# 1988 Bass Tracker V17 Restoration



## 88basstrack (Jun 18, 2016)

So this is my first time posting on this forum, I've been lurking since starting this project about 10 months or so ago. Let me start out by saying a couple things about myself and my old man, who helped a ton. I am 22 years old and I am working on a computer science bachelors degree at FAU part time while working with my dad on marine air conditioning (odd i know,computer science and an extremely labor intensive job, but I love working with my hands and working on computers). My old man is super cool and has some really awesome stories about life. He has his own marine air conditioning business that he started in 2001, he's a one man butt kicker if you will, especially doing this stuff for 30+ years lol. The overall goal of this project was to scarp out ALL of the broken Air conditioning equipment that we've accumulated on the side of the house over the years to pay for the restoration of the boat. As you can tell we barely even dented it hahaha. Back to the marine air conditioning because thats the key to this, we have a few perks in the marine industry, such as cheaper parts and some really nice friends with connections :lol: .

This is where I started at









I have already finished the boat as of 5/10/16 and ill throw a picture of it up as it sits now in a couple days, but ill update this thread day to day because i honestly don't have enough time on my hands to type up everything and put all the pictures in (i have 3 classes for the summer and still working with the old man) lol. The best part about this whole project was probably working with my dad on it and hearing how he used to fish with it and what he wanted to change about it.

Sooooo onto the boat, its a 1988 Bass Tracker V17 with a Mercury 70 hp 2-stroke, back in 1988 my dad couldn't afford any "sparkly" bass boats out at the time, so he bought this Tracker to fish with instead lol. Although, he used to fish tournaments with his buddy who had a badass kevlar hull Storm back in the day :shock: so this motor had about MAYBE 100 hours on it so we knew that was at least salvageable. It sat from 1995 till 2015, untouched and out in the brutal Florida weather. The first step was to get all the vines, leaves and of course the 1988 rotten wood out of the boat and start from a clean slate.

*7/11/15*









I mean this was intimidating to say the least!!






This was all the evaporators and condenser tubes we pulled out of boats throughout the years stacked on the bass boat, i think with that load we had about 400 lbs of them going to the scrap yard.

The foam was the number one thing i was worried about in this project, thankfully the drain plug has always been out through the years and all the core samples i drew were dry as a bone!!

*7/18/2015*





This picture was the plywood coated vs uncoated. We used West Systems epoxy resin 105 and fiberglassed matted one side (i can't seem to remember the weight of the glass though, but if anyone wants to know ill figure it out). The was probably the most hated part of the whole thing lol you just can't seem to get the resin off of you :x .










we first applied a liberal coat of resin and hardener to the wood, let it cure until a bit tacky and then laid the mat on and poured more resin on top, next we had to get all the air pockets out with a spiky roller type deal. And no this was not marine grade but it sure is now lol.










Test fitting the lower deck, the way this particular tracker was made, you had to use one entire width of 1/2 inch plywood plus a sliver cut from some of the transom wood. I believe they were able to put together the entire boat with 2 sheets of 1/2 inch plywood and go boat to boat with 3/4 inch plywood just for the transom that was sandwiched together with the 1/2 inch to create a 1.25 inch transom piece.


*7/25/15*
Progress was good to see at this point





*7/26/15*









All screws were stainless and bedded down with boat life.





Console isn't in the greatest condition, but the gauges work and we are not even close to being that good at fiberglassing, to make a new one!






got the carpet glued down for the main decks the same day we mounted them down.





In this picture i finally took apart the back casting deck where the seat post goes into, my dad and i were under the impression that it was just aluminum framing under it. lo and behold, its a plank of 3/4 inch wood. We replaced that with whats called Starboard. its like a plastic composite material, super strong and super heavy duty. We actually tossed up that option to replace the transom with starboard because it'll never rot out, but 6 ft by 2ft by 1.25 inch would be extremely heavy and costly.


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## misunderstood (Jun 19, 2016)

Looking good and I'm in for the ride 8)


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## Happyrocker02 (Jun 19, 2016)

Keep em coming! The boats looking great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## 88basstrack (Jun 19, 2016)

Thanks guys!!


So back at it...
*8/23/15*
i remember the first part of august being extremely hot so no work outside happened during that time, we coated the wood with epoxy resin in the garage and got all the hole for the hatches cut out. We sort of made a booboo because we cut one of the hatches a little to far to one side so screws to attach the wood back to the deck and fiberglass to reinforce it all and everything is good as new!!















Entire front deck screwed and bedded down with boat life cauking.














It amazing how much carpet changes the look of the boat! I had to put the console on at this point, dad wasn't a fan of it but i didn't care! it was getting real and i was getting excited. Little did i know the transom would be the hardest part :| .

*8/31/15*




A glimpse all the equipment we still had to scrap. The next week after this we took a giant load to the scrap yard. If i remember correctly we had about 1000 lbs of compressors alone, no working on the boat after that haul.

*9/13/15*




This day consisted of replacing alllll of the switches from the flasher switch to the aerator switch. (No the flasher sadly does not work, but we didn't know that at this time).



*9/19/15*
Here is the good part guys!! i don't even know if you could call it a transom at that point because the only thing holding the motor up was the motor toter lol. It was sketchy to say the least.





Heres the old man after we had gotten the motor off the boat, we used a buddies lower unit jack and just raised the motor up with that to get it off the back of the boat, again super sketchy but it got the job done!
I wish i had taken a picture of what the rotted wood looked like in the bilge but i was to worried about getting all the crud out of it.





The plan was to get 1/2 and 3/4 plywood and glue them together then do the final cut with the wood sitting where it should be. we coated both sides and the edges and fiberglassed the side that faces the bow, since that was the part that was going to have the most pressure on it with he engine bolts and the stringers attached.















Dad had replaced the floors once before but not to the level as we did this time. Under the jack is actually the lower wooden deck, the only really bad part was one of the corners where all the water sits at when it rains, other than that the coating was still on there from when he did it.





Talk about a cluttered garage! We have an old GTO on the other side so we were limited to just using one side. This picture was before the coating, i don't have a picture when we laid down the glass but in the other pictures you can see the weave in the top corner.

*9/20/15*




Transom is in place and the back aluminum piece was screwed into the wood sealed with some boat life so no water will ever get into the holes.





Finally got the engine bolted back up, after this me and dad were DEAD! You don't realize how awkward a motor is until you have to man handle it to get the holes to line up. Speaking of holes when we drilled the holes for the motor we made sure to "sleeve" them so to speak, we epoxied a brass sleeve into the holes to make sure that if there was water to come in it would need to try realllllyy hard to get past the sleeves.





The top cap was a pain to get back on because it was a little jacked up but we managed to squeeze it on and make it fit!





Here you can perfectly see the fiberglass weave we used to reinforce the front side, all the cauking might look a little messy but i garuentee its all sealed up! :lol: 










In the down time i redid all the wiring in the boat, what a mess they used to do to these things. Dad got a really good price on one of these blue sea fuse blocks so we got that and the wiring commenced.



*10/3/15*
This is the day we got the motor running, dad went through all the carbs and she put up a bit of a fit, the low oil alarm kept going off so we bypassed that, then replaced both the oil pump and the fuel pump and all the hoses. Once i can figure out how to post a video ill put that up but we were both ecstatic! she purred like a 2 stroke kitten!



*10/20/15*




At this point i had carpeted the entire boat and was coming close to the finish!! 










Now the one thing that really bothered my dad was the cowlings... We have a really good friend who paints yachts and we asked if he would paint the covers, he said yes and heres the after math! 













You talk about a huge difference, its just a single stage jet black paint but man does she shine!! The decals are still up in the air, I think I want to get some Mercury Racing decals and just put them on the side and thats it.. you know stickers do make it faster!! :wink: haha.


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## gunz (Jun 19, 2016)

Nice work so far.


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## 88basstrack (Jul 17, 2016)

Sorry for taking so long guys!! I've been nothing but slammed by school and work, but i finished 2 of my 3 classes so here it goes!

i think we left off here..
*9/25/15*




How the bow looks, all the wiring is all redone to the front, trolling motor wires and fish finder wires are all routed up to the front.

*12/16/15*




After she got painted and looking all nice!

*1/6/16*




So we picked out the seats we thought would look the best, and they do look alright. But bass pro has the most uncomfortable seats ever!! Recently after a long ride to a fishing spot, you can feel screws in your butt!! so dad decided to buy better seats.





These seats are so much better, the quality alone blows bass pro out of the water. We got them from boatseatstore.com .

*1/23/16*









Pulled the trigger on a 45 lb minn-kota hand control trolling motor. Dad was not even close to being sold on a foot control, so hand control, bigfoot pedals and a long steering arm. Its actually not that bad!


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## 88basstrack (Jul 17, 2016)

Here is the day! Finally after all the blood and sweat we put into this old girl, its finally time to see how she scoots!

*2/20/16*









She's all dressed up and ready to roll!


Before we got to the fun stuff we had to adjust the carbs at the dock, but after that me and pops were gone!! She runs about 30 mph, but thats okay with me!










I caught by PB in this boat, a healthy 6.5lber! I was so pumped!!


*5/19/16*




Added a new radio, because 1988 radio didn't like how rainy florida is lol.

Next, Post ill get a picture of her on the water! She aint the prettiest but its been well worth the time put into her. 
Thanks for everyone that has endured this super long thread that isn't even one full page yet!


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## DaleH (Jul 17, 2016)

OMG, what a freakin' mess to start from! But man, that is some of the BEST carpet work I've seen on this forum. I myself am not a fan of csrpet on boats, but seeing what you did made me jealous - good work my man!

You should check out that motor more and maybe run the OB and motor through that prop calculator posted under the Motors forum, as my similar, but 16' (800# hull, 16-degree deadrise) boat with a 60hp turns almost 40mph w/ a new 4-blade aluminum prop.


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## ezbite (Jul 18, 2016)

great job!!! =D> =D>


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## 88basstrack (Aug 13, 2017)

Well, i guess the whole Photobucket situation hit my pictures too.. so I will be updating my post because I'm kind of mad that they did this to everyone. I'll be using imgur and hopefully, this goes as planned lol. Anywho a lot has happened since the last post.. dad sold the Tracker to a work friend for a cheap price and we upgraded to a 209 Gambler bass boat. Going through all these pictures makes me really miss ol' faithful though. I have a feeling one day I might have to restore another one in the future  But for now the front deck the size of a aircraft carrier and going 70 MPH is pretty cool.. lol


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## 88basstrack (Aug 13, 2017)

Going back through all the pictures really make me proud, it's something that I've poured my heart and soul into and I can say that I rebuilt a boat that will be putting a smile on someones face for a LONG time. When dad and I would go out fishing in the tracker we'd always see all these flashy brand spanking new basscats, pheonix's and nitro's and he would always say "ahh we can take 'em!!". Well, he has always wanted one of those new flashy go fast boat but could never afford it, so instead of a brand new one, we settled for a 1997 Gambler and needless to say he is ecstatic about it. He works hard for everything he has and I'm glad that he finally has something he can be proud of and something that he has always wanted! The first time we took out the new boat, you would never guess how many people just stared and gave us thumbs up as we idled past the dock, he had a smile on the entire time! He has had the tracker since 1988 and its time for bigger and better things. But anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the ride and maybe another tin boat may be in the future! 

Brandon


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## Fire1386 (Aug 13, 2017)

Nice looking boat....


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## Bearclaw (Aug 27, 2017)

Very nice rebuild, thanks for posting the pictures. I've got a pro deep v 17 I'm working on, I will post up my pictures as I get a bit farther along. It looks to be about the same hull as yours,the gunnels are not solid like yours, I wish the were.


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## Dennis8269 (Aug 30, 2017)

I go back through these pics from time to time for motivation . I bought a 98 Tracker v17 in Dec of this year while out on medical leave. In January while using a walker I was able to tear it apart. Then I starred at it because I couldnt do much more in my condition. I was released in March from medical and pulled the motor and finished taking it down to nothing. Now we have had the hottest days in a row in history so I dont get to work on it much. These pictures and the story keep me motivated to continue . Thanks


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## 88basstrack (Oct 8, 2017)

Dennis8269 said:


> I go back through these pics from time to time for motivation . I bought a 98 Tracker v17 in Dec of this year while out on medical leave. In January while using a walker I was able to tear it apart. Then I starred at it because I couldnt do much more in my condition. I was released in March from medical and pulled the motor and finished taking it down to nothing. Now we have had the hottest days in a row in history so I dont get to work on it much. These pictures and the story keep me motivated to continue . Thanks



I know the feeling, sometimes it takes that push! I'm hoping my rebuild will really push you, because it's a really good feeling knowing it was your hands that built it.

Brandon


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## Nikoba14 (Sep 9, 2018)

88basstrack said:


> So this is my first time posting on this forum, I've been lurking since starting this project about 10 months or so ago. Let me start out by saying a couple things about myself and my old man, who helped a ton. I am 22 years old and I am working on a computer science bachelors degree at FAU part time while working with my dad on marine air conditioning (odd i know,computer science and an extremely labor intensive job, but I love working with my hands and working on computers). My old man is super cool and has some really awesome stories about life. He has his own marine air conditioning business that he started in 2001, he's a one man butt kicker if you will, especially doing this stuff for 30+ years lol. The overall goal of this project was to scarp out ALL of the broken Air conditioning equipment that we've accumulated on the side of the house over the years to pay for the restoration of the boat. As you can tell we barely even dented it hahaha. Back to the marine air conditioning because thats the key to this, we have a few perks in the marine industry, such as cheaper parts and some really nice friends with connections :lol: .
> 
> This is where I started at
> 
> ...


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## onthewater102 (Sep 10, 2018)

88basstrack said:


> ... for now the front deck the size of a aircraft carrier and going 70 MPH is pretty cool...




Have to ask - has it gotten old in a year yet?

Only downside I see to a rig that big is operating cost and access as you're limited to only the most well established boat launches.


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## 88basstrack (Jan 12, 2019)

onthewater102 said:


> 88basstrack said:
> 
> 
> > ... for now the front deck the size of a aircraft carrier and going 70 MPH is pretty cool...
> ...



It definitely hasn't gotten old, but a lot has changed in the past year, I got a job 2.5 hours away from family and dad got really sick for a month or so. But every time I come down to visit we always try and go out fishing, I'd say we burn around 20 dollars tops going out. That's when we are really going somewhere though, most of the time we just cruise to our fishing spots. I think the most important thing about this boat is that it gives him something to do and look forward to since he doesn't work as much as he used to. The boat launches aren't as important to us, we have Everglades Holiday Park just down the street and that will get us anywhere we want to go. So the boat launches might be a bigger deal somewhere else in the country.

Since I am on my own, I wish we didn't sell the tracker, I would have bought it from pop instead. It was a great boat that was done right.

Cheers, Brandon


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