Here is how it looked the day after I got it home. Ugly flat brown and looking really neglected.

Despite the redneck engineering, I like the layout of the interior. Ok. I'll admit it. I did use the PVC pipe rod holders for the first season, but I did get a battery box and rewire it because it was too scary to use even for a few months.

About a month later I was so tired of the paint I removed it above the water line using a gallon of paint stripper. It took about four hours and man was it worth it! Though you can't see them very well in this picture, I added some guides to the trailer. It was really difficult to haul out without them.

I did this over Thanksgiving 2007. Stripping it to the hull took only part of a day. Getting the floors out took most of the time. I believe they were original although I can't tell for sure. They were in perfect shape! I knew I had to remove them to repair the rivets and I was worried about waterlogged foam. Sadly I was right and not only was the foam towards the back waterlogged, but had caused some significant galvanic corrosion.

The next month was spent sanding the inside and removing the gobs of JB Weld that were used to replace missing rivets and patch the bow seam. After all the stripper had done its job I took advantage of a rare day above freezing to completely wash away any residual paint stripper so I could begin replacing missing and damaged rivets.

The bow seam was filled with JB Weld when I got it apart. The inside is covered with a brown substance that resembles something between tar and epoxy. It is thickest in the bow area. Paint stripper softened it up but I had to do a lot of scraping and sanding to get the most of it off. I also tried oven cleaner, acetone and paint thinner to no great effect.

Here is the cleaned bow area. The rivets that were missing or in obvious need of replacement were temporarily installed. I washed the inside out with hose until I couldn't get any more dirt out then did a leak test. The bow area leaked quite a bit which explained the JB Weld.

I marked all the leaking rivets and replaced with stainless #10 machine screws sealed with 3M 5200. The rivets were 5/32 and the new #10 screws are 3/16 allowing me to true up any elongated holes. Both the inside and outside rivets are sealed with Gluvit. I didn't coat the entire hull, just the rivets and any areas with corrosion damage on the inside. I want the water to drain under the ribs and sealing the entire inside would prevent that.

I turned the boat on each side and used marine epoxy so gravity would pull it into the bow seam. Once I had done this for each side, I carefully coated each rivet to get good adhesion. There are so many so close together it's not practical to replace them. I leak tested again and replaced several more rivets.

This was the old transom I used as a basic pattern for the new one. It is really warped and rotted. I think the jack plate and the big notch cut out of it so someone could run a short shaft motor kind of did it in. I'm really tired of sanding the hull so I'm going to work on this for a bit.

The new transom is test fitted. It is made from exterior douglas fir 3/4 plywood that has seven even layers and almost zero voids. The previous transom which I believe was the original was five layer plywood that looked low quality. I still have to drill all the holes and decide how I'm going to coat it.

I was going to just reuse the old crossmember and floor support, but after all this work I can't bear to put it back. Most of the rivets were broken anyway so I needed a stronger alternative. I cut out a new thicker piece of aluminum and sandwiched it with aluminum angle to support the floor. Much better.

I'm not going back with 3/4 playwood so I decided to put in these supports using 1" aluminum angle. They weigh almost nothing and will support much thinner floor material. I would like to go with all aluminum, at least up to the crossmember, but it's not cheap. Of course good plywood isn't cheap either and I would have to seal it as well. I still haven't decided.

I'm using this piece of aluminum for the back where the gas tank sits. It will be under the rear deck so any height difference will not be noticed. Without being attached to the supports I can stand on it and it feels solid. This is .100 aluminum sheet.

Since the console had been ripped out, the boat was lacking structurally. I used an aluminum angle to match the height of the support on the other side.

I extended the other side so I can mount a rear deck.

To cover the chunk cut out of the transom, I trued up the rectangular hole and fit a piece of aluminum. The large plate covers it as well as plugging serveral holes for the jack plate and who know what else.

I used a very thin piece of aluminum for the inside. It was bonded together with 3M 5200 and an elaborate clamping system so there would be no voids. I closed up some smaller holes in the transom with HTS-2000 aluminum brazing rod.

Since the cross supports are notched over the center beam, I wanted some extra support for the center of the floor. The seam will run down the center when the main deck is installed.

There was some finishing left to do in the bilge area. Everything needed to be attached well so there are no vibrations.

The original lower front deck was plywood resting directly on the hull. There were wear marks which I covered with a coat of epoxy, but I don't want this design flaw repeated. These aluminum supports will keep the lower deck off of the hull and provide additional support for the lighter plywood. The batteries are going up here too so I want it strong and flexible.

The old upper deck support didn't look too bad, but upon closer inspection it was cracking and all the spot welds had broken and been replaced by rivets. Out it comes to be replaced by a stronger version.

Here is the new support awaiting installation. It's a bit of an over kill, but I don't have lighter materials. Since it might have to support a trolling motor and part of the front deck, maybe it won't be too much after all.

I feel a lot better about this one. I've attached it to the hull with quite a few more fasteners that original had. This should distribute the stress a bit better and hopefully prevent cracking.

I've decided to go back with 1/2 inch marine grade plywood. The original stuff was 3/4 inch treated plywood. While it held up nicely, even dry it weighs more than untreated plywood and seemed like the cause of the pitting in the main deck supports. Getting this to fit just right was a real pain.

I did the same with the front deck support. It looked like the old one was repaired with random screws and rivets. It was a real mess.

Cutting out the front upper decks was a lot easier than the lower one. I had good original templates.

Main decks are cut, fitted, predrilled and countersunk. The seat is mounted so I can determine clearances for side compartments and all holes need to be drilled before the decks are sealed.

Since there will be no way to get to the mount underside once the main deck is installed, I wanted to make sure there is lots of load distribution. I will glue the aluminum angles to the underside of the deck and retain the nuts with epoxy so I can tighten them without removing the deck if I need to, or even replace the mount.

Since I can't get a new one, I repaired the bow eye with HTS-2000 brazing rod. It was worn about half way through, but the repair turned out great. It's one of several times I've used it to repair aluminum castings. This worked well for repairing some minor cracks in the bow and stern caps as well. New stainless bolts all around.

Since the spray in foam was responsible for some pitting in the hull, I'm attaching the new foam to the underside of the deck spaced with thin foam pads underneath for ventilation. I used Liquid Nails for shower installations so it wouldn't dissolve the foam. I might use Gorilla Glue on the rest. This is the Owens Corning Foamular closed cell rated for outside installation.

Now that all the decking is coated with Varathane polyurethane varnish I have installed the front deck with the foam, fabricated new brackets and mounted the front bulkead.

Now the task I've been dreading - the transom installation. I managed to get all the bolts through without incident and thoroughly coated them with 5200.

I was wondering how the aluminum through hull fittings would turn out. I used a rounded steel bar and a hammer to flange them out. Also fabricated some aluminum plates inside since I thought it might be cooler than just hammering over the wood. It is!

I'm not sure what the through hull fitting was for in the bow area, but made a patch by sandwiching two aluminum plates with 3M 5200 between them. It's just not going to leak.

This time I used the Gorilla glue to attach the foam. Much better. It looks just like I used the canned insulating foam to glue them in place. This was perfect for this application.

All the work is already done. Screwing them down is the easy part!