$100 boat

Luckily the donor will only be $125-150, I am experienced in scanning Craigs list in 3 states for bargains, the boat I found is only an hour away and it has a few other parts I need like a new bow eye and the original transom wood. Shame to buy a nice little fishing boat in great shape only to cut it up for a few parts.

 

Didn’t anyone ever tell you “Boats are holes in the water that you throw money in” lol completely understand your love of cool old boats


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These are a little cheaper than the ones you break out another thousand to repair. I should be able to recoup $50-60 for the scrap aluminum.

 

Well I got restless and decided to sell the boat, my wife commented that a fishing boat would be nice so I am looking for a Lund with a tiller that needs a new floor or a resto of the inside. I took the $100 boat added a few pieces and parts I had laying around and sold it for $650.

 

And a motor too the guy bought it on craig's in under 5 minutes, he paid full price for a motor in pieces. $300 invested $950 total sale. Guy from New Jersey bought it based on pictures shipping company will pick it up when the MO clears.

 

Good snag there Sota. Have had a few older aluminum fishing boats years ago. Main 2 things I did not like about them was noisy and lack of flotation. Adding a floor over the ribs in the bottom makes it worse for noise unless the space is filled with foam.

 

I have a 1960 Mercury Marc 400 that is a 4 cylinder with 50 hp power head on my other aluminum boat. When I pin the throttle you don't hear the water noise on the hull. The Alumacrafts of the 50's and 60's had hallow seats so that was the flotation. I am kinda regretting selling the boat but I have 4 boats taking up garage space,I have two 2 -1/2 car garages and I don't have room to get a single car in the garage.

 

I love the tinboat forum...the "redneck" bass boats fellas make out of their tins make me really wanna dive into mine that has just sat for years and years.....someday my summers will shift from sports to fishing.....someday.

 

Not the water noise but when something hits the floor. like dropping a lure, sinker, knife, etc. THUNK ! I know they had hollow seats and during that time, also a bunch of pontoon boats were built with barrels used as air chambers, just like the seats. When they got a pin hole and started leaking, the boats started sinking. Main reason they were outlawed unless filled with foam. They tried the expanded plastic bead for flotation also that didn't work as it absorbed water. Around the 60's or 70's the fiberglass boats started to come out with PUF, positive upright flotation.

Sounds like you need another building. One with 12' walls so you can lift one boat up and park another under it.

 

I put a carpeted floor in my 1954 Deep C much more quiet and comfortable but we don't fish out of that boat.

 

So I went and got the mail today I have a priority mail envelope waiting for me. I open it up and there is a check from the Jackson Parish Correctional Center for $2500.00 and in the memo it says Reimbursement. The envelope was mailed from White Seed Company in Oxnard CA. I am supposed to cash the check then Money Gram the balance to an address that will be provided once the check clears. Isn't it strange that a guy that works at a correctional facility is using parish funds to buy a vintage boat? They must be using it in the jail as a rehab project for the inmates.

 

I would be real leary of that one. Sounds and smells fishy to me.

 

Oh no I played along and mocked the scumbag thieves in the end.

 

Well I got a call about the boat yesterday, the caller was not going to buy the boat. In the end it was a 78 year old guy that wanted to talk about old boats he knew more about old alumacraft boats then I have ever read online. I am taking the old guy out to lunch next week and get a tour of his shop.

 

So Wednesday is the day I found a donor boat in East Central WI hope the guy does not have hurt feelings when I show up with no boat trailer but a saws all instead. I am also dropping off the motor for the boat with a guy who used to race old Mercury motors, he rebuilds the fuel and ignition and tunes it all perfectly. The motor is a 1957 Mercury Mark 55 it will kinda a rat rod going with the original finish on the motor but the boat is going to be sneaky fast probably 300 pounds rigged with a 40 hp on the back.

 

Have not had a lot of time to work on the project, have had time to line up materials I need. Hard to find a place that will sell or order you 1 white oak 2x8 by 48". I did score big on the seat backs for the benches, I had another boat I bought a couple years back ended up scrapping the project. I did salvage and refinish the mahogany bench and seat backs from that boat and the dimensions are right and I can cut them down to fit. The wood does look distressed as far as the grain but it is sealed up solid, you can not buy solid wood mahogany like that anymore and it is going to really look good in the boat.

I still have to get the motor to the guy who pretty much rebuilds everything for me, I am not having the outside of the motor restored leaving it looking old but under the cowl it will be new, it is an old smoker but with synthetic 2 cycle there are no fouled plugs. The boat has the possibility of getting to around 40mph, will see.

 

That is after hours of sanding, wet sanding and buffing going to be a beautiful boat

 

Looking sweet sota. Its a testament to hard work.

 

Clean living hard work and many beers. Plus the prolonged winter has helped. In a normal year I would be doing wild land fire and yard work, not this year holed up in the shop while it snows.

 

Hope to shoot primer next weekend if it gets to 50 degrees. See that dock rash leaving some out of respect to the history of the hull.