16' Bass Attacker Restore ( Pic Heavy)

[Bigwrench]

Ok I recently took possession of this boat from my neighbor , we have been working on a sale price for awhile now and finally agreed on a trade .... 5 oil changes on her SUV so that's what I have in it so far just to give everyone an idea on total cost when done .
Expense Tally
5 oil Changes
Transom Wood
Bunk Boards Wood
Hull Paint
3M 5200
Transom U Bolts
Goop Sealant
Aluminum Sheets
Spray Paint
Chemicals for Wood Preservation
Retractable Transom Tie Downs
Trailer Strip and Paint Fee
3 Tires and Wheels
Trailer Jack
Trailer Fenders
Bow Strap
Bow Roller


  It's a 1984 model , with a Nissan 55hp 2 Stroke ,


It's on a Tennessee Brand Trailer which is also going to be fully gone over.

Last fall I got it running for her teenage boys , the carbs were gummed up and the gas had basically turned to sludge from sitting so long. Pulled them , drained and cleaned the floats, jets and bowls . New plugs , Flushed the lines and some new gas/oil with some stabil added . It hasn't moved since they took it back over to their yard so should be ok.
40# 12V MG Trolling Motor which appears to be fairly new,

An older Eagle Fishfinder

   It's been pretty neglected for a few years and actually had about 18" of standing water and leaves etc in the boat when I hooked it up to my truck.
   First order of business was drying it out and with plenty of mountain roads I quickly got rid of the water on a steep incline
  Pulled it in my garage and continued to let it drain in a bucket for the last few days.



  Tonight I got down to business with taking off yhe windshield, Trolling motor ,bow light plug and removing the rotted out decking and carpet and just getting it all down to the aluminum hull.





  Started out by using an air powered SawZall and sliding the blade in between the aluminum runners and the plywood and cutting the rusted out screws off flush. This worked ok for the most part but several were practically impossible to remove using this method , so brute force and redneck ingenuity were required .


That's all for tonight . My Buddy Princeton_Man is gonna come by tomorrow and see what we can tear up between the two of us
Open to any and all suggestions , info, recommendations or ideas as well.

[Lee Smith]

Can't wait to see how good it looks when you get done Rick! 

Hell of a buy to Sir! 

[Bigwrench]

Can't wait to see how good it looks when you get done Rick! 

Hell of a buy to Sir! 

Thank you Lee ! Schlich wasn't too happy with another boat but when her Daddy came by he was as excited as I am lol. Took the wind outta her sails for sure
 
 

[Bassinkorea]

Sounds like you got it for a great deal. Will be following this rebuild for sure 

[Brocksdad1]

Get that ol girl done so I can buy it lol.

[Deadeye]

You got a good start on it already.

[Bigwrench]

I was surprised that the wiring for the bow light and trolling motor was just laid on top of the stringers underneath the decking. With an aluminum boat I would think this could be potentially disastrous ! I will be re routing the wiring through PVC somehow and also using larger gauge TM wiring and adding some power and ground circuits at the bow panel as well.
    The flotation foam in the front seems lacking and wondered if I should add more ?
  Once I get the entire deck stripped out it is going outside for a heavy degrease and maybe some acid & pressure wash to really clean it up good
  Also wondering about having the TM mounted diagonally across the bow deck like that , should I mount it like my Ranger is off to the left side and build up the rear area for mounting it that way to open up that area more ?

[LarryMc]

I would definitely move the TM over to the left to get it out of the way. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out a way to mount it.

[Bigwrench]

Time for round 2 !!
  Today I attacked the rear deck, livewell and the console area.
Started by removing the seats , which are mounted on top of the livewell.

4 screws on each side into the floor, 3 hose connection and it came out


And everything is gone here


I then started on the back deck areas , I tried in all instances to remove the panels intact so as to later use them as patterns possibly ,
More of the same process with the Sawzall , hammer and flat crow bar
Center storage and battery compartment

I also tried to unscrew all the screws when possible but most were beyond any help. Here I am removing the seat post mount bases,  using a 1/8" cut off grinding disc I ground the heads off flush and drove the bolt body through with a punch and ball peen hammer. The nuts on the bottom were completely gone and was a waste of time trying to contort my big hind end upside down with vice grips so they were disposed of lol I will address the seat base issue at a later date as I may not even use the same bases

All gone

Removed the last of the rear deck panels and did a little vacuuming of the loose debris on each side

On to the console (which has to be removed since it is bolted to the main floor decking)


At this point I need help from you guys. The top right section of the console is pop riveted through the outside hull with 5 rivets here is inside

And outside

My thought process here is I can grind away the 5 rivets from the inside and drive the rivet body out with a punch. Any residual grind marks will be on the inside and will look cleaner from the outside area. Or I could try and drill all 5 out perfectly centered which might be less of a mess.
  So what ya'll think ?
Also just laid the steering wheel and dash panel down on the floor until I can research how the steering cable system comes apart.  It is a Teleflex and says Safety Steer around the wheel base bezel looks like this

[Brocksdad1]

Everything is looking great.  I would drill the rivets . You might have to center punch first but no biggie. Looks like a good boat. It still baffles me why people let boats go as expensive as they are.

[eddie234]

I'm sure it will look like new when its done.

[bass1cpr]

   Bigwrench From the pic's it looks like the front wall of the helm is separate from the top of the helm. Am I correct on that? If that's the case then I would only remove the front wall. That should give you enough flex that the rest of the console could be lifted and put under tension with some rope or ratchet straps to keep it up and out of the way without removing the rivets through the side of the boat. I'd only remove the outside rivets only if you have access to a bucking tool. I've replaced a couple of rivets by grinding off the inside flange and driving them out and replaced with new rivets with a hammer and sledge  before but a bucking tool is much better.

[Bigwrench]

I see what you mean now yes it is pretty flexible , I do have a "Big Daddy" rivet gun (That's what I was gonna use to reattach it ) but that makes more sense I'll just pull it up and hook it to the rafters in the garage with a couple bungees or a ratchet straps. I'm not entirely sure how the main deck is attached it looks like the rear area is a separate piece from the one under the dash area . I'll try and figure it out tomorrow . Really happy with the progress so far , it is unbelievably nasty and moldy lol   I'm gonna pressure wash it all out and bleach it too to kill the mold and most likely acid wash the. Floor .
  Any ideas on how to remove the steering cable would be helpful.
  I'm considering going back with diamond plate aluminum for the dash plate and maybe adding a couple Gauges like a tach and water pressure   Thought about just going back with all smooth aluminum plate , 3/16-1/4" instead of  wood but the cost might negate that. Still up in the air on floor material . I don't think I want carpet in this boat but open to any and all ideas.  Definitely gonna mount the TM to the left   Thanks everyone for all the advice and help.

[Donald Garner]

Rick,

Your project is look great tks for sharing the pics with us.  That was a heck of a price you paid for that boat.

[Bigwrench]

Thank you Donald ! Yes It was a good deal and I was surprised. I was gonna offer $600
Or maybe $700
But when she said that I was like YES !  More room $$ wise to put into getting it restored now too

[bass1cpr]

   Bigwrench that was a good deal for the boat! I just sold my 2002 Tracker 175xt with a 25 horse Mercury Big foot four stroke. Need to buy another car for my wife. Back to being boat less bank trash! For the time being.

   The two nuts on the steering cable are a clamp that keeps the cable in place. Mark the splines and the front of the steering helm housing so you have a reference when you re assemble.
   Loosen those two nuts and turn the shaft and the cable will push itself out of the housing. Good luck with your project it looks like making good progress with it.

[Oldfart9999]

Rick, I would pull all the flotation, must likely it's soaked and ruined, you cab replace it with blue insulation from HD or Lowes which is closed cell foam, won't suck up water. You don't need over .125 plate and may go with thinner. There is a lot of potential  in the boat. Nice find.
Rodney

[Deadeye]

A friend of mine decided to make a deck for on his jon boat. He found some Marine Grade Board that was a fiberglass type board that had a roughen texture to one side. Placing it with the roughen side up it made a great non-skid deck. I don't know where he got it but it came just like a sheet of plywood.

I agree with removing the old foam. Since you've decided to go this far you might as well go all the way. Personally I think I would use Aluminum and raise the deck height and create storage and/or rod box area. Fill the complete underside with foam (you could use the expanding foam that comes in a can to fill in cracks & crevices) and Re-Deck with a life-long fiberboard.

Really depends on what YOU want and what you intend to use the boat for.

No matter what you decide to do we can help you find ways to spend more money, just ask us!

[Bigwrench]

I agree with removing the old foam. Since you've decided to go this far you might as well go all the way.

No matter what you decide to do we can help you find ways to spend more money, just ask us!

Lol yeah I've sorta come to the conclusion that if I'm down this far I might as well do it right and the best I possibly can.
And LOL I don't need any help spending money , just ask Schlich
On a side note a guy offered me $20k for my boat (Ranger) the way it sits today and I've been "Thinking on it "  Schlichs already mad and all I did was mention it lol.
  Anyways on to the build ....
  Tonight after work I decided to finish the deck removal and it wasn't too awful bad.  I had to cut the heads off about 6 screws and since the wood was so punky they pulled right out. So now I'm down to the metal floor,  from front to back


2 set backs tonight , 1 IMO is minor . I had to go ahead and remove the console and get it out of the way to get to some screws and when I tried to bend it up out of the way it started to crack lol. But easily fixed.
The 2nd thing is a little more involved lol , the transom board is rotted at the outside ends. I thought it was good visually but stuck my finger through the wood on  the port side corner. I'm not even gonna fool with trying to patch it . I'm gonna remove the motor and set it off to the side and put an entire new transom board setup in

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[Bigwrench]

Those last 3 pictures uploaded funny so if y'all cant see them I'll redo them on the laptop tomorrow or this evening.
Here's 4 pictures of the Transom area

My idea here is to cut through the welds in the aluminum corner "gussets?"  It looks like there is one weld on each side and then the Splash pan area is all rivets and then get that rotted board out and make a new solid one. Sound good so far ?
Shoulda knew something was up with the transom with they angle iron bolted on there.
Edit;
  After looking at it closer I may be able to remove the screws holding both side corner pieces and leave the welds intact and lift it all straight up with the C channel piece  they are welded to , that covers the top of the transom wood . But definitely have to remove the motor so will know more once it's off the boat.

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[Bigwrench]

Tomorrow my plan is to remove the motor , pull all the remaining foam out (it is all soggy)
The motor has 1 main power cable that has a quick disconnect right inside the cowling,  2 shift cables which I sm gonna mark their location with paint and they are connected with a cotter pin and a clamp holds them in the cowl. Those 2 things are easy enough to me but as far as the one steering cable attachment here
How do I detach this from the motor ?

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[Oldfart9999]

Without looking it over I can't tell you how to remove the steering cable, you'll figure it out I'm sure. You can use Tough Coat for a floor covering, it's non-skid, light weight, and easy to clean. I definitely would go with aluminum, you may be able to find what you need in a scrap yard, worth a try. For the transom plywood with several heavy coats of spar varnish, epoxy or resin, marine plywood would be the best is very expensive  and can be hard to find. It'll look much better after you can pressure wash it.
If you hangout on tinboats enough you'll run all new electric, paint it, rebuild the trailer, name the rig Schlich and sell it for a tidy profit, you may be hooked.
Rodney

[Deadeye]

There should be an arm on the opposite side that the motor attaches to the cable to allow it to steer. Remove that arm. That BIG NUT will unscrew and the entire cable will pull out of the tilt tube.

[Bigwrench]

There should be an arm on the opposite side that the motor attaches to the cable to allow it to steer. Remove that arm. That BIG NUT will unscrew and the entire cable will pull out of the tilt tube.

Ok I think I understand now , yeah there is a bar on the left side with a nut and bolt attaching it. So that straight bar is attached to the cable and pulls through the tube once you remove the big locking nut on the right ? I'll give that a try tonight   Thank you Deadeye !

[Deadeye]

Thats it. The Nut, Cable and the Part that you see sticking out through the other side are All One Unit.

The Nut is part of the housing and the "bar" is attached to the end of the cable permanently.

Unscrew the Nut and the whole assembly will pull back through the Tilt Tube.