Lil Bitz, a 15ft john boat modifcation

[Gators5220]

I finally received my herculiner today, so hopefully I can get started on it Thursday (which is my only day off all week this week...).

 

[Gators5220]

I finally got to work on the front of my boat yesterday, and put down some Herculiner. After applying it however, I was unhappy with how I taped it off, so I need to buy another quart to smooth out the line. At the line, I plan on above it Herculing it in white, like the rest of the boat, and re applying a 3rd coat of white over the portions I did white in. As well I removed all the tops of the seats on the gunnels, prior I was not going to herculine these, however I realized how much banging sound that make when waves hit the boat, so I decided to coat the underside in black, and the top portion in white (I'll take some photos of what I'm talking about when I get a chance). Anyway here are a few photos.

 

[Gators5220]

Below are some pics of the Herculined bow of the boat. I think I mentioned this before but I had two main reasons and a third minor reason for doing this to the boat, first and foremost my jon boat leaked slightly on the water (so to make it a dry hull). Secondly I wanted to reduce the noise, as my gunnels and other pieces of metal would bang against the waves, so to make it less noisy. The third minor reason was to make it look better, but in the end this will be my little boat.

 

[simbelle]

Nice work....4th reason would be t keep all those lead, and copper, and other metel fishing gear that ends up rolling around on the bottom of the boat and getting lost and stuck under things from reacting with the aluminum! But that just my thought. :wink:

 

[Gators5220]

That's true sir, I didn't think of that one!

 

[Country Dave]

Looking good Gator......................... =D>

 

[Gators5220]

Thanks Mr. Dave.

So today I removed all the tops of the seats, and Herculined under the seats and on top of the gunnels. I did this because as I hit waves or waves hit my boat, they make loud metallic clanking noises, which I'm pretty sure every Redfish in the neighborhood will pick up on as I float a flat. It muffles the noise, as well as just making the boat overall more sturdy. Here are a few pics, as I didn't finish today, hopefully I can work on it a bit before work tomorrow.

 

[Gators5220]

Hopefully I can find some time to work on my boat, I'm in the process of selling my truck and finishing up some research projects for work. That equals little or no time for fun stuff.

 

[Gators5220]

Man averaging 80 hours a week is for the birds...that said I've saved up a little bit of cash, and have a few days off in the coming weeks. I've started replacing my bolts all with stainless ones, and am in the process of framing up the front of my boat in aluminum framing. Pictures will be up soon.

 

[Gators5220]

I finally got a little bit of time to work on the old boat, I'm trying to get the battery mounted up from and framing done before next weekend. Looking at my schedule this isn't likely so I'll just have to wade fish on my trip to the keys. Oh well.

So what I'm working on the boat today is putting a bit more L-bracket to support aluminum framing, as well as caulking it in with 5200 and replacing all bolts with stainless steel bolts as they are starting to rust. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, but my carport makes photos a pain to take due to the light.

 

[Gators5220]

Anyone ever use Gator Glide on the outside of their boats? I was thinking about either using Gator Glide or Steel Flex, any thoughts?

 

[bigredxlt]

From the research I have done Gatorglide appears to be superior product as it is much easier to apply and will not start to crack and flake up like Steelflex does over the years. That being said I know a lot of the guys on this forum are huge fans of steelflex, so I'll let them chime in.

 

[Gators5220]

Well I contacted the guys at Gator Glide, and it's a water based product which to me is a big bonus, plus it's also waterproof just like SteelFlex. The other benefit is it easier to apply supposedly then SteelFlex. I'm leaning towards Gator Glide for sure...

 

[Gators5220]

Finally a weekend off! Yes I'm so workin on my boat!

 

[hudflat]

Gators5220 » 03 May 2014, 01:39[/url]"]Finally a weekend off! Yes I'm so workin on my boat!

looking good , after seeing your pictures reminds me to get up to cedar key this year its just an hour or so north of me anyhow! its just a fun place!

 

[Gators5220]

Ugh weekend off, and I got a cold...fml. Yup I don't fish Cedar Key all that much, I do drive down to Crystal River at times. But my stomping grounds is the Indian River mostly.

 

[Gators5220]

Finally got a little work done on my front deck, =D> =D> =D> =D> . I used stainless steel fastners, stainless steel bolts, and 2" x 2" pool encloser aluminum framing. I was curious how stiff this material would be for front deck material, but even my heavy self couldn't bend it once it was bolted all together. For now I'm just going to put the plywood back on top of the aluminum framing, however one of my buddies back home is collecting plate aluminum material to deck the front eventually.

 

[Zum]

That decking does look sturdy...nice job

 

[Gators5220]

Thanks, I might have overdone it some, but it is what it is at this point.

 

[Gators5220]

I decided since I've torn it off the boat to re-do my live-well. I decided to do this because originally I have 2 500 gph pumps, well I decided these didn't turn the water over at a sufficent amount, so I added a 800 gph and replaced the other 2 500 gph with 800 gph pumps. Here are a few pics of the progress. The red trimmed pumps are the old 500 gph and the blue trimmed pumps are the new 800 gph.