Lil Bitz, a 15ft john boat modifcation

[Gators5220]

Plan on getting a little bit more work done on my livewell after work today. Hopefully I can get it re-mounted...

 

[Gators5220]

I got a little bit more done on my livewell and front framing this morning, but I forgot to take pics duh! I'll take some tomorrow morning.

 

[Gators5220]

Got a little more work done on my front framing, for now I plan on reusing 3/4' plywood over the aluminum framing. One day I would like to replace it with aluminum diamond plate material.

 

[Gators5220]

I got a little bit more done today on my front deck. It rained most of the day but June 20th (the start of my vacation), is fast approaching and at the very least I need to get my front deck back together, my carb rebuilt, and the leaf springs on my trailer replaced.. Hopefully I'll have some time to get my live well rewired, but it's looking more and more likely I will not, stupid work and stupid overtime.

What I realized when putting old pieces of my old deck back on top of my aluminum framing is I needed to buy a new sheet of plywood for the center portion. So the photos below show me cutting the middle portion, and the old middle portion I'm going to use for the seat on the rear of the boat.

 

[coreythompson]

great pictures

 

[Gators5220]

Thanks Corey, I've got a few photos from some fishing I've done recently, as well as some trailer repairs. I've been non existent on here lately due to working almost 80 hours a week, but things are slowing down at the hospital and they finally hired another nurse practitioner so I should have some time off! Yes!

 

[Gators5220]

I got a bit of work done on my trailer today, redid the bunks, put some rollers on the frame and body of the trailer. It loads and unloads like a dream now, let me know what y'all think.

 

[Gators5220]

A few more of my work on the trailer, as well as a couple of fish photos that show how horrible winters in Florida really are.

 

[Gators5220]

I also blew up my Yamaha outboard, earlier this year, so I replaced it with a brand new 30hp etec, with pull and electric start, as well as power tilt and trim. This little tin really moves now, here's some photos of her.

 

[Gators5220]

Got a little work done in my boat, took some photos will try to post tomorrow...

 

[jasper60103]

Congrats on the new motor.
That's the one I may get some day.
Enjoy!

 

[Gators5220]

Thanks jasper, I can highly recommend E-Tec it has around 25 hours on it, I usually fish twice a week and a 4 gallon tank usually lasts 3 or 4 weeks. If you have the extra scratch I also recommend getting the power tilt, electric start, with the pull start as well. It's nice to have pull start for the backup and power tilt is really nice to trim the motor to where the boat likes it.

 

[Gators5220]

Got a little work done on my boat, as well as fishing a bit. First fishing photos then I'll post what I diamond plated. Also a few photos of a camping trip, it's hard to complain about living in Florida. Its the beginning of January and it's 78 out and sunny as all get out.

 

[Gators5220]

Here are the camping photos sorry.

 

[Gators5220]

I had some scrap 3/4" plywood laying around, and what I did with this was make a template for the diamond plate. I cut it out and used this because 1/4" aluminum can be a pain in the butt to cut with a jig saw. Here is the results so far, I think it turned out pretty good myself.

 

[Gators5220]

Sorry that was a premature post, here's a few photos and one of my buddy. My buddy "Pat Pat the Water Rat", helping of course, and also at the same time doing what he does best. And that is drink a lot of beer.

 

[Gators5220]

Some more photos of the diamond plate work, the 3/4" aluminum was nice for the hole saw portions as well. Mainly due to the fact that hole saws have a tendency to wabble and bounce, but with the 3/4" plywood it had a guide to keep it from doing so.

I also had a few photos from today, but sadly my phone fell off the boat and broke. The square holes you see are for the rods to slide into for rod storage, I'll show you a photo of that once the diamond plate is mounted for good. I removed the diamond plate as all of the framing in the boat is going to be rhinolined, mostly to reduce noise as aluminum boats are super noisy and it scares of some of the more skiddish fish such as redfish or sea trout.

 

[Gators5220]

I also started working on replacing some of my bolts which were Zinc coated. By the way the whole idea that Zinc coating prevents corrosion or rusting, if your in salt water that's just not true at all. So bit by bit I've been replacing all of my Zinc coated hardware with Stainless Steel, as well as any new bolts installing only stainless. Here's a few pics of this work.

 

[Gators5220]

I also have some photos of some other fishing excursions as well as some photos of just how horrible our Florida winters truly are.

 

[Gators5220]

I also have some photos of some work prior to diamond plating the front deck. As you can see from some of the photos, they guys I fish with and myself included aren't small men, put two of us on the front deck and it starts to creek and moan. So I rebuilt this with more uppers and stringers. Here's a few pics to show what I've done.