Living so close to Petrie now I knew we needed to have something on the water at the island. I had an old 14ft HARBERCRAFT aluminum boat that belonged to my grandfather brought up to the city for me to work on. It hadn't seen the water in almost 20 years so once we knew it floated I went to work on a plan to make it ours.
NOW I will warn you all that this is FAR from a pro job on modifying this boat and my own plan after lots of reading. So everything I have done was from my own head and I can’t say that it will work for everyone BUT I can say that after a few days on the water we could not be happier – blown away really!
After lots of reading I had seen many different upgrades done to a tin boat – I felt that a lot of the things done where a little overkill and added unnecessary weight by complicating the issue. Why not let the natural frameworks of the boat do all the work for you? Keep it simple?
I started by sanding the old paint off the boat and the trailer – I read aluminum can be hard to paint so I followed some steps that would allow the paint to last longer but without a professional paint job I know it won’t last forever. I sanded, washed with soap and water and scrubbed with vinegar… all before I applied the primer.
Once the primer had dried I applied professional high performance Tremclad – two coats were needed on all surfaces outside, inside and the trainer. Once that was all done I was able to add a clear coat for shine before the decals were put on.
NOW to turn this bad boy into a bass boat!!! I had read so much about adding compartments by building framework etc., etc. – I thought to myself WHY not let the benches in the front do all the work for that? One big compartment will allow us to add a live well, maximizes storage and eliminates the added weight of the “structural” wood. So I pulled out a piece of drywall as its sheets are the same size as the plywood sheets but MUCH easier to cut.
I took my measurements and went to work laying out a template with the drywall.
Once the drywall template was created I cut it apart and used the pieces to draw out my plywood and cut my pieces. I screwed in a couple of pieces of 2X8 underneath for the added support under the doors – I felt that this made the flex point of the bigger door much smaller and ensured that the smaller door wouldn't fall through if stepped on.
