# New "old" boat



## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

I been hunting/fishing the river the past couple years out of a 14' McKee Craft, its been a decent boat , stable and roomy for the size, but HEAVY, too heavy to be dragging through shallow water and off mud flats. So I been looking for another aluminum boat.
I came across a 15 Cajun special on CL And brought it home yesterday. I tore out the floors and bench seat, I have some welding to do. (I had to notch transom in order to use my short shaft motor) 

I plan on sandblasting/media blasting the while boat. My dilemma now is the flooring. I thought about putting down aluminum flooring, but that would be more costly than I'm wanting to put into it . I've looked at the composite decking, but that would weigh close to 80 pounds

I really don't want to put down a plywood floor, trying to keep it as light and maintenance free as possible, any ideas??


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)




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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)




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## SaltWaterBuck (Sep 2, 2013)

what size motor are you gonna be running ?? i have a very similar boat and i just left my floor out to save weight and i honestly dont miss it.........


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## SouthAlabamaSlayer (Oct 13, 2011)

Plywood, fiberglass layer, rhino lining.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## SaltWaterBuck (Sep 2, 2013)

no floor


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## Deadreckoning (Oct 8, 2012)

*marine plywood*

I have a similiar boat and used marine plywood painted with non skid added between coats. Held in place with self tapping aluminium screws. Not too heavy and if stuff falls under the floor I just unscrew and lift the floor to retrieve. Simple and keeps you from tripping over the ribs.


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## lsucole (May 7, 2009)

One thing to consider is that without a floor sitting on top of the stringers, you are putting more stress on joints/rivets. This would be more important in an older boat.


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

I would be careful screwing too many screws into the ribs....they are there to flex the aluminum boat when hitting the water, if it stays to stiff it can't give way causing the skin to crack and break...My little 12 that I floored just sits in the bottom on corian skids.

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f21/jon-boat-build-150781/


Here it is w/ the motor on it....

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f50/boat-fer-trade-173401/


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

SaltWaterBuck said:


> what size motor are you gonna be running ?? i have a very similar boat and i just left my floor out to save weight and i honestly dont miss it.........


A 2 stroke Bigfoot 40, I'll have to give the no floorboards a thought, looks good in your rig, I put ALOT of mud in my boats hunting, how hard you reckon it is to clean out with exposed ribs like yours? And what coating did you use?


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

SouthAlabamaSlayer said:


> Plywood, fiberglass layer, rhino lining.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I like the idea of a fiberglass deck, have been looking for some kind of fiberglass panels that are 1/4" or better. What I have found at lowes is too thin


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

Jason said:


> I would be careful screwing too many screws into the ribs....they are there to flex the aluminum boat when hitting the water, if it stays to stiff it can't give way causing the skin to crack and break...My little 12 that I floored just sits in the bottom on corian skids.
> 
> http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f21/jon-boat-build-150781/
> 
> ...


How did u remove paint from boat Jason?


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

I scrubbed it down good w/ bleach/alcohol and the paint didn't really come off. The aluminum paint I used on it really worked surprisingly well, not to mention I bought a gallon and have some left so if I need any touch up...


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## SaltWaterBuck (Sep 2, 2013)

delta dooler said:


> A 2 stroke Bigfoot 40, I'll have to give the no floorboards a thought, looks good in your rig, I put ALOT of mud in my boats hunting, how hard you reckon it is to clean out with exposed ribs like yours? And what coating did you use?


 as far as cleaning goes its not as easy as a smooth floor but its still not bad.......i never have an issue tripping over the ribs but the pressure on the rivets P.O.V. makes alot of sense.....honestly tho if i had a 40hp on the back i would definately have a floor in it im running a fourstroke 9.9 on a 16ft boat so weight is always on my mind


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

SaltWaterBuck said:


> as far as cleaning goes its not as easy as a smooth floor but its still not bad.......i never have an issue tripping over the ribs but the pressure on the rivets P.O.V. makes alot of sense.....honestly tho if i had a 40hp on the back i would definately have a floor in it im running a fourstroke 9.9 on a 16ft boat so weight is always on my mind


 
ya, the 40 I'll be dropping on it will definately be a difference. im gonna go overkill on transom bracing/reinforcement, so I'm wanting to limit the amount of other weight added, I may have to add some transom "pods" to give me some lift in the rear, ill see once i get welding done and drop motor on it how it sits in the water.

as far as pressure on rivets, etc, im thinking a floor will be a good idea, throwing stands, deer and hogs in it along with my 230 pound azz is bound to spring a leak somewhere if i dont !


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## SaltWaterBuck (Sep 2, 2013)

sounds like its gonna be a sweet build.........dont forget to post pics !!!


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## Flounder9.75 (Sep 28, 2007)

Go big and put Alum in the floor and be done with it.
Ck out the big road signs on the hwy they are all Alum


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## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

I replaced my thin alum floor with a thicker diamond alum one.

The thin one would "Oil Can" as you walked on it.


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## SaltWaterBuck (Sep 2, 2013)

that diamondplate rig is badass !!!


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

Got the line on some aluminum flooring, so thats what i'll be going with, now if only work and rain will give me a break to work on it !


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

Got all wood removed from transom and all new metal cut this weekend, hopefully get welded this week one night after work.


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## Grehgory (Mar 13, 2014)

This would be more important in an older boat.


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

between work and the weather, this project is going slower than I'd hoped. I decided to have it media blasted before I started the welding in case It uncovered some unseen holes/cracks/etc. I dropped it off at the blast yard a couple days ago, should be ready for pickup Monday afternoon.

I picked up a gallon of zinc chromate primer yesterday and hope to have it primed soon after welding is completed next weekend. 

I been debating on painting/not painting or wrapping it. I have decided to paint it due to it seeing some saltwater use and hopefully reducing some upkeep on the bare metal. Still on the fence about doing a camo steciling job on it. For now I think I'm just gonna olive drab it and get it going.


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

dragging on , I was delayed getting from blastyard due to them raining out several days in a row, but finally got it done and hauled it back home. Primer and paint is standing by in the garage, now just waiting on welder to get welding done. 

today I cut the aluminum floorboards to fit. gonna pull them back up and paint separately from boat. also decided to cover transom plate with a new piece instead of attempting to fill 30+ holes !


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

Looks like the welding I was needing done finally got started on today. So it should be ready to pick up tommorow .

I have read a thousand threads on floor coatings and finally come up with something I decided to try that I read about on the tinboats forum. Ive used durabak before and it's pretty costly. I coated my floors on this rig with rust oleum 10x floor coating, it's thick and resist water and u/v, and has a nice coarse non skid appearance. And for $25 a gallon, I'll see how long it last in a boat.


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

After acid etching and roughing up with a grinder.


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

2 coats of the 10x.


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)




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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)




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## SaltWaterBuck (Sep 2, 2013)

lookin awsome how much of that floor coat did it take to cover what you got


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## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

I hope you have good luck with that......Duraback? I wouldn't hit a Hog in the Ass with that Crap.

Here is a link to what I did.....But the product Suck's...It lifts and bubbles after a few years, It doesn't come clean ....no matter what you try to to clean it with.

http://www.classicmako.com/projects/xshark/bw38.htm

http://www.classicmako.com/projects/xshark/bw39.htm


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

SaltWaterBuck said:


> lookin awsome how much of that floor coat did it take to cover what you got


it took a full gallon. total deck space is 4'x 13.5' (not a mathmatician but I think thats about 54 square ft.)


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

X-Shark said:


> I hope you have good luck with that......Duraback? I wouldn't hit a Hog in the Ass with that Crap.
> 
> Here is a link to what I did.....But the product Suck's...It lifts and bubbles after a few years, It doesn't come clean ....no matter what you try to to clean it with.
> 
> ...


I hated the prep work involved in putting the duraback down, but overall, it held up well after 2 full "year round" seasons, with no bubbling or peeling whatsoever. IMO 90% of the negative complaints about duraback come from applications that werent applied properly (poor prepping)

Ive seen where people have used the restore 10x on a couple threads on Tinboats, the Hull Truth and the Classic Makos forum, and havent seen many complaints, many compared it to Kiwigrip, as they are both water-based acrylic polymers. . . . 

nothing to lose either way for me, if it works great, if not, thats ok too, I only lost 25 bucks. The boat is just going to be my river beater, and Ill be able to tell after a couple months if its going to last or not, after dragging hog traps, hoop nets, slat boxes and whatever else on it. 

after its all said and done, I wont have much more than $900 into the boat and trailer.


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

Almost finished,i got 1 coat if primer and 2 top coats applied over the past couple days, painting is complete, all that's left is dropping the motor on it and install bench seating. Since I had removed all the old flotation when I stripped it, I added 2" thick foam between the ribs to quiet it down and hopefully prevent it from sinking (sinking as fast anyway)


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)




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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)




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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

Added some non skid tape to a couple areas where I might be stepping in/out of boat


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

Pretty happy with the outcome of boat, haven't got a lot invested in it and should take a beating over the next few years and hold up.

Boat and trailer $500
Paint $140
Sheet aluminum and hardware $50
Cleats $6
Non skid tape $8
Plywood for transom $25
Fiberglass and resin for above $15
Sandblasting $75
Welding $100
Foam $26

Total $950


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)




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