Sylvan Backtroller 16 Newbie

[jdd1980]

Hello my name is Josh. Ive been lurking here for the winter gathering ideas and info to restore my new to me Sylvan Backtroller. I purchased the boat late last summer knowing the floors were about shot. My goal here is to install new wood and vinyl/carpet.

The boat is in good working order aside from the original floors that need to come out. The boat has a yamaha 50 pro that runs great. Also included was a minn kota power drive 50 that works well. I have only fished the boat a handful of times and like the layout so I wont be changing much there. The boat doesn't appear to have any leaks. I always pull the plug on the ramp and have yet to have any water come out. I will be changing out the bilge and livewell pumps just for peace of mind even though both work. I plan on using marine vinyl on the main floor and marine carpet for the rest. I think Im going to use exterior grade plywood and seal with a recipe I found here consisting of spar, linseed oil, and mineral spirits. After spending the last two days pulling out old corroded aluminum rivets I think the new wood will be screwed down using stainless hardware. I would like to add some storage under the bow casting deck to allow me to move the batteries up front. I will probably run some extra wires around for future projects. I was able to get the boat to my brothers shop Monday morning and started tearing everything down. I have this week off work and would like to get as much as possible done.

I do have a couple questions:
1. The wood in the boat is really water logged. The wood sits on top of the factory pour in foam. I dug around a few spots down to the hull through the foam and could only find about 1/4" of foam where the wood was sitting on it that appear to be holding water. With the other 4" of foam dry, is this something I should tear out and replace or will this top layer of foam dry before the new wood goes on?
2. Say I wanted to fill the boat for a leak test, could I do so with the factory foam still in the boat? If that's possible I would fill the boat to the water line and if any leaks were found I could just remove that section of foam for the repair.

When finished the boats main purpose will be chasing trout, panfish, and bass in the Finger Lakes region of NY.

As this is my first boat project of any kind and questions, comments, or suggestions are greatly appreciated. I will try to load some pics of when I bought the boat and where I am as of today, but I'm not the most computer savvy guy.

Josh

 

[Slough Runner]

I don't have any solid answers for you other than if you are questioning the quality of something during your build replace it. Your usually better off doing it hen it's easy than backing up later or regretting it. I'll be following your build for sure. My co worker has nearly the same boat and we will be tackling the floor this spring after I'm done with my build. Good luck!

 

[jdd1980]

Thanks or the reply Slough. I had a fan blowing around Tues night and what little bit of foam was wet dried up. I got some more done yesterday. Managed to get the boat filled to the water line and left it in till after lunch. To my surprise there was not a single water drop on the floor when I got back. With the boat being a 92 I figured for sure there would be at least a couple leaking rivets. Without finding any leaks I'm going to keep the factory foam. I managed to get the bow platform removed along with trolling motor and front storage area. The boat is completely disassembled at this point. Today I plan on shop vacing everything out and getting my wood for the decks. Over the winter picked up a 1992 8hp kicker and would like to build a motor stand for that. The boat came with a vexilar edge
2 fishfinder. The unit works but the screen is cracked and very hard to see. Anyone have any expierence with these units? What little bit I did find on them they seem to be a good unit although a little outdated. It uses a two tranducer system. Anyway its being shipped back to vex for a new screen and a once over. They will call me with a price to fix the unit. I will be posting more pics tonight of the progress.

Thanks
Josh

 

[jdd1980]

Another thing I wanted to ask the pros here, is what are everyone's thoughts about screws vs rivets for the floor. The factory floor had rivets in it. The PO had sprayed all the lids and some other things with bed liner and it was a nightmare getting all the rivets out. I would like to use a self tapping stainless screw to reinstall all my wood. I know the rivets would be a little cheaper but I like the idea of just installing screws and sealing with 5200 instead of drilling and riveting.

Thanks
Josh

 

[riverrat717]

Used to live in Binghamton. Fingerlakes is a beautiful area, love Watkins Glenn! I'd personally remove all the composite foam and install the pink OC board. Composite foam can hide corrosion, and will get waterlogged after a while.

 

[jdd1980]

I was finally able to get some more work done today after being called into work all weekend. I got the bow section out. Went and got plywood to start cutting new wood. Ordered the vinyl and carpet so that is on the way. I took riverrats advice and removed the old factory foam. So glad I did this. The few spots I checked the foam must have been the only dry areas. I must have pulled over 100lbs of water logged foam out. I pulled the internal gas tank to give that a good cleaning and power washed the hull. Was tinkering with my 8hp kicker and could not get it to start. Then I remembered reading somewhere that the tether switch on these motors are known for going bad. Disconnected the yellow and black wire to the switch and it fired right up on the first pull. Hopefully I cant get all my wood cut and sealed this week before the carpet and vinyl get here. I will be replacing the old foam with the pink or blue polystyrene board. Here is a pic of the stripped hull. Thanks Riverrat for the suggestion and making me 2nd guess the foam. I would have hate to have left that in there.
Josh

 

[jdd1980]

Got some more work done today. Got all the wood for the decks and all the lids for the storage cut and sealed. At home now taking a dinner break and heading back to the shop tonight to cut in the foam board flotation and start installing the floor. The vinyl and carpet came yesterday. Today I got home and my stereo, speakers, new led courtesy lights, trailer jack, and trailer winch all showed up. I guess all that is left now is a ton of work getting it all back together. I noticed today the float for the key on my motor has the name Lucky Lady. I guess Ill keep that name for when shes all done. Here is a pic of dry fitting the floor.

 

[perchjerker]

wow looks really good so far!

I ordered my marine vinyl from Defender, it is supposed to be delivered tomorrow.

Cant wait to get it in, but thats a way off yet

keep up the good work!!

oh I have a Vexilar, its a ice fishing flasher type, its an excellent unit, Vexilar is a great company. I would contact them about it, they may even be able to fix it

 

[jdd1980]

Hey Perch thanks for the reply. I ordered my nautolex from defender as well. Only took about 3days to get to western NY fro GA after ordering. I have not had the chance to put any of it down yet but it looks great. I too have a vexilar fl-20 pro pack that I use on the ice which is what got me thinking about the unit that was in the boat. I shipped the edge 2 to vexilar yesterday after talking to the service dept. They said they would call with a quote before any work was done.

 

[jdd1980]

Got the floor and vinyl installed yesterday. Got the carpet along the gunwales done. Managed to get the speakers holes cut and carpeted/reinstalled the front bulk head. Hopefully tonight I can wrap the front casting deck and figure out the new lids for my new battery compartment area. Had to eliminate an area in the floor that i was going to use as storage and filled it with foam board. The storage would be nice but the added flotation gives me a little piece of mind for bigger water. I ordered the storm gray natuolex and a light gray carpet. The nautolex is a little lighter than I thought and the carpet is a little darker than I thought, I guess the fish wont know the difference.
Josh

 

[jdd1980]

I was able to get some work done today on the boat after being sick the last couple of days. I worked on getting the bow section done. The two hatches with the hinges are what I added to the stock layout for some battery storage. Threw in a new led courtesy light and a new trolling motor plug and got everything wired up. I have the top that covers everything wrapped and ready to go on in the morning. Think I may run out of carpet but will have to wait and see. I know I need one more yd of vinyl to cover the gas tank panel. Feels good seeing it take shape. The goal is to be fishing next weekend. Even if I have to get more carpet it will only be for a couple storage lids.

 

[fool4fish1226]

Looking great keep the pictures coming :beer:

 

[Harrisonjonboat]

that is a sweet boat and my dream layout

 

[perchjerker]

looks great! I like the way you cut out for your hatches.

I am going to cut my rear deck hatches out today after work. I am still at the decking the plywood stage.

Hope I don't mess the cuts up lol

 

[jdd1980]

I have been getting some work done in the last few days. Got the whole boat rewired. Installed the old 360gph livewell pump with a 800gph pump. Installed the bluetooth stereo and usb/aux charging port. Was able to reinstall the side boxes/livewell and re carpet all the new tops and lids. Got my fish finder back from vexilar and mounted that. Also ordered and installed a new lowrance hook 5 unit with navionics+ for gps capability. I flushed out the gas tank and got that reinstalled and make the access floor hatch for that and wrapped in vinyl. Hopefully today I can get the rear storage boxes wrapped in carpet and reinstalled, fasten all lids down, and start putting the rub rails back on. I grabbed some gray marine vinyl for a new cover for the gas hose area, gona stop and see one of the Amish quilt makers around and see if they cant get that sewed up. I still need to replace the trailer winch and jack. Also need to rewire the trailer lights and check/replace bearings. I think I can be done with this project in the next few days. Its killing me having it in the shop when its been sunny in the 60s here a couple days. Ill post some more pics tonight when i get it cleaned up a bit, sorry for the mess.

 

[Hanr3]

I rebuilt the same boat last summer. Link to thread in my signature.

I added an under cabin deck rod storage locker and you can too.
As for the foam, should have left it in, and yes it will dry, and yes you can fill the boat and the foam will still dry. Been there, done that, got pictures to prove it. See my thread. I also have video of the tear-down, and test run after I finished rebuilding it.

As for the trolling motor batteries. I moved my live-well to the front deck and put a single group 29 trolling motor battery in front of it. I didn't like how the boat sat in the water with just me, or with two of us, or any of us on the front deck, or while under way. The bow sat low. I moved the trolling motor battery to the rear and everything leveled out nicely.

Got any more questions, please ask...

 

[jdd1980]

Thanks Hanr3. I did watch your youtube videos and followed your build thread. Your build was one of the only backtrollers I found being rebuilt. Your boat turned out great by the way. In hind sight I should have just left the foam and saved myself some money but I was glad to get the years of slime and dirt up out of the boat. I liked the added rod storage in the floor but I took out a piece of foam in the bow storage area to place my batteries, so I opted to fill that area with flotation. It may have not been needed but with some occasional trips to ontario and erie it was worth having a little extra peace of mind. I got back my tank area panel from the Amish guy that sewed it up, turned out great and only cost me $10. Aside from cleaning up the mess and mounting some hardware the boat is about done. My led trailer lights arrive tomm and I should be ready for the water. Ill try and post up some pics tonite after I get everything cleaned up and mounted. End of next week is supposed to get warmer here again and if the wind is going the right direction hopefully I can get to Lake Ontario for some shoreline browns.

 

[Hanr3]

Looks good so far. Keep it up. Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[jdd1980]

As fa as rebuilding the boat I think I'm done. It took a lot longer than expected, cost a lot more than expected but also turned out better than i could have hoped. I took the boat for a splashdown on tues. I had to leave the boat at the launch for a couple hrs to go get my trailer weighed and inspected. When I got back to the lake I fired up the big motor and took off. The 50hp ran great and even with a good chop I was seeing 33mph on the gps. The 8hp kicker needs some more work. It will start easy and idle fine but as soon as you get to about half throttle it starts running on one cylinder. The weird thing about tues was that when I pulled the plug on the ramp I had quite a bit of water come out. This was weird because the boat has never had a drop come out when pulling the plug. I thought maybe I had a bad plug or my new live well pump was leaking. I checked over everything and bought a new plug and decided to go fish another lake yesterday. Everything went fine for a while. About an hr in I hit the bilge switch and nothing came out(I verified the bilge pump and cleaned the cartridge during rebuild). An hr later I noticed water by my feet, the boat had so much water in it is was coming past the floor line. I tried the bilge and nothing. I fired up my motor and started for the launch. Once on the trailer and pulled out of the water I left the plug in. The bilge was definitely running but not pumping water out of the boat so I grabbed some wire from my tool kit and started to snake the line. After a min of fishing the wire out cam a bunch of old weeds that had the line blocked and the pump started to gush water like it should. I pulled the plug, drained the boat and took off for home feeling lucky to be out of there. On the way home I was dumbfounded how just rebuilding a boat could cause such a severe leak/leaks(I filled the boat way past floor level when the hull was stripped and not even a drop of water came out after hours of being full). Once home I had a couple beers and decided to fill the boat again with the garden hose in the driveway. I filled the boat up past the floor again and could not see any water leaking from the kitchen. Went outside and walked around the boat and that's when I saw it. There was a hole in the hull that I put in it predrilling the holes to fasten the floor. It was not dripping it was a steady stream of water bigger than the pee hole on my outboard. After checking the rest of the boat and finding no wet areas I grabbed the drill and pop in a 3/16 blind rivet with a healthy amount of 5200 around and covering the rivet. I felt like such a tool. Guess I should have filled the boat again after the rebuild, live and learn. Well I got to get to work on getting the 8hp in shape but Ill leave some pics of the finished product. Thanks for following and thanks to everyone for this site, with out tinboats I would not have been able to complete this project.

 

[perchjerker]

ha great story!!

glad it was something simple!!!

thanks