# 2011 Base Weldbilt 1760 build



## OverMyHead (Nov 7, 2011)

Hello all, 
I am new at posting on forums; however I am a pro at reading them. I thought I would give it a try and hopefully you can learn from my mistakes. A little about me.. I was a manager of a call center for 10 years and got tired of lying to everyone and chose to leave for a more honest profession, so now I am a 34 yr old student. My lady is a nurse and I have two boys who are 10 and 12. 
I currently have a 1992 Tracker 17 with a 70 Evinrude. It has been a good boat, but I guess it was full grown when I bought it and it didn’t grow with the rest of us. The kids are growing taller, I am growing wider, and the Girl is getting smaller. So we are moving on to something a little more suited for our growing needs.
To answer the growth problem Dawn and I talked about a pontoon, but I like to hunt and fish in places that a pontoon may never return from. So a flat bottom was the only answer, now to find one big enough. After several weeks of searching and phone calls we chose to go with a Weldbilt 1760. I went through all of the craigslist, boat trader, boat forums, ebay… that I could stand and came to the realization that people in this world truly have no idea what “wide and deep” mean. I hated the idea of paying for a new boat but I couldn’t find one that fit what I was looking for used.
Weldbilt 1760
17’ long, 60” floor, 89” beam, 28” sides, 0.10 aluminum. All Welded.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 7, 2011)

The photo above is a base boat a little different than mine, I could bring myself to pay for the additions or they would get in the way of what I wanted to do. So we just went for the extra transom brace, splashwell, and had a bench seat added 1' from the front triangle. When I am finished it will have a 30” front deck, floors with floatation under them, a small rear deck, center console, several storage containers, and 4 seat pedestals in the floor and 3 or 4 on the decks. So with big ideas and a little savings we went to the boat dealership and started haggling the price, put down the down payment, and now I am in week 2 of the 4 to 5 weeks it will take to build. 
Feeling kinda proud of myself I got home and started really planning what I was going to do with the boat and first things first, I need a trailer that I can go pick it up with….
$1,500 - $2,000 for a new one is out of the question. So after digging through craigslist for a couple days I came across one that would almost fit what I was looking for and it was cheap. $250 for an older v bottom boat trailer with trailer brakes (not working) and some of the stuff I will need for the new boat. All of the others I found were $500+ so I jumped on it and brought it home.


With a few mods it will be a nice trailer, and it will require a paint job, it is one ugly trailer. 
First thing is to extend the tongue, I can get the boat on there but I wanted a few extra feet to add or take away if I wanted. I also want a step from the wheel wells to the rear of the trailer, jumping off of the boat after trailering is getting rough on this fat guy. I also wanted the mounts for the boards to be welded rather than bolt on’s; I have seen too many slip and bend. So off to the scrap yard I go. They had a perfect length 3x4 tube to extend the tongue with and some 3x3 angle iron to brace and joint it with. There was enough angle iron to build the braces for the step off the back, and I found some sheet steel ~ 1/8” thick for the step and to cut and shape for holding the boards. The rear of the trailer had two odd angles that did not go all the way across the back of the trailer, so I cut them off and found some C cannel to replace them with. The angles I cut off are pictured in the back of my truck in case you know why you can educate me. So roughly 200 lbs of scrap steel for approx $40, a borrowed cutting torch and away I go.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 7, 2011)

A friend of the family is supposed to do the welding for me tomorrow; I am supposed to pay for welding rods and electricity. I hope it works out, cause I haven’t welded since high school, and we didn’t have a mig welder to practice on and that’s what I have available to rent. If you see anything that I am missing, need to change, add, or any ideas let me know.

This is just a picture of the sheet metal.


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## Brine (Nov 7, 2011)

Welcome to the site, and congrats on your new rig. 

I like watching a good trailer makeover, and it looks like I'm about to see one.


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## vahunter (Nov 10, 2011)

Look forward to see your weldbilt in action! I bought a 'custom' 1548V weldbilt in june 2011 and love it! Congrats!


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## OverMyHead (Nov 13, 2011)

Alright, the friend of the family put me off till Friday, but ultimately came through… Overall I was happy with the job he did for the price. There are a couple places where it did not end up as straight as I would have liked it, but in the end I got 4 hours of welding for $50. A good carpenter is only as good as his trim-man; I guess metal work will be the same way for me. LOL
Sorry the pictures are at night, just got the camera charged.
Keep in mind that all the materials are from the scrap yard, and all the steel cost me $45-$50.
I got 3/16 angle iron and 11g steel plates added before and after the wheel to serve as steps into an out of the boat 9 inches wide.




I found a square tube that was the same size as the original material and the exact length I wanted to add to the tongue. It was a brand new drop from something, it stil had the light oil coating like it just came from the plant. Whomever scrapped it even cut it on a perfect angle for me. I used 3/16 angle @ 18" on the top on bottom as the bracing. I couldnt find a sleeve material, new or used that would fit the way I wanted. The triangle that its sitting on was cut from the 11g sheet, and the smaller triangle holding the safty cable on was cut and ground down from the 3/16 angle.


The rear bumber was a scrap piece of c-channel. The two pegs on each side with the holes for the straps I made with the grinder and cutting torch from a piece of 3/16 angle.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 13, 2011)

I forgot to mention that he also welded on the new hitch and axle cradle. I have never seen a trailer built this way, or maybe I haven't paid enough attention. The axle and springs are attached to angle iron that the frame of the trailer sits on, it is then bolted and welded. I needed to move the axle back about 16" to handle the weight difference between the flat bottom that going on it and the v bottom it was built for. The old welds holding on the cradle I was able to break with a hammer and screwdriver, bad deal. I cant break them now.... The trailer has drum brakes and did have a swinging hanger hitch with a master cylender on it, I decided not to spend the time and money on fixing up the brakes for this light of a boat, it would have been cool to have the brakes, but not worth the cost and hassle. 

I was always told to be careful when making deals with the devil, the price is always higher than what you get. I just figured out that my kids are the devil. lol They are 10 and 12 and they are "helping" me with the trailer and in return I told them they can choose the colors. So we are going to get alternating floresent orange and black. We have named it Bumble Bee. I took the old winch stand and really put some effort in to cleaning it up and getting it to look good. It had 4 coats of paint, most of which were painted over rust and bugs and whatever else was there when they came with the paint. I ended up stripping it to the metal and starting over. If you look inside the winch where the cable goes you will have a good idea what the entire thing looked like only with black paint. I broke it down completely and sanded, wirebrush, grinded, torched, and burned everything in order to clean it up. The winch was originally built for a cable, but I added in a bolt and had him weld the nut into the other side to accomidate a strap. I spent the day on it and the winch stand.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 13, 2011)

Excuse the heater core in the above pictures, it was a replacement for my S10. Just FYI, I built the engine and transmission in that truck from the ground up, relaced almost every piece in the steering and almost ever part under the hood, but nothing compaired to replacing the stupid heater core. You have to take the entire dash out to get to the [email protected]#$%^ thing. Now my dash speakers are not working......

Back to something I enjoy... The winch stand was originally buit for a v bottom, so the part where the front of the boat was suppsed to bump the stand was wrong and the direction of the strap was all wrong, on a flat bottom it is supposed to pull the boat up to the bunk and on that v bottom it pulled it down. I cut the end of the old stand off and useing two of the swinging brackets from the old hitch I had him weld them on at an angle. They will now fit a 5" bunk and I will place a bolt below the bunk so the strap can slide over the bolt and pull the boat up. I will go tomorrow and get the new bolts to put everything together and get some pics on.



I also got in some goodies over the last couple days. I went to the local boat dealerships and shops trying to find some bunk mounts, but they wanted $20-$25 per mount, and I am wanting 18 of them. Not Happening. I ended up building some out of the sheet metal to be welded on. Then, I was cruising through ebay and I found some for $4 each, I got them in today.



I also got in my center console. I originally wanted one made of fiberglass, but they are stupid expensive. $200 for a small used one. So again I was cruising Ebay when i came across a center console for a pontoon, it is decorative and covered in vinyl, but surely I can mess that up with some Krylon Camo Paint. It was 100 bucks with a small tear on the back. So we now have a console, boat still isnt in mind you, but I can now sit in my living room and pretend......


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## fool4fish1226 (Nov 14, 2011)

Keep up the good work you should have a real nice rig when you are done.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 18, 2011)

So now I dislike the previous owners of this trailer. It seems that everyone who owned it before me hated the color as much as I did. 5 layers of paint plus the original primer. The pain layer on this beast was at least 1/8 to 1/4” thick. I started with the Aircraft Paint Remover, it worked great on the top layer, however with four more layers to go I was going to go broke just getting the paint off. 


I tried the wire wheel on a drill and hand held grinder. After two hours, numb hands, and a sore back I had gotten four feet down to metal… Finally, I adopted my favorite method. 10-12 Torch. It is a simple method, Take your cutting torch and with the O2 Bar pushed it burns the paint down to the metal in a flash, keep it moving. Find yourself a 10 and 12 year old, in my case my two boys, and arm them with a small 4x4 sander and a wire brush. After a bit of complaining and fussing you will be down to the dull grey color you are looking for. A good spray of windex and a couple rags to wipe it down and you are ready to paint. Just took a few minutes to update u folks and give my hands a break before finishing up the sanding and priming.


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## jasper60103 (Nov 18, 2011)

OverMyHead said:


> ...
> I found a square tube that was the same size as the original material and the exact length I wanted to add to the tongue. It was a brand new drop from something, it stil had the light oil coating like it just came from the plant. Whomever scrapped it even cut it on a perfect angle for me. I used 3/16 angle @ 18" on the top on bottom as the bracing. I couldnt find a sleeve material, new or used that would fit the way I wanted. The triangle that its sitting on was cut from the 11g sheet, and the smaller triangle holding the safty cable on was cut and ground down from the 3/16 angle.
> 
> ...



Good work. I'm learning a lot from your thread, but I'm a little confused how you attached your tongue extension. Did you weld it on? You said you couldn't weld, but it looks pretty good.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 18, 2011)

A friend of the family did all the welding for me. He charged me $50, to cover rods and electricity.. I welded quite a bit in high school and for a year or so after that. I learned enough to cover the basics and how to fix my mistakes. I have only used a mig welder once for a total of five minutes. 

First was to line it up and get it strait, after a couple tacks, checking, and rechecking he welded a butt joint, we ground the crown off and then welded the two pieces of angle iron on for bracing and support. The angles are 3x3 and 18 inches long.


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## jasper60103 (Nov 18, 2011)

OverMyHead said:


> A friend of the family did all the welding for me. He charged me $50, to cover rods and electricity.. I welded quite a bit in high school and for a year or so after that. I learned enough to cover the basics and how to fix my mistakes. I have only used a mig welder once for a total of five minutes.
> 
> First was to line it up and get it strait, after a couple tacks, checking, and rechecking he welded a butt joint, we ground the crown off and then welded the two pieces of angle iron on for bracing and support. The angles are 3x3 and 18 inches long.



Great deal. Nice to have good friends. That looks nice and strong too. My trailer is in decent shape, but a little too short. I would like to extend it if can be done for a reasonable price. Else, I'd probably buy a longer one and sell the one I have. Thanks for sharing.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 18, 2011)

Its done, sorta... I still have to pull the wheels and get the springs and mounts primed and hit up a few of the spots that didnt get a great cover. A little sanding, spot painting, and cleaning and we will be ready for the first coat of color paint.


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## TNtroller (Nov 19, 2011)

nice build, seems like you're having way too much fun doing something like this. Enjoy.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 23, 2011)

This hasnt been a great week for a diy'er, too windy, too rainy, too cold, too ... The weather has been playing with me, the weather channel said it will rain between 12 and 4, instead it rains 9-12 and 5-7. When its not raining the temp is back and forth 70 - 50 and not to mention the humitiy being all over the place. I gave up on trying to paint and pulled out the carpet that I got from Lowes and started wrapping my 2x4's to get the bunks ready. Now my [email protected]#$%! stapler blew a gasket and they dont make the part anymore and my regulator guage is out. So I am quitting for today and tomorrow will be looking for parts to get back on track to acutally finish this thing. I still think I can finish before my boat comes in so I can acutally pick it up.


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## hotshotinn (Nov 23, 2011)

How soon befor you post a picture of the boat?I like the looks of weldbilt boats and would like to see picture ofit


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## OverMyHead (Nov 24, 2011)

Well, thats a good question. I was told it would be between 4-6 weeks and I think today is the last day of the sixth week. I will call them tomorrow and see if I can get an answer. I will keep you posted.

A trip to Lowes and a discounted display stapler and a guage and I am back in business. All of the bunks are finished and ready to be drilled and mounted. 
Lessons Learned
1: you need lots and lots and lots of staples, if the carpet ever needs to be replaced I am going to have to get a new piece of lumber cause I am not about to pull all those staples. 
2: No matter how careful you are, you cut will not be perfectly straight. Give at least an 1/8 inch play room.
3: If you can use a LONG table to help keep everything straight and even.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 24, 2011)

ITS PAINTED, mostly, just touch up left. There are lots of flaws but at this point I am calling them character. lol. There is a bit of overspray and places where the tape decided to stay and a spot I just decided not to tape off, I guess. 

Lessons learned.
1: Paint in a covered area, if masking take gets wet the glue turns to cement and does not want to break free from the spot its supposed to cover.
2: The weather channel lies.
3: Use the right color primer for the job, especially with fluorescent paint. It needs a white primer.
4: Light Coats, and lots of them, especially with fluorescent paint. If you get too heavy or too close it will leave a darker color that you cant blend out.
5: The weather channel lies and lies and lies.
6: Spray on Truck Bed liner sprays 1000 gallons per sec so be ready. It sprays a wide area and it sprays a lot at a time. 
7: No matter how well you think you have it taped off and covered, you missed a spot and the paint will find it.
8: Dont ever tell your kids they can pick the colors.

I actually enjoyed painting the trailer, just enough fustration to keep it interesting. I dont think I will have a problem finding my trailer at the landing parking lot nor will I get hit by another car that "just didnt see me." LOL


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## jasper60103 (Nov 24, 2011)

OverMyHead said:


> ITS PAINTED, mostly, just touch up left. There are lots of flaws but at this point I am calling them character. lol. There is a bit of overspray and places where the tape decided to stay and a spot I just decided not to tape off, I guess.
> 
> Lessons learned.
> 1: Paint in a covered area, if masking take gets wet the glue turns to cement and does not want to break free from the spot its supposed to cover.
> ...



Nice job. Most of the flaws are probably only noticeable by you. =D>


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## vahunter (Nov 25, 2011)

I had the same problem with the 4-6 week delivery. It turned into 8 weeks. Probably the longest 2 months of my life  You can't exactly rush those rednecks (don't worry I are one too) at Weldbilt. But it was worth the wait. Very few complaints. Trailer looks awesome though and I will be watching the build.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 25, 2011)

I am now officially done with as much as I can do till I get the boat in. I am holding off on buying a jack for the trailer till I can decide whether I need one that will rotate to give more ground clearance. I have had them before and they have always felt flimsy. Have you folks used a certain brand that you liked better than others? I called the boat dealership today and got a voicemail like they were closed, seems odd they would be closed on black friday, but then again I know little about marketing in the boat world.

I got all of the bunks mounted. It was pretty straight forward, since I laid the concrete in my driveway I know it is not level enough to use to measure the hight of the bunks, so I used two 2x3's and some old scrap plywood stacked on the braces on the trailer to get my bunks level with the trailer. Put on the u-bolts I made from all-thread, measure from the edge of the trailer, accidently bump it, measure again, and so on. I was rather proud of myself, I drilled the holes in the bunks straight from one side to the other, free hand. This is an accomplishment for me especially since I had to repeat the process 14 times. There are still 4 mounts that I have to build for the rear of the boat, but I dont want to attach them till I have the boat in case I need to adjust side to side a little. I still have to mount the side bunks (guide bunks?). They are eight feet long as well. I went to lowes and looked at the angle iron to mount them and they are very proud of their iron. So, another trip to the scrap yard is in my near future.

If you look in the pictures you can see what I was talking about on getting to thick of a coat of the fluorescent paint. It shows up really well in the dark. I will leave it as is for now and call it character, I may just cover it with glossy black like the rest of the trailer later on, right now I am still getting a kick out of it.


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## OverMyHead (Nov 25, 2011)

So far the hardest part was getting the stupid wires to go down the neck of the trailer, It was 4+ feet then I added a little more than 4', but the hard part was getting the wires past a LARGE wasp nest in the middle of the neck. I almost gave up and ran the wires outside the neck when I remembered I had some bailing wire; a little electrical tape and a lot of patients and I finially got it in.


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## OverMyHead (Dec 14, 2011)

It's in. Finially... 4-6 weeks turned into 8-10 weeks, then the 12th turned into the 14th and now I have it home. I have some pics I will post for you. I got a call a week or so ago from the guy at WeldBilt wanting to double check my design request. I had asked them to place the "center" seat one foot from the seat in the front. He called me before they welded it in to find out what I was looking for. My idea was to put a deck across the front of it and to build a frame to even out the gap between the front and center seat. They went ahead and raised the seat even with the front. It is going to save me a lot of trouble in the end. I really appreciate them taking the time to find out what I was planning and adjusting their build to fit what I wanted without trying to throw in some more dollars. I am really happy with what I brought home. And No, the boat is not pulling the truck... LOL


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## hotshotinn (Dec 14, 2011)

Looks like those Weldbilts are some heavy duty boats =D> IF i lived closeer to them I would be buying one.You going to add to the front end of it so there is a bigger casting deck?


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## OverMyHead (Dec 14, 2011)

The casting deck is going to be a total of 30" + the triangle in the front. Most of the time we fish down in the hole so it is going to be wide open.


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## OverMyHead (Dec 25, 2011)

The old Bass Tracker is no more, or should I say it is now a lot less.


It is now in pieces, ready to be a floor, steps, braces, and storage.


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## flatboat (Dec 25, 2011)

nice boat .like weldbuilt


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## lowblazah (Dec 27, 2011)

that trailer makes me chuckle...the colors that is...you did a great job on it otherwise.


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## 2007NNBS (Dec 28, 2011)

WOW that boat is a beast! Going To be a great build


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## vahunter (Jan 3, 2012)

Updates???  what's the deal the bar and plate running width ways on the transom?


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## hsiftac (Jan 3, 2012)

Looks like a splashwell


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## OverMyHead (Jan 19, 2012)

Sorry it has taken so long for me to get back to this. To answer the question first, yes it is a splashwell. 

I originally had cut the old boat up to use as a floor, after getting it cut out and laying it in, it didnt lay as flat as I had hoped. Too many stumps had graced the bottem of the old tracker to get a good flat surface. So I ended up getting some pieces cut and bent. It was hell trying to find someone locally who sells sheet aluminum at a price that is anywhere near reasonable. I finally went with Holiday Sheet Metal in Tyler, TX. I can get the sheets 4x10 sheets in Dallas for $150 per sheet. Holiday charged me $225 + tax for the sheet, cut to size, and one sheet bent @ a 90*. After gas, time, and hassel I think it worked out well.






I am still using the old braces from the Tracker for bracing and mounting angles. Some of them are shaped like a u with wings and they work well for mounting. I cut some of the U shaped pieces in half to give me 90* for bracing as well.








My 10 year old drilled and rivited the bracing along the rear bench and only got off by about 1/8" on one of the bars. Not bad, I think. I did about as well as he did on the one on the front bench. LOL
After getting the base bracing up now I am going to have to go to somewhere and get some c channel for bracing through the center. The longest pieces I have are 22.5". But this is what it is going to look like when finished, sorta. It will have storage for batteries and such and seat pedistals in it as well.. I still have to do the cutouts for the ribs. I haven't gotten those pieces yet.


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## OverMyHead (Jan 19, 2012)

lowblazah said:


> that trailer makes me chuckle...the colors that is...you did a great job on it otherwise.



LOL you have no idea, I have had like 4 people stop while I am working on this thing to talk about the color of the trailer. Appearntly I am entertainment for the block and people are keeping track of my progress for me. I had some people stop by and check to see if I was ok after I didnt work on it for a couple days. Gotta love small towns. I think some of my neighbors are just as eager to see it finished as I am. They will have to wait though. I can only do so much before my hands quit on me. Neurologist suck, they order tests like EMG, which means "come on in and lets shock you with a cattle prod and stick 5-6" needles into every muscle you have and make you flex." My favorite was the MRI of my neck and spine, lets place you on table that isnt wide enough to support your shoulders and cram your head into a device built for a child, lock your chin into place with a metal and plastic bracket, cram you into a space about as big as you would have trying to squeeze under your car without a jack. Now sit there for half an hour while we play the drums. The only part that was bad was that I had to hold my arms and shoulders up without support and keep still for 30 minutes.. you try it. Bad deal.

But I digress.

Did I mention that I did get the motor on. I wasnt about to pay a couple hundred bucks for a template and guide for drilling the holes through the transom. I built one out of plywood and 2x3's. It worked great, no funny holes, straight and true.


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## OverMyHead (Mar 6, 2012)

I am sorry it is going to slow, but since the surgery I can feel my fingertips again, interesting feeling. Lol. After I get these stiches out I will have another surgery on my right hand and have a couple weeks of recovery and maybe I can get this beast wet before I run out of springtime.
All this free time has given me a chance to order a lot of the smaller parts I will be adding and I figured I would let you in on my goodies. 

The boat will be wired and plumed from scratch so I got most of the stuff I think I will need. 100’ of 14/2 for the lights and the majority of the electrical items, 17’ 4awg for power distribution, and 10’ 14/3 for the bilge. 50 or so crimp connectors of various types, and heat shrink. All of the wire and connectors are tinned for marine use. I got it all from Greg’s marine wire supply on Ebay, they had the best prices and shipping I could find. 



I went to Academy and found a switch panel I liked, but it was missing the labels. They had it marked down from $89 to $40 since it was missing the labels. BEP Marine Contour Generation 2, with 6 switches. I went ahead and picked it up not knowing that the labels would be almost impossible to find. The only place I could find them was a marine shop in Australia, so I went ahead and ordered the labels and another panel with 4 switches to finish off my switch needs. I still came out ahead since the additional shipping was only $14 to ship overseas. I got the 10 fuse block and ground bus from o'reilly auto parts. I looked at several different brands and types of live well timers and couldn’t find one that worked the way I wanted it to. I ended up running across a company called Eng-Genius Technologies INC. that made what I was looking for. They have adjustable on/off timing, run time between charging timer, and a low battery shut off. After reading about the company and products I liked what I saw and got two of them for my two live well and bait wells @ $45 each. 



I had the 1992 version of the cable rotary steering. After looking at my setup and the work, drilling, bending that I would have to do to get the old cable through the floor and to the motor I decided to go with hydraulic steering. Bendable hoses and 45-90* connectors make for a much cleaner install and I don’t have to drill as many holes in the bracing of the boat. Again after several hours of searching the best deal I could find was on Ebay for a full setup by Bay Star. $485 and it comes with everthing to install, including the oil. 



I want to be able to light the inside of the boat at night without having to carry a bunch of laterns and flashlights so I chose to install 10 – 9 light led strips along the walls of the boat. They are just over 6” long and 1” wide. I think they will do the job nicely. I looked online and in stores, they were all basically the same price. Academy had them for .50 cheaper than I could find anywhere else. So… saved $5 in all. $14.25 each light.


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## OverMyHead (Mar 6, 2012)

This is the console and how its comming along. I havent screwed the switch panels into place yet and they are a little crooked.


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