# 16x48 93 waco jon boat



## Erock (May 2, 2010)

hey guys, so i think i got a pretty good deal on a Jon boat my buddy found a (i think haven't looked up the boats year model but have the trailer and motor) 93 waco Jon boat with a 93 30hp Johnson motor on a 91 dc trailer. i got it for 900 bucks. the motor runs great except for carb needs cleaned i just went ahead and bought a rebuild kit for it to be safe since they are cheap anyways.

Anyways friend and I gonna put a deck on it within next few weeks(only get to work on it at his shop on Sundays since we work so much so new pics may be slow)
anyways i was looking around i seen a lot of people using aluminum for the frame for the deck. I am gonna go with metal i got 10 pieces of 10ft 1inchx1inch light-wall tubing from work free so i want to use it. Its very very light stuff one piece of the tubing (10ft) only weights like 7 pounds so i think its light enough to use.

another cool thing is i am a BIG fan of trout lines in muddy as hell creeks yet i want a boat that i can take the lake and fish for crappie putt around with a foot pedal trolling motor so we came up with the ideal to make the deck easy/fast to remove from the boat for trout lines and then easy to put back in for lake fishing. Goal is to make it light enough and be able to take it out in two different sections. the frame of the deck will not be bolted to the boat at all but will be a top/bottom frame that bolts together.

the guy helping me is very very very experienced with this kind of stuff so i think we will be able to get r done.

one question i have is will 1/2inch plywood be thick enough for the deck itself if i have a good frame to lay it on. or do i need to go with 5/8.

Here r some pics of the boat i took when i picked it up nothing done to it yet.




Uploaded with ImageShack.us




Uploaded with ImageShack.us my dad checking it out.





Uploaded with ImageShack.us

ill add photos as we get to work on it we work alot of hours right now so may be weeks before i update but i will update it.

Feel free to comment and give me advise if u have anything that may help us out.


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## Brine (May 2, 2010)

Nice lookin boat to start with, and welcome to TinBoats.

How wide is the floor?


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## countryboy210 (May 2, 2010)

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## Erock (May 2, 2010)

Brine said:


> Nice lookin boat to start with, and welcome to TinBoats.
> 
> How wide is the floor?



the guy i got it from said it was a 16x48 but ill measure today when we start working on it to find out exactly.



countryboy210 said:


> You Might Take A Minute To Update Your Profile Page With A General Location; You Could End Up Finding A Fellow TinBoater Nearby.


thx for the tip

we are gonna work on it today ill take pics of everything we do hopefully we get some stuff done looks pretty bad out right now kinda figures we get one day off a week and it ends up being horrible weather.


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## ober51 (May 2, 2010)

When you say "metal" what do you mean? Aluminum or some other metal for framing? Anything other than aluminum will cause corrosion and hasten that boats life.

I also can't tell whether or not the transom wood is good. On an old boat I would replace, but that's me. 

Great canvas to start with - stable size and will suit your needs. Post pics and you will surely get a lot of help!


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## Erock (May 3, 2010)

ober51 said:


> When you say "metal" what do you mean? Aluminum or some other metal for framing? Anything other than aluminum will cause corrosion and hasten that boats life.
> 
> I also can't tell whether or not the transom wood is good. On an old boat I would replace, but that's me.
> 
> Great canvas to start with - stable size and will suit your needs. Post pics and you will surely get a lot of help!



yea by metal i meant steel. and we are going to paint them to keep the corrosion/rust low. the deck will be one that is easy to take on and off(are goal is to make it come off in two pieces and only need one person(or 2 at the most)) so patch up paint the the bars if needed down the line wont be a problem.

and yea that transom wood is a little rotted at the bottom but is solid as hell from about a inch from the bottom up. I thought about replacing it but the way its in there it seems like its a pain to get another piece up in that spot

And i was wrong about the size of the boat i actually measured it today its more like 15x43

Well today we got a little done started a little late and decided to go frog gigging once dark came but here r some pics

First thing we decided the live well that it came with was way to small so its gonna be for bait instead.




So for the live well we decided best way to maximize space is to put the cooler i bought to make the live well inside the old middle bench(yea it will stick out on top of the deck but i planned on it sticking out anyways it will be right behind the seat i am mounting up on the top deck. Also i know im gonna have to add bracers to that bench now to make it stable but we have them planned into the deck frame when we get next day off.










and finally today (which ended up being the most time consuming part) we power washed all the dirt mud out of the boat it was really really bad took us forever but we got it clean for when we:
A. repaint the boat
B. put in the deck.




we also had to do stuff to the trailer today had no lights or safety chain when i got it we got all that installed also.

~Eric


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## ober51 (May 3, 2010)

Nice progress thus far. Again, I would shy away from steel for a bunch of reasons but the main one being corrosion. Even if you paint it, it will chip or flake at some point and then you will have a problem. Just giving a headsup, not being a nudge, cant wait to see the results.


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## Erock (May 3, 2010)

ober51 said:


> Nice progress thus far. Again, I would shy away from steel for a bunch of reasons but the main one being corrosion. Even if you paint it, it will chip or flake at some point and then you will have a problem. Just giving a headsup, not being a nudge, cant wait to see the results.



i have 10 pieces of 10ft 1nch by 1inch tubing from where i work for scrap price(hella cheap) so gonna try to make it work. i have a little time before next day off ill try to think of a way to to make sure that the points where the steel/aluminum would make contact are more protected from contact.

thanks for the head up any advise is welcomed so if u have any other concerns/ comments feel free to post them.

one question i do have is how hard is it the replace that piece of transom wood in the back it looks like it would be hard to get another piece of wood up in there


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## ober51 (May 4, 2010)

Erock said:


> one question i do have is how hard is it the replace that piece of transom wood in the back it looks like it would be hard to get another piece of wood up in there



Is it riveted into place or bolted? 

You usually can drill out the rivets and/or take out the bolts out of the knee brace, slide the wood down after you cut it and then replace. I replaced my transom in 3 pieces and you wouldnt know it the difference. I am sure one solid piece is better, but it wasn't happening and it needed replacing. If you could take some more up close pics of the transom I could better answer, I think.


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## Erock (May 10, 2010)

Updated: wow what a week.

first most important thing we had are son. was born on 5/5/2010 at 5:05am (lucky number must be 5)






here to the boat well we got a day and a half worth of work in this weekend. Here is what we got done.

Motor:
rebuilt carb
put new shift lever on
put new neutral lever on

This is all we should have to do to the motor on this boat it runs good just few broken non significant pieces we decided to fix and clean carb/rebuild it to be safe

now for the boat
first we sanded the trailer and flipped it up/painted boat sides.

old





new





then we have both looked EVERYWHERE locally for flat green paint couldn't find flat in any color anywhere checked : Lowes, Home Depo, Blacks, Sherwin Williams, and few local small store and nothing so 2 nights ago i just bought the duck boat paint from cabelas. but we did go ahead and lay primer on the boat so that it will be ready(besides a little bit more sanding/possible a little bondo to smooth it out) to paint next weekend. but here are pics of the brown primer.

old




new


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## ober51 (May 10, 2010)

Looks great. Congrats on the newborn! I bet mom had a nice Mother's Day 8)


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## basshunter25 (May 10, 2010)

Congrats on the baby! Good luck on the mod.


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## dixie_boysles (May 10, 2010)

dang that trailer and boat is looking good! Looks like you went the same route im going. I didnt get all the original paint off of my boat either. Just sanded it real good, then going to prime it. Did you prime urs with a rattle can or HPLV or what? As for the trailer, how did you go about sanding it? just a DA sander or what? Sorry, im about two weeks from doing all of theis, and yours turned out great! I too am using the Parker Coatings Duck Boat paint, but in Bay Grey.


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## Erock (Jun 6, 2010)

wow its been awhile been really really busy haven't got add photos alot of work has been put into this boat been busy with baby,boat,and work. this will be alot of pics in random orders of the build so far. if u have any questions about anything u see feel free to ask and ill describe them.



dixie_boysles said:


> boat is looking good! Looks like you went the same route im going. I didnt get all the original paint off of my boat either. Just sanded it real good, then going to prime it. Did you prime urs with a rattle can or HPLV or what? As for the trailer, how did you go about sanding it? just a DA sander or what? Sorry, im about two weeks from doing all of theis, and yours turned out great! I too am using the Parker Coatings Duck Boat paint, but in Bay Grey.



hplv the paint and we used a da sander.

now for the pics no certain order.





























next 2 pics r what the deck frame bolts on making it completely removable from the deck. drilled holes in the bars and welded in nuts into them works great will upload more pics to show this.




































next pic shows where we redone the front that hook was tearing so we took think aluminum and riveted it to it in the front and in the back side(had block of wood in back part before can see it in some of the pics)








pic shows the storage doors / fishing pole holders / and the little thing in front of the seat is a spot light plug in.





















we are almost done have to build box in the back left side that will be storage/seat and add toggles / clean the motor up real nice and we will be done. Have put Alot of time into this boat. with new prop ill have about 2,100$ buck in this boat (boat motor trailer and all the stuff i did to it) tell me what u think.


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## dyeguy1212 (Jun 6, 2010)

=D> =D> 

moar pics plz


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## CABINETMAN (Jun 9, 2010)

the boat looks great, but i dont know how your going to beet how well the baby looks congrats =D>


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## Froggy (Jun 9, 2010)

Looking great, that paint looks familiar....


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## Codeman (Jun 9, 2010)

Looking great! Congrats on the Baby. Man after looking at your pics, somebody must have been using the design from the old Ouachita boats, cause being separated by nearly 30 years in age that thing looks just like my 76 18x48.


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## Erock (Jun 9, 2010)

dyeguy1212 said:


> =D> =D>
> 
> moar pics plz



this sunday is my ole lady bday gonna try to have it done by then to take it out. ill take lots of pics of everything then.



CABINETMAN said:


> the boat looks great, but i dont know how your going to beet how well the baby looks congrats =D>



lol thanks 



Froggy said:


> Looking great, that paint looks familiar....



yea i seen alot of people using that color. i love it



Codeman said:


> Looking great! Congrats on the Baby. Man after looking at your pics, somebody must have been using the design from the old Ouachita boats, cause being separated by nearly 30 years in age that thing looks just like my 76 18x48.



yea i took a look at ur pics of ur 76 they do look very similar urs is alittle more beefy then mine but the design was pretty much the same for the boat itself.


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## wolfmjc (Jun 9, 2010)

welcome, congrats, and the boat looks great. Like the lights on the cooler and how you even painted the framing... =D>


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## Erock (Jun 15, 2010)

boat is done !!!!! got to take it out Sunday it she floated lol!!! only bad thing was i forgot the camera was gonna take pics for everything. i will take final picks of everything we did tomorrow and post then them tomorrow night.

few comments:
gonna have to buy livewell pump to pump in water water just doesnt come in high enough with out it my question is there any pumps that i can get that will do both pump water in and with a flip of the switch pump water out. or am i gonna have to by 2 different pumps one that pumps in and one that pumps out. (dont really want to do this because i already have 3 pumps in the boat 2 for aerator one for bilge pump).

the boat with that 30 johnson runs 25mph with all gear and 2 people. i thought this was hella good but that might just be me what do u guys think?


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## nyjay75 (Jun 15, 2010)

I don't know how much room you have around the pump, but I used some Tees and 2 small valves to keep from buying to pumps. It took a little extra work to get it rigged up, but now it only takes about 5 seconds to cut 1 valve on and the oter off and turn the pump back on.


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## Erock (Jun 16, 2010)

pics of the build:

back flooring used pvc pipe along with the ribs in the boat and put insulation foam made for a very solid back floor




































little messy already needs cleaned lol
















boat motor trailer and everything i put in it cost about 2 grand what u guys think?


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## nyjay75 (Jun 16, 2010)

I think it looks awesome, can't wait to hear how it does for you on maiden voyage... Looks very usable, not like some others I have seen that are just filled with crap that looks ok on a boat...


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## Erock (Jun 16, 2010)

nyjay75 said:


> I think it looks awesome, can't wait to hear how it does for you on maiden voyage... Looks very usable, not like some others I have seen that are just filled with crap that looks ok on a boat...



ty

yea ole lady and i took it on current river last Sunday full gear and us two it went 23-25 mph which i thought was good for a 30hp. 

ill take pics of it in the water and a video or two of everything this weekend when i take it out again.


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## jj97blazer (Jun 16, 2010)

Man I just wanna say I'm diggin your boat. Great job. I like that switch panel. It kinda looks like one I made out of plexi from Lowes. 

Jamey


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## Erock (Jun 16, 2010)

jj97blazer said:


> Man I just wanna say I'm diggin your boat. Great job. I like that switch panel. It kinda looks like one I made out of plexi from Lowes.
> 
> Jamey



ty yea we priced different panels but i still have some stuff id like to get meaning id have to add switches and it wouldn't look right with with a store bought one so we made that panel and can add switches to it and it will look the same.

i have to say the guy that helped me with project was the deal breaker he is just great when it comes to stuff like this and i learned a lot from him.


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## skiff_meister (Sep 16, 2010)

Looks fantastic! I was wondering if you could you tell me if you have experienced any issues related to removing your rear bench seat? I am considering a very similar approach but am hesitant, I just cannot seem to wrap my head around a possible structural compromise. Any flex on the transom or sides when running? Does your floor deck make up for the support the seat had? Thanks for any input~


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## 13rannon (Oct 17, 2013)

Awesome!


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## Brine (Oct 18, 2013)

Congrats =D> Looks Great.


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