1997 Tracker Pro Team 17 overhaul

Best way to get all that foam out is take a high powered power washer to it and go to town took me about an hour to do an older bass tracker


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I just cleaned it with some aluminum stripper and a Wire Wheel & Grinder

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Prowelder said:

I just cleaned it with some aluminum stripper and a Wire Wheel & Grinder

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Just for future reference anytime you deal with corrosion on Aluminum, use a chemical treatment. Aluma prep 33 and alodine is the best way to create a chromate conversion. This will kill and keep corrosion from forming again. Its pricey, but phosphoric acid diluted or muriatic acid diluted will do the same thing. Work it in with a stainless wire brush, and flush real good with plenty of water. Using a baking soda neutralizer afterwards is a plus to make sure you don't burn through the aluminum. Dry real good then as soon as its dry don't touch it with your hands or wipe it with anything, but give it a good coat of zinc chromate primer. Then use a patch twice the size of the effected area if you can.

Corrosion once formed is very hard to get rid of and eventually eat your boat. If you plan to keep it any length of time, try to vent some air under the floor to help keep it dry. A hull that stays wet under the deck just intensifies the corrosion process.

I've worked on literally hundreds of aluminum hulls and seen just about every Jerry Rig known to man, but a lot of people don't understand how to properly address some issues or they don't care. The plates bolted through the hull should have been your first red flag of major issues, if not the flex seal painted on the bottom should have been a dead give away.

^^^****...so much for solving all the world's problems with a cocktail of bondo, gluvit & steelflex.

onthewater102 said:

^^^****...so much for solving all the world's problems with a cocktail of bondo, gluvit & steelflex.

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and none of those will stop corrosion either.

Did a small job for Jerry Harris from Fish Mavericks and he hooked me up with this hummingbird 998c SI. This thing is huge. I'm excited

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What flavor are you vaping.......

sonny.barile said:

What flavor are you vaping.......

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Haha "Day Break" it's basically Captain Crunch

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I made the switch too. I am also a fan of the cereal flavors. I have been vaping frosted cheerios and whoopee pie.

Thats a nice piece of electronics. Their not going to be able to hide from you.

Finally had some time to work on my tracker a little bit. I welded on some safety rails to keep the kids safe. I'm going to cut and Mitre (45deg) the front and back of each railing down to the boat rail.

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I finished off the railings tonight. I was going to roll them but this boat is not rounded anywhere. It is square shape with angles all over. I decided to go with the 45 degree angle on the railing hoping to match the Contour of the boat itself. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out and hoping for some better weather soon so I can cover the floors with coat it. Then I'm going to start Carpeting and putting this bad boy back together. I have a question for you guys I have a Lowrance 4 x chirp Fishfinder and the Humminbird 998c SI. Trying to decide which one I should put by my console and which one to put in the front. I'm leaning more towards the Humminbird up front for better Imaging when I'm trolling, but I will also be losing out on the GPS feature because I cannot see it from the side console when I'm driving the boat. Any information would be helpful. Thank you

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Looks super, great job. I would put the side imaging at the console.


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Agreed w/ the side imaging @ the console - though if you sell one of the two units & buy a 2nd of the same manufacturer you should be able to network them together and share the waypoints - this way you can mark items @ the console as you drive by & then fish them using the GPS from the front.

gatorglenn said:

Looks super, great job. I would put the side imaging at the console.


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What would be the benefit of that?

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Just like on the water said, I do most of my searching from the console.


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Prowelder said:

What would be the benefit of that?

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With your transducer mounted off your transom your side imaging only shows you what you've passed by already - I find it's next to useless to you when fishing other than to circle back & fish structure you missed. For me I pass by an area on the gas motor going slowly watching the side imaging & mark the cover/structure I think the fish might be holding to then I come back and fish it with the trolling motor but when I'm fishing I'm using the GPS chart to stay within 75' of my waypoints so my casts are more likely to be close to the mark. You can physically mark them with buoys too if you need to be extra precise with your casts.

I got all the leaks welded up and I poured a layer of coat it in the bottom of the boat. Working my way up from the back. Insulated the back deck and stole the idea of diamond plate from gator Glen for the back compartment. I have tons of aluminum just laying around the shop so luckily I won't have to buy any material for this project. Still need to run a little bit of electrical wire before I completely finish the back deck, but I'm hoping I will have the back deck carpeted by this weekend.

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Looking good, what type foam is that your using. Iam in the process of de-foaming my boat now. Don't know what Iam going to use yet.


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gatorglenn said:

Looking good, what type foam is that your using. Iam in the process of de-foaming my boat now. Don't know what Iam going to use yet.


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1 1/2" closed cell foam from home Depot. I had this left over from the Weldbilt 1652 project. I got some 1" and some 1/2" green foam from Lowe's to do the rest of the boat earlier. This boat only has a wood floor and a wooden front deck. The rest of the boat is aluminum. I am not going to buy marine plywood it is ridiculously priced and a waste of money. I bought some half inch exterior plywood and painted it with two coats of oil based Kilz. Saved about $200. I'm sure some of you will disagree with me but this is more than enough for your boat. My boat will never see weather unless I get caught in it fishing! I keep it in my garage and when I am at our lake house I always cover it at night. I am about to wrap this project up in the next couple of weeks. The kids go on spring break the week before Easter and I plan on taking that week off of work and going to Lake Gaston. I'm about to start running some electrical tonight. I have 14 LED spotlights I am going to install [4 headlights, 5 floodlights on each side], and two16 foot red LED rope lights im putting on the inside of the rails, and a radio with 4 speakers.. My wife may not be happy with me but I'm going to work around the clock to put this thing back together! Although it is supposed to be 75 degrees and sunny tomorrow and Sunday I might have to take a break and hit some fishing holes!

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Prowelder said:

gatorglenn said:

Looking good, what type foam is that your using. Iam in the process of de-foaming my boat now. Don't know what Iam going to use yet.


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I am not going to buy marine plywood it is ridiculously priced and a waste of money. I bought some half inch exterior plywood and painted it with two coats of oil based Kilz. Saved about $200. I'm sure some of you will disagree with me but this is more than enough for your boat. My boat will never see weather unless I get caught in it fishing! I keep it in my garage and when I am at our lake house I always cover it at night.

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As an experiment I left a piece of 1/2 inch exterior grade plywood in the back of my pickup since October. It's been through rain, snow, and ice and still shows no signs of de-lamination or bubbling on the surface. One end of the piece even stayed submerged for days at a time since I park on an incline and my plastic bed liner holds water.
I treated my deck parts with 3 coats of spar urethane and keep my boat covered when not fishing.
Between the urethane, carpet glue, and rubber backed carpet, I am going to officially stop worrying if I did enough to protect my wood.
I think you are going to be OK.