The side covers, hatch doors, and live well had not been re-carpeted. The carpet he had installed was a cut pile style which I didn't like at all. So thanks to the previous owners handiwork and my newer covers the carpet was 3 different colors and textures. Everything I hadn't covered was removed and recovered.

And here it is pretty much gutted


At this time I took the opportunity to inspect the foam which appeared to still be pretty decent. It was removed and all accessible areas vacuumed before reinstalling the recovered floor. I also sealed up the 2 holes in the bottom of the hull left over from removing the livewell plumbing.

 

[Josh in FLA]

I used the livewell mainly for storage of life vests and such. It will be replaced by a portable cooler-based livewell. But with the loss of that storage location, I needed something to keep the necessities from being strewn around the interior. My solution was to build a rear bench seat. My original idea was to reuse the aluminum livewell shell, but it was too wide to fit between the rear flotation. But the livewell door did fit with a few inches to spare.

So I did a quick sketch with the important dimensions and started melting aluminum


Basic structure


Test fitting recovered livewell door


Final framing with floor


Covered and test fitted


Complete unit ready for installation


I covered the top of the bench with 3/4 ply and the rear with 1/4 luan both sealed with a few coats of spar urethane. The the unit was covered with carpet to match the rest of the interior.

The bench is set forward of the transom just enough to fit my 6gal tank. It is narrow enough to straddle and run the tiller. It provides just enough storage for the necessities and is still functional.

 

[Josh in FLA]

After finishing the bench seat it was ready to go in, but I had to finish the floor before I could do that. The necessary holes were filled, all the old carpet and glue removed and new installed.

Bow platform recovered and riveted in place


Main floor in


Interior completed - Finally


Rear layout


If you look closely you'll notice the transom was the last thing to go in. The only reason I started working on it, and it was the last to be done, typical for one of my projects.

 

[Josh in FLA]

Done for now.

I really like how the boat turned out. We had fun this weekend and got some catfish in the freezer. The boat handled well. I actually like the bench versus the previous seat. I'm able to throw my weight around easier using it and make the boat handle easier if I'm running solo.

I plan to work on some removable seating for the boys, but it worked out well and they had more freedom of movement.

Plans for the future: I want to add a couple of interior lights for night fishing at on the side covers. I ran the wiring but haven't found affordable units I like yet, I also need to clean up the rear wiring. I need to get with my dad to put the head back on the 20hp and rebuild the carb so this boat will move a lil better.

The payoffs:

 

[fool4fish1226]

Turn out great - nice work :beer: