# Another Tracker rebuild! ‘88 Bass Tracker



## Turd Ferguson (Apr 2, 2019)

Hey All, 
Long time lurker and first time poster. Okay so to make a long story short, I purchased this 1988 Bass Tracker three years ago. Previous owner didn’t know the model, but from what I’ve researched I guess it to be a Pro V 16. Any help figuring that out would be appreciated. The boat came powered with a Mercury Classic 50, which I’ve found to be a reliable little motor at 45 HP. However, even after a re-prop, the boat maxed at 23 MPH which I was a little upset about. 

I removed the motor last April to mount a 9.9 to fish some local tournaments (many lakes here in NJ are restricted to a 9.9 HP limit). In doing so I noticed that the transom was completely rotted out. So my transom repair turned into a full boat rebuild. It’s almost been a year since I started tearing into it and I haven’t made very much progress. It’s been tough to find the time but I’ve been chipping away at it. 

So the boat has been completely gutted, power washed and now the building is starting. Getting all the old carpet glue off was a nightmare! I’ll post as many pictures as I can of the rebuild. However I didn’t take any before pictures which was very foolish of me! 

I got the new transom in about two months ago. Didn’t take many pictures of the process but I’ll explain it here. The transom was 1.25” thick. I used 3/4 and 1/2 marine plywood, which I epoxied together and then cut to shape after creating a template. I then sanded the new transom piece and applied 3 layers of a penetrating epoxy. I then dry fitted the new transom and marked for holes. I drilled all of the holes out oversized and filled them with a thickened mix of epoxy resin. Once that dried, I fiberglassed both sides of the transom with 17 ounce biaxial fiberglass and an epoxy resin. Once all that was finished up, I set the transom in position and drilled all the holes. All new fastenings were 316 stainless carriage bolts with nylon lock nuts, and coated in 3M 5200 before installation. 

For the tie down Ubolts I added a backing block of 1/4” G10 fiberglass. This should help tremendously to stiffen them up. 






Before fully installing the transom I sanded the skin of the hull that transom sat against. I then gave it an acid wash and coated it with a spray on epoxy. Hopefully that will prevent any corrosion from continuing or occurring.



Also, you can see in the pictures that I added an additional aluminum plate to the transom supports that tie into the hull. They seemed awfully small. I would’ve liked to replace them with beefier angle but I didn’t want to mess around with removing rivets through the hull. 

Unfortunately I didn’t take too many pictures of the transom progress so the pictures leave a lot out. If you have any questions feel free to ask!


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 2, 2019)

Next step was the rear deck. I completely gutted all the old waterlogged foam (probably 100+ pounds of the crap) and began the rebuild. Tracker built these decks as a jigsaw puzzle of pre-bent aluminum pieces. I threw a few pieces out and saved mostly just the ones near the livewell, because I figure I’ll reuse those. I cut the remaining rear deck out with the intention of refabricating it from scratch. 

I replaced the bilge outlet and livewell outlet with 1-1/8” Forespar Madelyn thru-hulls. The original bilge and livewell hose was 3/4” but I decided to step it up a bit. The thru hulls were mounted with neoprene washers and 3M 4200. I ran the bilge hose (the new hose I’m using is Shields 149). I haven’t begun plumbing the livewell yet on account of a few snags.

I plan to use pour in foam in the back section below the rear deck. However, I’ve decided to use a drainage system and waterproofing membrane similar to what house foundations use. I need to form a closed off section to pour the foam into. My current debacle is deciding how to run the bilge hose as well as the vent hose through the pour in foam while still managing to maintain some structural integrity where the rear deck meets the transom. I haven’t yet figured out how to attack this, so the rear deck has been put on hold for the time being. 

My original plan was to use blocks of 2” foam encased in the waterproofing membrane as sort of a pour stop for the foam. When I took the rear deck apart I noticed that the foam ran right up to the transom, which probably had something to do with the transom rotting out. I’d like to avoid that issue. However, this doesn’t allow me to run the bilge hose in a proper manner, as you can probably see from the pictures. It would also mean that I would have to move the vent hose to a location almost in the middle of the rear deck, which is not what I’d like. So, I’ve got some thinking to do. Here’s some pictures of how it looks now. The black pieces that you see is the drainage mat. What you don’t see is the waterproof membrane, which will be added into that void and then the foam will be poured in.










I added a piece of PVC conduit for the electrical work. It will exit right above where the starter battery sits below the rear deck, and the bilge hose will exit the bulkhead right above it. The other end will run to the console where there will be a fuse block.


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## EZ707 (Apr 6, 2019)

This seems like a good one [emoji106]
Can’t wait to see whats next.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 9, 2019)

Got a little bit of work done this weekend. Was able to lay the drainage mat and foam blocks under the main floor, but I’m not happy with how I installed the floor so I’ll be fixing it.

Here’s a picture during the demo after we removed the main floor. There was a mix of pour in foam and styrofoam blocks in between the stringers. After we removed all of the foam I used a Dremel to enlarge the drainage holes in the stringer. 

Take note of the bench seat framing that is there. I removed all of the framing and am going to put pedestal seats in the boat instead. In hindsight there isn’t much room for them, but I think the comfort level will be greatly increased during those long trips trolling for Muskie or walleye.

Oh and please excuse the mongoloid in the picture! 




So I cleaned the voids in between the stringers with a wire cup disc on an electric drill. When I was pretty happy with the result, I cleaned the area with simple green and prepared to lay the drainage mat. I’ll try to get a closeup picture of the drainage mat, it’s pretty cool stuff. 

The idea is that the blocks of foam will lay on the mat, instead of sitting directly on the hull. In theory, water can drain off the main deck or down the gunnels, run through the mat, and then through the holes in the stringers out to the bilge. That’s all in theory, of course.

So for the foam I used regular 2” by 4’ by 8’ sheets of insulation foam. The blue foam sheets I was able to “borrow” from the job site I’m on, and I purchased another sheet from Home Depot. I glued two sheets of the blue foam together, to form a 4” by 2’ by 8’ piece. I did that with four pieces, so I had two larger blocks of foam. The glue I used was a loctite glue designed for foam board, I believe it was called PL3000. 

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of this process but it was pretty straightforward. I decided to cut the blocks square on the keel end. That way when they were laid in the boat they would meet at the top of the stringer, but leave a gap at the bottom of the hull to allow adequate room for water. Tough to describe, but the pictures should help. Note the black sharpie line on the stringer. I used a speed square to make a square line from the center of the drainage hole to the top of the stringer. That was my reference for where the blocks should meet, and where I should pull the height of the block from.




You can see the gap at the bottom of the blocks that cutting them square achieved. The idea is to have an upside down “V” void between the blocks. 

Once all of the blocks were cut, I wrapped them individually with 6 Mil Poly Sheeting. Polyethylene sheeting is supposed to have good resistance to gasoline and oil, and it was very important to me to have this foam isolated from any kind of moisture, especially chemicals. I thoroughly covered the ends of each block using a tape that is specifically designed for bonding Poly Sheeting. It is backed with Polyethylene so it should have good chemical resistance as well. Here’s a picture of the tape I used.




Here’s a shot of the drainage mats installed and us placing the blocks into place.







And a final picture of all the blocks in place.




Here’s two pictures of where the blocks meet the gunnel. The drainage mat has a felt backing, tough to see in the pictures but that felt backing was folded over the ends of the mat so that no foreign objects could get trapped in the mat and cause potential clogs. Who knows what could find its way down the floor and into the hull area.

Driver side:




Passenger side (The floor ends at the rod locker):



And lastly here is a picture of the floor installed. Note the awful 1/2” gap on the rod locker side. That will not fly with me. I used the original rivet holes that the master craftsmen at Tracker drilled, but clearly that floor is way out of square. So I’ll be ripping up the floor, closing that gap and re-attaching the floor.




The stern facing end of the floor sheet was cut so that it will fall half-and-half on a stringer, much like the process of sheathing a residential floor. From there there will be another piece of 3/16 aluminum extending to the bulkhead of the rear deck, lengthening the main floor area. This is where the pedestal seats will be. A lot of work to come to get this floor finished....

I didn’t bother adding any foam between the last two stringers, you can see they are open in the picture. My reasoning for this is two fold. One, there wasn’t any foam there originally. And second, between adding two pedestal seat bases and two deck drains, it wasn’t worth the trouble of fitting foam into those areas.


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## rcaircraftnut (Apr 9, 2019)

Looks good so far. Mine is at the welders getting a few cracks in the keel welded and the splashwell welded back in completing my transom replacement. I used aluminum solid rivets on mine. However I had to buy a compressor and air hammer to install em with lol. Keep at it. It will be back on the water before you know it.


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 9, 2019)

I was also able to make a template for the rear floor section. Don’t have pictures of it, and I’ll need to adjust it anyway after I move the main floor.

I’m using 1/2” 6061 Aluminum backing plates underneath the floor for the pedestal bases to mount to. I ordered a 10” by 24” piece of this plate from McMaster. I cut it in half lengthwise, leaving me two pieces 10” by 12”. The stringers are 12” on center, with a little more than a 10” gap in between. So these plates will fit nicely between stringers. 

I started by marking the exact center of the plates and drilling the required 3-3/4” hole for the flush mount bases. This was a slightly sketchy process with a battery drill but I’ve done worse! Once that hole was drilled, I test fit the pedestal base and marked for the mounting holes. 

I’m tapping these mounting holes to accept 5/16-18 Pan Head bolts. They’re 316 Stainless and should add a nice finished look. Plus, they’ll be easily removable, which is a big plus when it comes time to add carpet or vinyl to the boat. Also in case if the pedestal bases need to be replaced.

These 1/2” plates will be riveted to the underside of the main floor so they will be permanently affixed. (Semi-permanently)

Here’s the plate in the vice as I was marking centerlines 



Base installed in the plate and marking mounting holes



Tapping the mounting holes. 5/16-18 requires a 17/64th pilot hole. Tap Magic and some quality tools made this process go very quickly. I acquired many of these old Morse USA made taps from an uncle a few years ago and I’ll never be giving them away!! I’ve never tapped aluminum before but I’m surprised just how well the process went and the results I achieved.




I was able to get one plate fully finished before I had to call it quits. The other should go prettt quick, and then I’ll be able to install the remaining floor piece and test fit for pedestal sizing and console mounting. Super excited for that part!!




Man, it takes a long time to write these novels from my phone. Big props to you guys that do this all the time!


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 9, 2019)

EZ707 said:


> This seems like a good one [emoji106]
> Can’t wait to see whats next.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Thank you sir, hopefully it is a good one! And I’m excited to see what’s next, I don’t have the slightest clue


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 9, 2019)

rcaircraftnut said:


> Looks good so far. Mine is at the welders getting a few cracks in the keel welded and the splashwell welded back in completing my transom replacement. I used aluminum solid rivets on mine. However I had to buy a compressor and air hammer to install em with lol. Keep at it. It will be back on the water before you know it.



Thanks! I had a local welder fix some minor cracks in my splashwell before I installed the transom. Seems like that’s common with these boats. I thought about going to solid rivet way to replace a few transom brackets, but didn’t feel like purchasing the tools lol. Think I’ll give it a shot with carriage bolts, hopefully it works out. I hope it’s back on the water soon but it’s tough to look on the bright side with all the work I’ve got ahead of me....one step at a time!


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## rcaircraftnut (Apr 13, 2019)

Crack was in the keel at the bow due to some busted rivets that I will be replacing in the morning since its rain all day today. Had to have my splashwell welded in on the sides as it was welded from factory. Had to cut the welds to get to the transom.


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 13, 2019)

rcaircraftnut said:


> Crack was in the keel at the bow due to some busted rivets that I will be replacing in the morning since its rain all day today. Had to have my splashwell welded in on the sides as it was welded from factory. Had to cut the welds to get to the transom.



Ah, I see. I’m glad my boat wasn’t welded anywhere. I had some minor cracks in the splash well but that was pretty much it. I’ll be following your build for sure!


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## tloc1000 (Apr 13, 2019)

I'm fixing to do the same with mine. I would like more info on the drainage mats.


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 14, 2019)

tloc1000 said:


> I'm fixing to do the same with mine. I would like more info on the drainage mats.



If I get the chance today I’ll snap some close up pictures of it. The product that I am using is called Hydroduct. I grabbed a bunch of it, as well as the waterproofing membrane, from the job site I’m on after the foundation company left. It typically is called “dimpled drainage mat” so if you Google that you should find plenty of options. I’ll found out what I can about the stuff!


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 15, 2019)

Here’s a few pictures of the drainage mat I used. It’s made by a engineering company, can’t recall the name, but the product is called Hydroduct. There are many similar variations. Basically it’s a dimpled plastic sheet, felt lined on one side with a thin plastic sheet on the opposing side. The felt side is designed to prevent particles from entering the drainage channel so it cannot clog. 

I placed the felt side against the hull and the plastic side up. There wasn’t any particular reasoning for this, just seemed like the water would flow best that way. My hopes are that water will only enter that area from either side of the floor, from the gunnel areas. The felt should keep any random particles and dirt from entering the drainage channel.

Here’s a crossection view of it. You can see the little cone shaped dimples and the felt lining on the bottom. 



One edge of the mat has a tag section of felt. I used this to wrap the leading edge that was placed towards the gunnel. This should act as a barrier so only water can enter the mat.



And here is the topside, you can see the plastic sheeting that is stitched onto the mat. It’s not a great covering, so if there’s a chance of water hitting the top I would recommend adding another layer of plastic.


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 15, 2019)

Didn’t get to do any work this weekend but I spent some money. Got the new fuse block, which I’m pretty hyped about. I just need to figure out a place to mount this thing. I’d like to put it under the console but may not have the room. It’s a Blue Sea 12 circuit with a grounding bar. The wiring in this boat was a total disaster. A mix of random sized and colored wires, none of which matched the wiring diagram for the boat. Many circuits weren’t even fused which drove me nuts. I also purchased two floor drains for the main floor. These will be placed against the bulkhead for the rear deck and behind the pedestal seats. I’ll put one on the drivers side and one on the passenger side, as close to the corners as I get. My only concern is that they are a little thick, 1/8” to be exact, so they’ll be raised above the floor which I’m not too happy about. But, they’ll work. I was debating on a way to flush mount them, or countersink them, but that wouldn’t be worth doing because the floor is only 3/16” thick. We’ll see. 

Lastly I ordered new guages. The old guages looked terrible and since I figured I’m rebuilding the whole boat I may as well go all out. I really like these guages. They’re Sierra Artic gauges. I love the black on white color pattern and the orange flare on the needles. Reminds me of my old school Silverado gauges haha. Style points! :roll: :wink: I also very happy to find a gauge that maxes at 35. With the 45 HP Classic Fifty I only maxed the boat at 23-25. Maybe lightening the load and repropping this year will help me. I’d love to repower it down the line but because I don’t know what the model of the boat is I don’t know what the horsepower limit is...and I haven’t found a USCG sticker anywhere. 

Fuse Block



Floor drains (You may or may not be able to see the thickness based on my terrible picture)





Gauges (Tach, Speedo, Voltmeter)


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## tloc1000 (Apr 15, 2019)

Thanks for the info TF!


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## AnglerRoy (Apr 15, 2019)

Nice! Does the fuse block specify circuit-post size for ring terminals? It seems I can never find the right size! I like the gauges too, any backlight on them and if so, what color?


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## Turd Ferguson (Apr 15, 2019)

AnglerRoy said:


> Nice! Does the fuse block specify circuit-post size for ring terminals? It seems I can never find the right size! I like the gauges too, any backlight on them and if so, what color?



Yes, #8 ring terminals for individual circuits and #10 ring terminals for the positive and negative feeds. At least that’s what I read when I bought it! I’ll find out when I go to wire everything up. I never seem to have the right ring terminals on hand so I ordered a ton of Blue Sea terminals to go with the block. 

And yes, the gauges do have a backlight! I’m not 100% sure on color, but most reviews I’ve read have said the backlight is red. I’m a big fan of that. It may be possible to change the backlight color by changing the bulb though? Not sure on that. If you keep an eye on my build I’ll post pictures when they’re all done! 

Thanks for the interest.


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## AnglerRoy (Apr 15, 2019)

Will do. Thanks!


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## Turd Ferguson (May 5, 2019)

Haven’t had much time to work on the boat, and will probably have less time in the upcoming weeks. Here’s a quick update of the little bit of progress I’ve made. 

I managed to get the extended floor section cut and test fit. I also mounted the pedestal seat bases and their backing plates to this floor section. The backing plates are held to the floor with 4 rivets per plate, so the bases can be removed if necessary and the backing plates will still be in place. I didn’t set the bases permanently, as they’ll need to be removed in order to lay the flooring material. 

I may order the flooring material in the next coming weeks to have the floor finished. I’ll need to mock-up where the console will sit so I can get the mounting holes drilled before the flooring goes in there. Thinking about going with vinyl on the floor and bulkheads and carpet on the deck. Really would’ve liked to cover the decks in Seadek, but the sheet sizes that they are offer are too small to completely cover my decks. I don’t want any seams in the material on the decks so that was a little upsetting to me. Was debating on doing vinyl on the decks with pads of SeaDek to stand on, but I’m not sure how well the Seadek would adhere to the vinyl. Still a long time away from that though. 

The last thing I need to do with this floor is mount the two deck drains. Again, I’ll just need to drill the holes and test fit them, but they won’t be permanently installed until after the flooring is laid. I would’ve had these fitted already but it appears that I lost the hole saw I bought for this purpose. Typical. 

Here’s a shot of the floor temporarily fitted with the seat bases installed.




And the pedestals and seats installed. These seats are pretty older and in bad shape, so I’ll be replacing them later on with high back seats for a little more comfort. They look good though! I’m very pleased with how they came out. The pedestals are 13”, which is a little tall. The seats sit a few inches above the gunnel, which could get a little nerve racking but I’ll have to give them a try before I decide to make any changes.


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## Turd Ferguson (May 5, 2019)

Also managed to get the new gauges and switch panel mounted in the console. There used to be 4 switches, I added a fifth which will come in handy for something. Deck lights, maybe. All of the switches are SPST, except the NAV light switch, which will be a DPDT (still waiting for this switch to arrive).

The panel is a modular system made by Blue Sea Systems. I purchased two end pieces and 3 center pieces. They snap together to make one panel. It was kind of a tight fit, and if you look close you can see that my original layout was off a bit. There’s a few small scratch lines from my intial layout which aren’t a big deal but if you look close they’re noticeable. Whatever, I’m pleased with how it looks. The switches are all Blue Sea Contura III switches. They fit beautifully in the panel and all together it’s a very clean looking system. Glad I went with this route. 

Switches will be probably be as follows:
NAV Lights
Bilge
Livewell
Gauge Lights
Deck Lights (Possibly) 

I also just received another Blue Sea Panel that consists of a 12V Accessory outlet and a dual USB outlet. That’s going to go on the other side of the console from the switches. It’ll be very convenient to have these extra outlets. I’ll post a picture when I can of the new panel.


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## Turd Ferguson (May 5, 2019)

On a side note, doesn’t anyone know why my pictures are posting sideways? This is really bothering me!!


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## schukster (May 5, 2019)

Picture orientation can be caused by the resolution or size of the picture being posted being too large. Try to reduce the resolution or size. There are aps that will do this or most cameras have settings you can change.

Sent from my SM-S727VL using Tapatalk


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## LDUBS (May 7, 2019)

schukster said:


> Picture orientation can be caused by the resolution or size of the picture being posted being too large. Try to reduce the resolution or size. There are aps that will do this or most cameras have settings you can change.
> 
> Sent from my SM-S727VL using Tapatalk



Reducing the size (in pixels) sure worked to solve the sideways pic's for me. I was getting really tired of holding my screen sideways. :LOL2:


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## Turd Ferguson (Jul 1, 2019)

Thanks for the replies fellas. I downloaded an app and tried reducing the size of this batch of pictures. Let’s see if it helped!

So it’s been a little while since I’ve gotten a chance to do some work on the boat. In the meantime I’ve been stocking up my materials. I ordered a new bilge pump, which is a Rule 1,000 GPH model, a new aerator pump, which is a Rule 800 GPH model, multiple different types of epoxies, including some penetrating epoxies for the plywood decks and Gluvit which I will use to seal a bunch of seams and rivets before foaming. Also bought some new pneumatic tools, a die grinder and an air hammer for setting solid rivets. There’s a ton of more stuff, can’t remember exactly off hand, but you’ll see it all come together as it goes into the boat.

This weekend I got a little work done. I hated the original transom-to-hull brackets, they were wimpy little 1/16” aluminum angle brackets and had oxidation and pitting holes all over them. I decided they needed to be replaced. 

Here’s a shot of the old brackets in place. You can see I added an aluminum strip to the hull side to hopefully reinforce it a bit. Totally scratched that whole plan. 




My father works with a few local machine and sheet metal shops and he was able to have these brackets made up for me - for free. I was very grateful for that. They are 5053 aluminum, 1/8” but they are 100 degree angle brackets, not 90 degree. I used an angle finder to check the angle that the hull met the transom, and to my surprise it wasn’t 90 degrees. I expected regular aluminum angle to fit nicely in there, but it was more of an obtuse angle than I expected. They were originally 12” long but I cut them both down to 10” to fit. Had to do a little notching of the corners as well. Here’s a shot of them. 






I drilled the holes for the solid rivets through the hull using the correct size bit, I forget the exact size, but I ordered it through McMaster when I ordered the 1/4” solid rivets. The rivets are 1/2” long. After opening up those holes the layout went smooth, as did drilling all the appropriate holes. 

Here’s a picture of the new bracket installed with the un-set solid rivets in place:




Using the air hammer with a 1/4” solid rivet set and a 4 pound sledge as a bucking bar I set the solid rivets. This was my first time ever doing this, and I thought they came out pretty good! I watched a ton of YouTube videos first, and tuned the air hammer a little bit so it wasn’t hitting as hard or fast as normal. 

Here’s the finish product after the locknuts and washers were torqued down on the transom bolts:



And a shot of the rivet heads from the outside of the boat. Looks good! Before I set the rivets I used a die grinder with a Roloc wheel to remove the paint and clean up the aluminum where the rivet would sit. Not a big deal, I plan on painting the boat down the line. 




And lastly, here’s a broader spectrum shot of where that angle bracket is located. I replaced the bracket on the other side as well, but didn’t take pictures of that.


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## Turd Ferguson (Jul 1, 2019)

I also noticed a small pinhole on the starboard side, looks like it was due to some kind of galvanic corrosion. It pitted all the way through the hull resulting in a nice little hole. Surprised I never noticed it prior. Not sure what the best way to seal this is, thought about JB Weld, some kind of epoxy, possibly brazing it, but in the end I’m probably just going to drill it out and put a solid rivet there. I believe that’s the best option, although it will leave a rivet in a noticeably random spot. But that doesn’t bother me too much. 

Here’s a shot from the outside of the hull:



You may not be able to see it too well from the outside. But, you can see the quarter sized area where the paint lifted and most of the corrosion took place. You’ll get a better look at the actual hole from the inside in this picture: 




See that little blue spot towards the middle? That’s it! You can probably also see some of the other pitting going on.

I combed through most of the boat looking for more spots like this and haven’t found any more - yet. My assumption is the waterlogged foam that was against the hull caused the problem. There’s more pitting along the hull on the inside in this area, but that’s the only pinhole I found. I plan to clean up this area with a sander and seal everything I find with the Gluvit. I’ll do the same for the Port side and then I’ll be close to ready for foam.


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## Turd Ferguson (Nov 4, 2019)

Been a while since I updated this thread. Haven’t gotten to do too much work but I’ve made progress. 

Here’s a few pictures of a rear deck support that I rebuilt on account of the old one rotting away. Two pieces of 1/2” Marine Plywood sandwiched together. Predrilled all the holes and then sealed using Totalboat Penetrating Epoxy. The main hole through the center for the seat post bracket the filled with a thickened epoxy mixture, using the Milled Glass Fibers and the Silica Dust. Let that dry, and then drilled out a new hole for the post base. The idea behind this was that if any water makes its way down the seat post bracket and through that hole, it won’t contact any of the end grain of the plywood. I then did one more epoxy coat and installed the stainless tee nuts for mounting the seat bracket. 

This panel is now installed back in the boat along with the livewell. I don’t have any pictures of how it looks, but will be sure to take some next time. 

In no particular order:


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## Turd Ferguson (Nov 4, 2019)

I also started the vinyl process. My plan is to vinyl the console, the main floor, and all vertical surfaces inside the console area. The front and rear decks will get carpet. The only thing left to do is the floor, and then I can begin assembling these pieces.

The vinyl and glue is a real pain to work with. This was my first time doing something like this, and it really tested my patience. I used Marideck Vinyl in Stone Grey. 34 Mil for all the vertical panels as well as the console, and 80 Mil for the floor. I used Marideck’s MD-102 glue, which is pretty much contact cement. Has a bit of a learning curve, tacks quick, and is very unforgiving. Especially in the cold, we did this in 50 degree temps. Not ideal, but can’t halt progress because of the seasons. 

If anybody has any questions regarding this process, please ask. I am by no means an expert but I will do what I can to help. I’ll also take some closeups of how it looks. Overall I’m extremely pleased with how it looks so far. The color is great and it came out looking very clean for a first timer! 

Here’s a shot encompassing the 4 panels we did. I’ll get some closeups once they floor is done and everything is installed!


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## Turd Ferguson (Nov 19, 2019)

I’ve really been pushing to get some work done in the last week and it will continue like that for the next few weeks. Got laid off of the job I was on, which is what happens in my business when we finish a building. I’ve been looking forward to this much needed time to hunt and work on the boat. 

I’ve made a decent amount of progress. Besides ordering and replacing many new things, I also got one of the rear decks ready for flotation foam. Hopefully I can finish the other before Friday and pour the foam over the weekend. 

I’m pushing hard to have the rear decks done and all the vinyl completed by Thanksgiving. I’d also like to have the fuse block wired, the bilge and aerator wired, motor on and the console all setup. Oh, and of course the throttle control. Which I just replaced with a brand new one. 

I also purchased a Cisco electronics mount for the console fishfinder, which is a Lowrance HDS Carbon 12. This thing is badass and bulletproof, machined out of aluminum. Here’s some pics of that. 






Haven’t mounted it yet because I need to get the console bolted it and the pedestals seats in place in order to get a good fit for where I want it. 

More to come....


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## Turd Ferguson (Nov 19, 2019)

Here’s a few shots of the rear deck that is ready for foam. I’ll try to keep this shorthand. I laid that black drainage mat along all of the vertical surfaces. Along the transom I cut a foam block to fit in there from hull to underside of deck and covered it with a waterproof foundation lining. Then I slapped the drainage mat up against that. 








After all the mat was in place, I started cutting foam blocks for all vertical areas in this bay and also as a bottom. The idea is to form a box out of rigid foam to pour the pour foam in. I used Loctite adhesive designed for foamboard to bond these pieces as well as caulk the gaps. 

The blue pipe is 1-1/4” ENT. It’s a flexible PVC conduit often used in concrete slab work. I picked up a ton of this stuff from the job I was on. The grey is 3/4”. The blue will be carrying 2 #4 gauge wires from the starting battery at the stern to the fuse block mounted under the console. It will also carry 2 duplex 14 gauge wires, one for the bilge and one for aerator pump. The 3/4” will carry a duplex 14 gauge wire through that green cone you see in the pictures which will terminate at the stern light post bracket. 




For the stern light post bracket I used a bulkhead fitting for the ENT and screwed it into the green plastic cone. The cone will allow the light bracket to drop right into it from the deck. 






All of these pipes, as well as the black pipe, which is 1-1/8” bilge hose, will be poured into the foam. 

You can also see the 3” Vinyl duct hose. That’s running from a vent in the bilge compartment and will come out to a scoop on the deck. 

Riveted to the old framing and on top of the foam “lid” are pieces of 1/8” T stock 6061 aluminum. I cut the vertical pieces of foam to the exact height so that the T stock will sit on top, and I can fill in a block of foam between each T bar. This will give additional support to the decking between the T bars. The decking will be .090” 6061 aluminum. I used 3/16” aluminum countersunk rivets, 2 on each end of each T bar to attach them to the old framing. That way I can lay my decking right on top and everything will be nice and flush.




There’s 3 additional 3” holes in the foam “lid” of the box. These are for pouring the foam into. Once the foam is poured, I will add blocks of rigid foam in between the T bars to cover these pour holes. 




I test fitted a block between the T bars to see what it would look like.




I don’t feel like typing out much more so please ask any questions if you’d like!


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## thedude (Nov 19, 2019)

I bet you itching to get that fish finder out in the water!

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk


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## LDUBS (Nov 19, 2019)

Turd Ferguson said:


> I don’t feel like typing out much more so please ask any questions if you’d like!



Maybe not a question but had a thought while reading your progress. If you have extra PVC conduit maybe put it in just in case you need to make any pulls in the future. Might make life a little easier down the road. 

Your work is impressive. That mount for your Lowrance FF is very cool. Just sayin.


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## Turd Ferguson (Nov 19, 2019)

thedude said:


> I bet you itching to get that fish finder out in the water!
> 
> Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk



Oh man, talk about putting lipstick on a pig. That thing cost half of what I bought the boat for :mrgreen: I did have it up and running on my buddies boat and what a game changer compared to the 7 that I have for the bow. It’s like looking at a flatscreen!


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## Turd Ferguson (Nov 19, 2019)

LDUBS said:


> Turd Ferguson said:
> 
> 
> > I don’t feel like typing out much more so please ask any questions if you’d like!
> ...



Thanks! I’m very good at overcomplicating things, driving myself crazy... :shock: 

I’m very impressed with how this mount is built. But I wouldn’t want to consider anything else to hold up a unit that costs as much as that one...

I may add another conduit just in case. It’s definitely a good idea, seeing as I won’t have much room in the 1-1/4 to add anything else. Very helpful suggestion :beer: 

When I bought the boat there were a few wires that ran from the console to the outboard, including the steering cable, throttle and shift cables, and the main power cable from the remote control. Those cables will be ran in the same place, under the gunnel along the back deck. So if I need to, and don’t have room in the conduit, I can bundle some wires along with those.


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## jerseycat9 (Dec 25, 2019)

I'm in the process of rebuilding a Tracker very close to yours so I'm definitely keeping an eye on your thread brother


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## Turd Ferguson (May 27, 2020)

I realize it’s been forever since I’ve updated this thread. I’ve continually been working, and have gotten a lot of progress done in the last 6 months. There is so much to cover, so I’m just going to post a ton of pictures for you guys to enjoy and add small captions along the way.


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## Turd Ferguson (May 27, 2020)

Some vinyl work finished up in the console area.




Another shot. Console and seats mounted.




Front deck extension. I added about 16” of deck room and three hatches. The aft panel I had formed from 5052 sheet by a local sheet metal guy, then covered it in vinyl and installed it. One opening for electronics, which includes the battery charger and Structurescan 3D module for my fishfinders. The middle opening is for tackle and the last is where the cooler will be installed.




A better shot of the hatch openings.




Those brown plates you see are pieces of 1/4” thick Garolite XX. Also known as Bakelite. It has phenomenal electrical insulation capabilities. I mounted them to the bulkhead with Garolite spacers, those green cylinders you see there. The idea is to keep these components away from any and all aluminum, as well as act as heat syncs. 




3D module mounted and a better view of the plates.




Another view.




Prepping for foam work under the bow deck. The grey conduit you see there will cover the positive and negative wires for the trolling motor, underneath the deck, from bulkhead to bulkhead where they’ll exit just underneath that bow cap. I sanded and wire brushed down to bare metal, and then applied Gluvit. I wanted this area as clean as I could possibly get it. There was minimal pitting, but I decided to add Gluvit because it seemed like the right thing to do.




That white mat is a 40 Mil thick foundation waterproofing liner. It has a pressure sensitive adhesive that bonds very well to pour foam. It will keep the foam off the hull, allowing space between the hull and foam for water to run through. 




A shot of the trolling motor breaker, also mounted on a piece of Garolite with Garolite spacers.


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## Turd Ferguson (May 27, 2020)

Another shot of that breaker.




Closeup of the conduit for the trolling motor cables.




Bow subfloor mounted. It’s a plate of 3/16” 6061. I used solid rivets to attach two 24” pieces of 1/8” Tbar to the bottom side of the plate to prevent it from bowing under the weight of the two trolling motor batteries. Don’t have a good pic of those pieces. I then covered that subfloor with a piece of EVA foam, similar to Seadek, just to keep it quiet under there for whatever I may have stowed. I used a piece of 1/8” x 1” x 2” angle and 1/8” flat bar to create a hanger for the bow are of the plate. It’s rock solid and should hold up very well. 




Another view of that area.




A view from the bow.




Mocking up the trolling motor battery positions. 




And another view....




Lining the bow section with waterproofing liner in preparation for the pour foam. The idea was to encapsulate all of the pour foam with the sheeting so no water could access it. 




Pictures are kind of out of order. You can see I placed some more of the black drainage mat along the gunwales to keep the liner off the hull, and also to help and water that drains off the deck to be directed to the bottom of the hull. I also wedged a block of 4” thick foam underneath that bow tie. Added flotation never hurts, right?




Pour #1 down!


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## Turd Ferguson (May 27, 2020)

Added a pack out of 4” foam for the trolling motor pedal tray. 




All the foam poured, stripped, and ready to go! There’s A LOT of foam in there. According to my calculations, something like 350 pounds worth of flotation...




Starting the deck templates. MDF makes great template material for this. Due to the deck extension, I had to make the deck out of 2 sheets of plywood. Couldn’t find a 3/4” x 5’ x 8’ sheet of marine ply nearby, but that would’ve been great. 




Getting my hatches laid out where I want them.




Getting the bow hatches and everything laid out.




Pics are in the wrong order but you get the idea...




A view of the batteries underneath the main bow hatch. 




Final versions of the decks cut and drilled. That’s 3/4” Marine Ply. All holes are drilled oversized, and were filled with thickened epoxy. Then I’ll drill through the thickened epoxy for the correct fastener size.




A shot of the templates from the bow.


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## Turd Ferguson (May 27, 2020)

Used Totalboat Penetrating Epoxy to seal the decks. Two coats on top and bottom. This stuff works great, highly recommend it to anybody that needs to seal some wood for their build. 




Holes filled, and the third and last layer of epoxy. For the last layer, I used Totalboat High Performance Epoxy Resin. Thicker than the penetrating resin, but it hardens into a flexible and super strong topcoat. You can see the glassy look in them! 




Trolling motor and decks mounted! I also installed the seat base, trolling motor pedal tray, and the front hatch so I could do some fishing. The seat base will be removed before carpet, but the rest will be carpeted over. 




Another view of the decks. 




The vinyl on the console floor was starting to lift a little bit along the edges, so I trimmed out each edge with 1/16” x 1” x 1” aluminum angle. 




Another trim shot. 




And another....




Console area all trimmed out with the seats in place. 




I decided to fill around the cooler with pour foam. I didn’t take any pictures of the process unfortunately, but it was pretty simple. I added a connector on the floor below the cooler, so the drain hose from the cooler could slip right in and feed to the bottom of the hull. I lined the outside of the cooler with polyethylene sheet, and make a key way for the drain hose to be routed in. Dumped in a bunch of pour foam, then dropped in the cooler, and sat on it for 10 minutes while the foam set up. It isn’t perfect even coverage along the port and starboard sides, but that foam is gonna insulate the cooler very well. Shouldn’t have a problem keeping ice for a long fishing trip on a hot summer day! 




Stripped and ready for the cooler to drop right in!


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## Turd Ferguson (May 27, 2020)

Dang, that was a lot. Enjoy everybody! That’s all I’ve got for now. Next step is to cut and drill some hinges for all my deck lids, and then the carpeting progress will begin!

I’ll post a picture of the carpet and glue I’m using. The carpet I bought from BassCat, it’s Syntec Platinum II. 24 ounce in Ash. The glue is Weldwood All Weather Putdoor Carpet Adhesive. Supposed to be good stuff, so we’ll see. 

The next coming pictures should have the carpet all finished! I’ve got some fishing pictures I’ll probably share too, so maybe I’ll post them tomorrow. 

Thanks for stopping by!


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## Turd Ferguson (Aug 9, 2020)

Finally got around to some carpet work! It appears as thought I may have messed up two things. First, my lids don’t open to a full 90 degrees. They did when I had the hatches and lids off the boat, before carpet. I cut and setup each hinge individually before I installed the hatches into the deck. I think the 24 ounce carpet may be piling up between the lid and hatch, preventing them from opening all the way. It’s not a huge deal to me, but certainly less than ideal. Hopefully trimming the carpet will help. 

Second, I was extra careful to make sure all of the carpet grain matched in the same direction when I was wrapping the lids. Guess I messed it up though, cause you can tell that two hatches look darker than the other two. I’ll see what it looks like in the sun when I pull the boat out tomorrow. Kinda tough to tell in the garage. 

Also totally butchered my trim cut where the aft section of the deck meets the bulkhead wall. No big deal, I’ll probably clean that edge up with a piece of aluminum angle anyway. 

Carpet is a lot of work!! By myself I was able to get the deck carpeted in about 2 hours, and another 1.5 to trim and glue all the hatches nice. Didn’t bother making a template, just laid down about a 2’ patch of glue and rolled the carpet into it. Then rolled each section with a rolling pin.

Overall, for my first carpet job, I’m very pleased. I love the way it looks with the vinyl in the cockpit! I cannot wait to get the back deck finished.










Tomorrow morning I’m going to finish wiring the new trolling motor plug, and install that small vertical panel between the deck and trolling motor cap. Then it’s off to the lake! Hopefully I’ll have some pictures to post tomorrow.


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