# Ouachita 1648



## meonline06 (Apr 29, 2016)

Well, continuing my pattern of buying a new boat every two years....I bought a new boat. This time around I picked up an old Ouachita 16' flat bottom. It's 48" across at the bottom of the transom and like all of my old boats....It's a piece of junk. At least the guy I bought it from thought it was. I picked it up along with a trailer that is too small for it, a 40 lb thrust foot controlled trolling motor, and a battery. I actually bought this thing last August, but really haven't done anything with it up until a few weeks ago.







So, when I bought this thing, I didn't really do all of my homework prior to bringing it home. The guy who had it before me worked with metal for a living and had already began tinkering with it. He put in a lot of framing, including removing the old wooden transom and replacing it with metal. At the time I thought that was great and just less work that I was going to have to do. After I got everything home I wanted to get a good look at the trailer, so I went to move the boat to the ground and realized that this thing was way heavier than it should be. Turns out some of the framework the PO had done was steel. Some was aluminum. I'm guessing he just used whatever scrap metal he had left over at work. For the record, I am aware that the steel and the aluminum can react with each other. No, I am not going to remove the steel and start over. I'm sure I will get a few years of fun out of this thing before I will ever run into any problems and as history has proven, I'll have a new boat in a couple years anyway. 







This is pretty much how everything looked day 1. At this point I have already finished framing the front deck. I've cut 19/32" plywood to cover everything and have been fishing from it for several weeks. I wanted to test everything out on the water before I cut out the hatches and seal the wood. I also forgot to mention that after doing a leak test there were maybe 5 or 6 rivets (can't remember) that had very slight leaks. I replaced them and haven't had any issues with water leaks while I've been on the water. I'll post a few more pictures soon.


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## meonline06 (May 12, 2016)

It has been raining just about every day that I've been off work over the last few weeks so I haven't been able to do any fishing. You would think that would give me lots of time to work on the boat....but I haven't done much. I found a few pictures of some of the progress I made prior to starting this thread however.





I don't have a picture that shows all of the bracing after I finished with it. It is mostly 1" square aluminum tubing riveted together. I plan on having 3 compartments in the front deck. One in the center for my rods and two on either side of that. For right now I am going to have 4 hatches in the back. I say for now because I'm considering cutting out the bracing that is already there and redoing it with the aluminum tube.







I haven't cut out the hatches yet. I wanted to fish the boat a few times and make sure that I liked the layout before cutting and sealing the wood. I took it out 3 times and I am happy with everything. If I get some dry weather in the next few days, I'll seal everything up and get some carpet on it. I had been looking for a new trailer and a motor on Craigslist and came across an old fiberglass Ebbtide boat that had a 65 hp motor (probably overkill!!!) and nice trailer for next to nothing, so of course I picked it up! I've already started stripping everything off of the glass boat like the console, lights, switches, so forth and so on.... The motor is an old '74 Mercury 650 that fires right up. It has good compression on all 3 cylinders and has working power tilt. The owner said that the motor bogs down when in the water (under load). I'm no mechanic but for the price it's worth trying to sort out. More pictures to come.




First fish on the new boat!


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## Big_ug_chevy (May 12, 2016)

I have a 14/48 1972 Quachita that I bought this January. I did a full restoration with a center console convert. Check it out on my profile! Fantastic boat you have there!


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## meonline06 (May 12, 2016)

Big_ug_chevy said:


> I have a 14/48 1972 Quachita that I bought this January. I did a full restoration with a center console convert. Check it out on my profile! Fantastic boat you have there!


Thanks Big! I followed your build and it is pretty amazing. You paid a lot of attention to the details and it shows. I like what you did with the blue LEDs. I'm going to try and do something similar with red.


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## meonline06 (May 16, 2016)

I finally got a day of sunshine and a day off from work at the same time, so yesterday I cut out the hatches for the front deck and threw some urethane on everything. I'm stuck at work again today but at least it's nice out again. The wood should be sufficiently cured after today, so hopefully I can get the carpet on tomorrow.






Here is what the bracing for the front deck and hatches looks like. Figured I'd snap a picture while the wood is off.


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## meonline06 (May 16, 2016)




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## meonline06 (May 16, 2016)

I mentioned before that I picked up an old glass boat that I intend to use mainly for parts to aid my tin project. I thought I'd post a pic. I've already stripped everything excluding the motor and console. The trailer that it is sitting on will be used for my tin boat. The motor was running on muffs but of course now has no spark at all. I'll have to take a day and see if I can diagnose the cause [emoji107] .


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## momule (May 18, 2016)

Pretty nice old fiberglass bass boat. They made those things heavy back in the day but there's still a lot of them catching fish. I had a 17' square stearned Ouchita(?) canoe some years ago and loved the Indian logo on the sides. That company must have been bought out or went out of business but they made a lot of aluminum boats in Arkansas for a long time. They are getting harder and harder to find.

Thanks for sharing your build and your passion for saving the good old boats. I have just about as much fun working on project boats as I do fishing out of them and it really is a pretty cheap hobby relative to lots of others. I've owned some kind of boat since I was 13 years old and went out with my dad in his for years before that.


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## meonline06 (May 18, 2016)

momule said:


> Pretty nice old fiberglass bass boat. They made those things heavy back in the day but there's still a lot of them catching fish. I had a 17' square stearned Ouchita(?) canoe some years ago and loved the Indian logo on the sides. That company must have been bought out or went out of business but they made a lot of aluminum boats in Arkansas for a long time. They are getting harder and harder to find.
> 
> Thanks for sharing your build and your passion for saving the good old boats. I have just about as much fun working on project boats as I do fishing out of them and it really is a pretty cheap hobby relative to lots of others. I've owned some kind of boat since I was 13 years old and went out with my dad in his for years before that.



I've been considering making the old glass boat my next project. I would like to have a boat for catfishing so I can keep the excess slime off my tin's carpet. The PO said it has a slow leak... I have no experience with fiberglass work, but I also have no problem learning as I go. I agree, working on the boats for me is as much fun as fishing out of them. I need to start keeping a completed project around however so I can fish out of that and not feel like I'm rushing my work. The call of the water is hard for me to ignore this time of year!

I started carpeting the front deck yesterday, but couldn't finish. I'll have to run to the store today and pick up another roll. I've been using the cheap outdoor carpet from Lowes. I had a roll left over from my last project but when I went to use it yesterday I realized that the grains didn't match up. I should be able to get to that today.


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## meonline06 (May 18, 2016)

Carpet is finished on the front deck. I drove around to every Lowes in my area earlier today and every last one of them were out of the carpet I'm using for this build. I ended up going to Home Depot and picking up the similar brand that they carry. I hate to use two different types of carpet, but I have a date with a lake tomorrow and needed to finish up. Oh well, pretty soon the boat will be too dirty to tell the difference...hopefully. I still have to finish the center hatch, so right now there is a hole in the face of the deck.


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## momule (May 20, 2016)

I love the huge front deck. Room enough for a couple bag chairs and a table! Or maybe a bimini top and a hammock.....and yes, I take a pretty relaxed approach to fishing...


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## Big_ug_chevy (May 21, 2016)

meonline06 said:


> Big_ug_chevy said:
> 
> 
> > I have a 14/48 1972 Quachita that I bought this January. I did a full restoration with a center console convert. Check it out on my profile! Fantastic boat you have there!
> ...




Yeah, I should have went with red myself. The blues are just too much, I will more than likely change them out.


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## meonline06 (May 25, 2016)

I did some work on the front hatches over the weekend and am just getting around to posting some pics. All I have left is to figure out what I want to use to keep the hatches open. I'm going to try some friction supports and if they don't work I may try to find some affordable struts. I was able to repurpose some piano hinges from my glass boat for the hatches to save some money.


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## BigLuke (May 27, 2016)

You may try something like these. Very affordable, I have used them on overhead cabinet doors in my travel trailer. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009HQ7X6W/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687762&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B003VAT8KE&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=09JSSBXQPAGQ2203HWYT


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## meonline06 (May 27, 2018)

It has been 2 years since I last posted on this build. To be honest, I forgot I had started a thread for this one. I fished a few more times back in 2016 with the boat the way it was. I spent the majority of 2017 away from home, so I made no progress on the build until earlier this year.

I've done a good amount of work so far. At this point, the boat is completely functional as a fish hunting machine. If you're familiar with my old builds you know I never approach them in a logical way. Lol. My main goal is always to get out on the water as soon as possible, then I will polish things up as I go. That being said....right now she's all function and not a bit of polish. 

I'll post some images of everything I've done tomorrow when I get off work. If the rain holds off I'll be spending Memorial Day on the water which should present some photo ops. The biggest changes from 2 years ago are the addition of an outboard, a console installed, all the decking is complete, and it's sitting on a new trailer.


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## meonline06 (May 27, 2018)

Here is a shot of the boat a couple weeks ago. 

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## meonline06 (May 27, 2018)

meonline06 said:


> Here is a shot of the boat a couple weeks ago.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk








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## meonline06 (May 29, 2018)

I took these pictures yesterday. I never got out on the water because they were calling for rain which of course never ended up happening. There are 3 compartments under the front deck, 1 under the bench and 6 under the rear deck. There is more storage at this point than I have stuff to put in it. I installed a bilge pump and float switch with a 3 position manual/automatic switch hooked up to it. There are two batteries; one for the motor and one for the accessories and trolling motor. My most recent addition was a 7 inch lowrance. It is temporarily mounted with 2x4's currently. I've hooked up some spotlights up front for late nights.

My near future goals are to paint the hull, add red lights for the inside of the boat, permanently mount the lowrance, add rod holders, add pedestal seats for front and rear deck, and add a recessed tray for the trolling motor foot pedal.

Disclaimer: the boat has been fished out of and worked on so it is extra dirty in these pictures.

There's a lot of rain in the forecast so hopefully I can make some progress soon.




















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## meonline06 (Jun 26, 2018)

I've been doing a bit of fishing and a lot of working in the garage the last few weeks. Now that being said, I have made zero progress on the build. I've actually regressed a bit.




I couldn't resist turning a profit on my motor. I sent it on it's way 2 days ago. Hopefully the new owner will enjoy it as much as I have. Now I know what you're thinking..."what an idiot for selling his motor in the middle of the boating season!"...like I said, I've been doing a lot of work in the garage. The last few weeks I've managed to get my other two motors running. Both are 65 hp. My Evinrude is in great condition and ready to power the boat right now. The other is a Mercury that runs good; I'm waiting for a few parts to come in for it (electric choke plunger, shift and throttle cable) I also have to track down a leak in the power trim/tilt system.




The Evinrude is on the left and the Mercury is on the right. At this point I'm leaning towards the evinrude since it is ready to go right now. But I've been an old Mercuty 2 stroke fan for a long time. Regardless of which direction I go, I will be getting a jack plate before I repower. My transom is only 16 inches and all my motors have been 20" shafts. I can raise the motor about 2" by mounting it higher but that still leaves it 2" too low.




All the spray in this picture is a good example of what happens when your motor is too low. I also get water over the back of the transom. The jack plate will solve that and improve performance....so will bumping up 25 more hp.

I also fixed up the original trailer the boat came on and sold it yesterday. The previous owner applied a hideous paint job(same one that's on the boat) which luckily came right off with my power washer. After seeing the results I'm going to use it to strip the boat also.





So my goals now are to:
1) buy/install transom jack
2) strip horrible paint job from hull
3) repower the boat
4) finish constructing my console
5) paint the hull

More updates to come soon I hope.

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## meonline06 (Jun 27, 2018)

So I had been leaning towards this 65 hp Evinrude to power the boat. I got a top speed of 29 mph with the old 40 horse Merc, and I'm curious to see what speeds 65 hp will get me.




However, me being me, I sold this beautiful old 2 stroke this morning. Once again I couldn't resist making a profit. The market is good around here right now. I'm giving serious thought to making motors my side gig. I have my eye on a few right now, but won't have a day off until Sunday.

Back to the build. I still have an old 1974 Mercury 650 (65 hp) that I got running a few weeks ago. I have parts on the way so hopefully I'll have it ready to go soon. I found a used hydraulic jack plate, but haven't decided if it's worth the extra money for me on this boat. It would be an extra $200 vs a standard manual jacker, but it could definitely come in handy when dialing in the motor height. Time will tell which one makes it on the build. I know which one my wife probably doesn't want me to get...

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## chbarnha (Jun 27, 2018)

didn't even realize your from rva, im from king William. Just got on craigslist looking for a smaller ob or a project ob and your 65 evinrude popped right up. small world


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## meonline06 (Jun 27, 2018)

Sure is, and thanks for reminding me I need to take that listing down.

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## Bridge4 (Jun 28, 2018)

meonline06 said:


> Sure is, and thanks for reminding me I need to take that listing down.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk


WIth that pretty paint job I bet it moved quickly! Some of these old motors look great redone, if they were lighter I'd want to hang a few on the wall as art.


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## meonline06 (Jun 28, 2018)

Bridge4 said:


> meonline06 said:
> 
> 
> > Sure is, and thanks for reminding me I need to take that listing down.
> ...


'Tis the season. I love the designs of the older outboards. If I come across a vintage small outboard I think I will fix it up just to hang on my wall.

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## meonline06 (Jun 30, 2018)

I spent a little bit of time in the garage yesterday getting the motor ready to be worked on. I haven't got all the parts I ordered in yet, so I'm going to wait to install it all at the same time. There were a ton of extra wires and b.s. from when I removed it from the boat it came with....and now there's not.









These are the rusted control cables that I need to replace




This is where the missing choke plunger should be. 

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## Jim (Jun 30, 2018)

Great thread man! :beer:


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## meonline06 (Jun 30, 2018)

Jim said:


> Great thread man! [emoji481]


Thank you Jim!

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## meonline06 (Jul 4, 2018)

First and foremost Happy 4th of July!!




I picked up another motor a couple days ago. It's a 1985 60hp Evinrude. 




I haven't had the chance to see if/how it runs yet. So now I once again have options for powering the boat. The jack plate is supposed to come in tomorrow. I'm taking advantage of this opportunity to paint the boat and probably the trailer also. I started stripping the hull today with my power washer. So far I've gotten half of it stripped. It's a slow process, bit far easier than sanding or using a chemical paint stripper.

Before:









Now:









I don't plan on stripping it all the way to bare aluminum. I'm just taking it down to whatever isn't chipping off.

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## meonline06 (Jul 6, 2018)

Got some parts in yesterday.





Vance Manufacturing jack plate with 4" of lift and 3" of setback





Trim/tilt fluid

I also got a part for the Mercury motor but forgot to take a picture. I'm thinking that I will need more trim/tilt fluid because the pump cylinder is completely empty. I figured out that all the fluid had leaked out of it through the fill port; the screw was loose and I had it stored upside down.

I would like to get the rest of the hull stripped tomorrow and potentially lay down a few coats of primer, but that all depends on what the weather is like tomorrow.

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## meonline06 (Jul 8, 2018)

I finished stripping the hull yesterday with the pressure washer. I had planned on doing some light sanding with a palm sander to finish prepping it for paint, but my buddy stopped by with a new to him Stratos bass boat and halted my progress. It has a 115 Evinrude that needs some work so that will be another project for me now. Anyway, tomorrow I plan on getting some primer on the boat.

I also got the new to me 60 hp 'rude running yesterday. It sounds pretty good and the water pump is doing its job. I need to order some controls for it. I dont think I'm going to buy factory Evinrude controls because people want a ridiculous amount of money for them. I plan on buying a cheaper universal throttle control and I will mount the ignition switch on the console. 






The 'rude runs good but the paint on it leaves a lot to be desired, so I suppose I will be throwing some paint on it too.


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## meonline06 (Jul 13, 2018)

I pulled the boat off of the trailer a few days ago and started spraying some paint. The trailer had a lot of surface rust, so I used a combination of my pressure washer and an angle grinder with a flap disk to prep it for paint. It's not perfect but it looks way better. With my wife's help, we managed to finish painting the hull and motor also. I'm not sure about the shade of paint we put on the motor, but it won't be changing at this point. Painting is one of my least favorite things to do.


































I won't be able to work on the boat this weekend, but I would like to have everything back together and on the water next week.


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## LDUBS (Jul 13, 2018)

Motor looks pretty darn good from here. Nicely done.


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## meonline06 (Jul 14, 2018)

LDUBS said:


> Motor looks pretty darn good from here. Nicely done.


Thank you LDUBS. I should always trust my wife when it comes to aesthetics.


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## meonline06 (Jul 17, 2018)

I repacked the trailer bearings yesterday. My original intention was to replace them, but they were in good shape. I plan on taking a little trip tomorrow and wanted to make sure everything is in good order. The hubs already had bearing buddies, and today I will try to pick up some new dust caps.









Sorry, I didnt take any pictures after everything was cleaned up.


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## meonline06 (Jul 20, 2018)

I took the trailer on a road trip and came back with this guy.




It's a 2000 14' Tracker with a mod v hull. I haven't decided what I will do with it yet. The main thing is that the trailer pulled great. I had it at highway speed for 8+ hours, which is the longest trip I've had it on, with no issues. With that out of the way, I tossed the boat back on the trailer and mounted the motor.








The plan is to button some things up and get on the water tomorrow.


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## meonline06 (Jul 21, 2018)

I got all of the motor cables run yesterday. My plan was to do some light modifications to the throttle and shift cables to marry the Evinrude motor to some Mercury controls. It wasn't until after I had everything hooked up that I realized the throttle action for the two manufacturers are opposite. Evinrude cables extend (at the motor) to advance the throttle, while Mercury cables retract to advance throttle. So...the day was a bust. And now I have to find an Evinrude control box. I did manage to mount the ignition switch to the console, so I truly just need the throttle/shifter. I also got the console completed and wrapped in carpet, unfortunately I forgot to take pictures after the whole throttle debacle. I probably won't get an opportunity to work on the boat for another week due to work and a road trip so stay tuned....I'm looking forward to water testing the new setup as soon as possible.


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## Travm70 (Jul 28, 2018)

This build is awesome!
Great job!
I’m in the RVA as well working on a build... but it’s taking me way too long. 


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## meonline06 (Jun 19, 2019)

I haven't posted in a long time but I have been constantly working on the build and fishing. The biggest changes/ additions include repowering to a 1976 70 hp Evinrude that I picked up at an auction. I was originally just going to flip the motor to make some money, bit it was so clean that I threw it on my rig. I also made a new switch plate out of aluminum. I made some reinforcements to the decks just to get rid of some creaking sounds when I walk around. They were already plenty sturdy, I just needed to secure the deck boards in more places.

I have enjoyed working on and fishing out of this boat for the last few years, but it's time to move on to my next build! I have already picked up a tracker grizzly hull and plan to get started by next week. So the Quachita is officially FOR SALE. 

I made a video walk thru that I uploaded on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fA28hchW2t4

For those interested, I have a how to video on rebuilding a water pump with the 70hp Evinrude: https://youtu.be/tex25JKVKCo

And here are some pictures of the build as of this week:


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