# 1959 Plaza Craft Semi V done for now?



## mfbear (Jun 8, 2013)

This is the second time I have modified this boat. I purchased it in 2003, for $300, boat, trailer and 1968 18 hp Evinrude. It was used hard as I found out when I started to replace the transom wood. I guess someone used it for a ski boat at some time as they had two eyebolts bolted through the transom. I found two cracks on each side where the bolts had been placed. I used some aluminum angle to beef it up before I added plywood inside and outside of transom. The first time I gutted it and used ½ “ treated plywood for flooring and small step up deck about 3 ½” above the main floor. Again because someone had attached some T aluminum in the bow. I can only guess it was a stump runner also. They did not even beat out the side that had been caved in before attaching the T aluminum.
I ran it without the bench seats and only the plywood flooring till I decided I needed to raise the front deck area to accommodate two batteries, instead of having all three in the rear. I will update this as I go along.


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## thudpucker (Jun 8, 2013)

I have a 'pointy' bow boat too. 
I stayed with the lowest floor boards and nothing high up on that UN-steady bow to cause an accident.

I row mine. No motor at all. 
So I put in a rolling rowing seat on the bottom. Now I can roll to the bow or Stern to reach what I want. 
Or maybe just row really fast with long strokes, and smoke a guy with a 3 hp motor. :LOL2: 

Take your time and make it really usable!


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## mfbear (Jun 8, 2013)

I live in Kansas if I tried to row I'd just get blown to the bank. That's why the remodel, I bought a I-pilot trolling motor so when I find the fish I can stay where the fish are.


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## thudpucker (Jun 8, 2013)

LOL I remember Kansas being like that. No fly fishing in Kansas. You cast in Kansas and fish In Missouri.. I was in school in Denver at the time.


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## mfbear (Jun 9, 2013)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=317983#p317983 said:


> thudpucker » Yesterday, 20:15[/url]"]LOL I remember Kansas being like that. No fly fishing in Kansas. You cast in Kansas and fish In Missouri.. I was in school in Denver at the time.


Yup that's Kansas.


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## mfbear (Jun 9, 2013)

A little more info on this boat, it’s a 14 footer and beam width of 68”, built it Dixon, Mo. The trailer as near as I can tell is a Gator, which was also abused. The tongue was bent so cut it off and added a new one somewhat longer. I don’t think they used any jigs and probably did not have much in the way of quality control when building the boat. The stringers are not laid out equally spaced, the two inner stringer are lower than the outside stringers and even they are different heights. At the transom end one is 9/16” and one is 7/16” lower than the outside stringers. Eight feet forward of transom one is about 1 1/2” lower and the other 1 ¼ “ lower.

The boat had 30 to 40 rivets that had to be re-set, to stop the leaks. I removed the front and middle bench seats along with the two side benches in back. I got lucky and did not harm the boat with the treated plywood, as it was carpeted for outside stringers and I used regular lumber under flooring support for the inside stringers. I built the side console and added an electric start to the motor. I had side by side seats at console area and 11” raised seats for and aft.

My plan is raised front deck to accommodate two batteries for trolling motor, new setup for main floor, go back to tiller steer, and side rod lockers. Only two seats one forward and one aft. I have not seen anything like this boat so it will be trial and error swearing and trial and error, and a lot of presidential solutions.
As you can see not much room in garage, can’t even walk all the way around boat. Have to move the table saw outside to get to one side. Of course after 2 years of drought it rains almost every time I even think about putting the saw outside to do some work. So this project is very slow in the making.


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## thudpucker (Jun 9, 2013)

I put a 'mini-deck' up front for batteries.
You have a nice flat bottom to work with. Is it thick enough to weld to?

Can the saw be set up on a 'deck' across the stern of the boat? Or get that Boat Deck finished and put the Saw inside the boat.
Soon your wife's gonna have you sleeping in that boat!!! :LOL2:


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## mfbear (Jun 9, 2013)

Table saw is mounted to stand and too big and heavy for that. It just would be in the way also. Gave up marriage 35 years ago. Don't even have a dog anymore. I am building from the stern forward; the deck will be last and the worst headaches. It rained again last night so while waiting for things to dry out some I came up with new idea for making the rod locker lids. More about that when I get to that stage.


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## mfbear (Jun 10, 2013)

The floor framing and part of rod locker frames are done. Still need to finish tying the locker uprights to the side of the boat. The square tubing is 3/4" and about .031 wall thickness, trust me with this layout it will work fine. Here are some of my presidential solutions.


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## mfbear (Jun 13, 2013)

Some new update photos


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## mfbear (Jun 15, 2013)

I finished tying in the rod locker uprights to sides, now on to figuring out how I want to build the locker lids.


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## meonline06 (Jun 15, 2013)

Hey mfbear nice boat. What kind of fasteners are you using to attach the angle to the side of the hull?


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## wwcenturion (Jun 15, 2013)

Man that thing is deep. You could put two floors in it with ladders going between the two!


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## mfbear (Jun 17, 2013)

Not as deep as I would like, but it will do for now.
Those are called Hi-Loks, used in aircraft for tight places where you can't get to both sides is my understanding. They are handy, very tight fit. You have to drive them in deep enough to get the nut on, then use an allen wrench to hold bolt while you tighten them.


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## mfbear (Jun 20, 2013)

Not much progress as had some more rain, can't complain after the drought. Checked fishing reports at the reservoir a few minutes ago; rats the report for white bass, wipers and walleye is excellent; and the boat is in garage. Only one boat ram is usable out of 9 I know of and think there is a couple more. 
Took some time and made some templates for rod holders, lot of cardboard and quite a bit of old 1/2'" flooring before I came up with something that should work. Only five rods per side but better than stepping on them. Still have to cut the 3/4 in plywood for final assembly, then on to locker lids. Here's what I finally came up with, still need to find tubes or make my own out of PVC


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## mfbear (Jul 22, 2013)

Been awhile since I have updated my progress, which is not going as fast as I hoped. Wind, rain, tornadoes and vehicles breaking down is slowing down this project. Finally got the rod locker lids built, now starting on bow area. It was not suppose to rain today but the weather man missed the boat. I did get the pieces cut for battery box before it started. Need to go to library any way and get service manual for my S10 as the A/C stopped working. Doubt if I can fix it but will try before I have to take it in.


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## Gators5220 (Jul 25, 2013)

Looks like some good progress to me man, nice job!


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## mfbear (Jul 27, 2013)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=323669#p323669 said:


> Gators5220 » 25 Jul 2013, 22:52[/url]"]Looks like some good progress to me man, nice job!


Thanks, I was beginning to think I was the only one interested in this mod.


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## mfbear (Jul 27, 2013)

A little more progress, but not much. Had 7 or 8 inches of rain this last week. Still need to figure out the wiring, for the life of me I can't find one of toggle switches I took out. Also trying to decide what thickness of plywood I want to use for deck and how many storage hatches I can get in the deck. Did find a waterproof case at Walmart to use for the buss bars. More rain due the next couple of days so I gotta get the yard baled from the last batch of rain.


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## mfbear (Aug 21, 2013)

Got some more done in between rains. I got most of the front deck framing laid out, it is not permanent yet as I want it out of the way to clean up all the burrs and paint the inside of boat. I had to buy some clecos as the double back tape was not holding well with all the humidity.


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## mfbear (Aug 27, 2013)

Got the inside painted after cleaning up all the burrs from drilling. Started running the wiring for 12 volts to bow for fish finder and possibly a lighter outlet from rear battery and 24 volts from front batteries to transom mounted foot controlled trolling motor through 3/4 pvc pipe, no need for pvc for the Terrova bow mount trolling motor.


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## mfbear (Sep 30, 2013)

Have made some progress slowly but surely I will get it done. I have front deck framing done as well as the deck. I used half inch plywood. Got four hatch openings done so far thanks to Ranchero50 and Gillhunter. They got this tired old brain working again. I have included some photos of how I did the hinges on deck, the hatch lids where done the same way. May not be the best way but it worked for me.


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## mfbear (Sep 30, 2013)

bow cap hinged area accomplished, still have to install power plugs and volt meter


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## claude (Sep 30, 2013)

Looks good. Just got my hands on a '77 Monark.


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## mfbear (Oct 19, 2013)

Well I need to get it out of garage so I can get the truck in as winter is a coming. Due to the lack comments I guess no one cares about this mod, but I will post some more pics anyway.


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## gillhunter (Oct 19, 2013)

Great job on the boat! I like the side storage. It should go with your 18. Much more useful room without a side console.


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## Kismet (Oct 19, 2013)

It is a beautifully thought-out design, nicely executed, and resulted in a handsome craft.

As for lack of feed-back, it may be you just were so ASTONISHING that others were intimidated , or could be you didn't seem to ask any specifics. For whatever reason, you did well, and that does seem like a nice, deep, hull.

Well done

=D> =D> =D>


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## mfbear (Oct 22, 2013)

Thanks guys, the only thing astonishing is I finally got it done. It was a major PITA to get anything to work out like I wanted. There were several times I thought about just shooting it and putting ME out of my misery.


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## louisvillefisherman (Oct 25, 2013)

Great job! The lack of feedback was due to the fact that you were doing so well on your own that there was little left to be said.

I especially like the hydraulic lift assisted storage cover. That is VERY cool. Excellent work.


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## mfbear (Nov 1, 2013)

Found a couple more pic's I did not load, also one of the 3-wheel dolly I came up with several years ago to launch and retrieve the boat from the shoreline. One fishing lake has the boat ramp on one side but I like to camp on the other side, about a 2 mile walk to get camper and boat on same side so I came up with idea. I just push it in by hand and hook a tow strap to chain and pull it out. The third wheel make it possible. Hope it will still work after the added weight. I modified the boat so I could remove all the wood easily if I need to get to the hull, 28 screws and it's back to framework and hull.


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## Centrarchidae (Jan 5, 2014)

That is some really nice work you did on your boat. =D> 
I especially like how you bent the angles to get a level location for the decking. What size angle did you use? Did you thru-rivet them to the hull?


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## mfbear (Jan 6, 2014)

Thanks for the comment. I used 1/8" x 1 1/2 angle. I used the Hi-Locs for the front decking also. No one that was available knew how to buck rivets and I really did not want to drill them out if they got shanked. I pre drilled 3/32" holes in angles, put some double back tape on them and checked for level and then back drilled 3/32" holes into sides and used the cleco's to hold them in place while back drilling them and the hull out to 3/16". Your lucky on your boat that you have ribs and not stingers, so if you want more space at transom area you could taper your side boxes.


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## Gators5220 (Jan 11, 2014)

Boat looks to be progressing nicely man, gettin her wet and catchin any fish yet?


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## mfbear (Jan 14, 2014)

I did not add an ice breaker during the mod, so it will probably be the end of March of early April before I get to use it. It snowed about a week after I got it out of the garage.


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