# Bass Tracker Guide V16 Special



## fishrmn70 (Feb 8, 2011)

Well, after lurking of this site for some time, I finally have my own project to share. First, a little background on the boat. The boat is a 1988 Bass Tracker Guide V16 Special. My dad bought this boat brand new and has been in the family ever since. The boat came with a 9.9 hp Mercury outboard and pretty much nothing has changed since my dad brought the boat home. The boat is 16 feet long, with a beam of 6 feet. It has a pretty good V to it, but flattens out towards the transom. It is rated for a 40 hp outboard.







My ultimate goal for the boat is to update the interior with new carpet, new paint and add a few features that I feel will increase the fishability of it. Included in this is a complete rewire, the addition of deck lights for night fishing and hopefully a new outboard (a 40 hp would be great). Since I have fished on this boat my entire life, I have been quite acquainted with a few of it's shortcoming, mainly lack of underdeck storage and a small back deck for whomever is fishing with my (or a place for the wife to lay out).


The first step was to pull all of the decks out of the boat. This proved to very difficult due to numerous rusty screws. It seemed as though each piece of deck (and there were quite a few of them) had at least one or two rusty screws that just didn't want to come out. The worst part was the main floor. I would say at least half of the screws were rusted in and needed to be cut out. I started out with a drill, attempting to drill the heads of the screws. This worked for some of them, but the others required the use of the brand new dremel rotary tool.












After the decks were off, I completely sanded the inside of the hull. My goal was to not go down to bare aluminum since the paint was still in good shape, but I wanted to get away from the speckled white paint on the gray undercoat. The plan is to use Rust-Oleum Professional High Performance Protective Enamel in a medium gray color. Some quality time with sandpaper resulted in this....






All of the bare metal was primed with aluminum primer, including a light coat over all the other paint. Unfortunately, this was the last step of the painting for now. Even though I am in Alabama, I can't get enough warmer days in a row to get the paint down.


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## fishrmn70 (Feb 8, 2011)

The next step was to address the lack of underdeck storage. As you can see in the picture below, when the boat was originally built, they only applied a layer of foam next to the hull, even under the raised front casting deck. My dad had taken advantage of some of this space with a small hatch, but as always I wanted just a little bit more.






The other part of it, was I wanted a recessed spot for the trolling motor pedal, but there was a cross member directly where I wanted it. My solution was to raise the front deck 3 inches. This actually worked out really well since the rod lockers were at a different height than the front deck. By raising the deck 3 inches, I gained a spot for the pedal, gained more space for underdeck storage and brought all the decks to the same level. To raise the deck, I used 3 inch aluminum C channel that is 1/8 inch thick. For the cross bracing, I used 1x1x1/8 inch aluminum angle. I bought all of my aluminum online and had to channel cut to my dimensions.











All of the channel was attached to the original framing with stainless steel bolts and lock washers. This was probably a little overkill, but it resulted in one solid deck, even without the wood present. The final step was a rough layout of what the front deck will look like with some hatches that I picked up from Cabelas.


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## Ictalurus (Feb 9, 2011)

Nice boat man, that should be able to take on some serious water.


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## bigbadgixxer (Feb 9, 2011)

hows it coming? i just scored a 1989 tracker pro 17 for $800.00 wanna do the same things carpet new decking lights and complete wiring. came w a 40hp evinrude 2 smoker runs good bow troller hummingbird. where do u get parts for it like a new dash and windshield?


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## fishrmn70 (Feb 9, 2011)

bigbadgixxer said:


> hows it coming? i just scored a 1989 tracker pro 17 for $800.00 wanna do the same things carpet new decking lights and complete wiring. came w a 40hp evinrude 2 smoker runs good bow troller hummingbird. where do u get parts for it like a new dash and windshield?



My boat is a tiller model, so I did not have to get anything like a windshield or dash. I have seen some dash kits at Great Lakes Skipper (search on ebay). They seem to have a pretty good selection of original parts.


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## bad1 (Aug 15, 2011)

Hey can you post pictures of the finished product?
Where did you get the aluminum to raise the front deck?
Thanks!!!
Ron


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## MDFisherman57 (Aug 15, 2011)

Love to see how yours comes out. I just redid my 1985 bass tracker v16 and everything is identical except ur transom has aluminum instead of just wood. Good luck on it. They are great boats.


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## fishrmn70 (Aug 23, 2011)

MDFisherman57 said:


> Love to see how yours comes out. I just redid my 1985 bass tracker v16 and everything is identical except ur transom has aluminum instead of just wood. Good luck on it. They are great boats.



Thanks... unfortunately, I haven't had much time to work on it lately. Between buying a house, a new baby and work my time is at a premium. Hopefully, I will have some free time in the coming months and will be able to finish everything up. I just finished reading your post and the boat came out fantastic.


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## shmelty (Dec 2, 2011)

I rebuilding this exact boat! Have you done anymore work on her?


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## fishrmn70 (Dec 11, 2011)

shmelty said:


> I rebuilding this exact boat! Have you done anymore work on her?



Unfortunately, no. Hopefully, after the holidays I will get back to work. I have done a little work, but nothing picture worthy. A lot of cutting plywood and fitting the curves.

I got the metal from https://www.metalsdepot.com. They were the only place that I could find that had reasonable prices on aluminum channel and would custom cut all the pieces for me.


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## mtehlert (Dec 24, 2011)

I just bought a 1986 Tracker Guide Series V-16 to rebuild. Does anyone have the specs on this boat????? I need everything. Also how thick is the plywood in the transom?


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## shmelty (Dec 24, 2011)

mtehlert said:


> I just bought a 1986 Tracker Guide Series V-16 to rebuild. Does anyone have the specs on this boat????? I need everything. Also how thick is the plywood in the transom?



Here is my build that I am doing now of the same boat. Hit me up if you need anything. My transom was 1 and 5/16 inches.

https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22724


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## reelhappy1936 (Jun 26, 2013)

Hi all just bought Bass tracker guide v16 she has 40 mariner also minn cota 50lb trol foot control
trailer is rusted bad will replace have removed carpet and all plywood a big job I have bought 3
4x8 1/2 plywood & cut out using old deck for patern xcuse speling it hasnt been used in6yr
engine is complete looks good it was under cover I will take carbs off and soak in car cleaner
and hope for the best guy I bought from is still looking for title thats all for now will post some
pics
later Reelhappy jerry kellogg


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## ThatOneGuy (Jul 26, 2017)

Is this thread dead? I'm very interested in the boats mentioned here, as I just bought an 85' Bass Tracker Guide V16 myself.


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## Duke62 (Sep 2, 2017)

Currently working an 85 V17, would love to see more pics.


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