New Member...first crack at a rebuild

[bigdaddydb]

Hello all,

I've been reading up on the site here and wanted to take a minute to introduce myself, show the start of my project, and get some advice. I've owned a couple newer boats earlier in life (pre-children) but it's just not in the budget anymore ($ or time) so as much as I'd love a brand new Ranger 1850... Side-hustling is in my nature and helps pay the bills so I originally bought this boat to make a quick buck. However, I do want to get back into fishing, lake lounging life with the kids, and possibly duck hunting so the more I looked at it, I began to see the potential. Hence, I ended up here. I found what I thought was a pretty good deal ($1375) on a 1985 Monark 1750 with a pretty good trailer and a like new 2012 Tohatsu 9.8 four stroke with key start and remote steering. The boat was trashed as you can see and I've gotten all of the wood out other than the transom which I'll do as soon as I get around to making a motor stand. The transom itself is in pretty good shape from what I can tell...doesn't go all the way to the floor so it's not all rotted but I will replace it just cuz'. I believe someone already "did" this boat based on the board foam and complete lack of pour in foam but it was a hack job. At least 15 different types of screws and/or bolts, all rusty except for a few stainless ones...used every bit in driver kit plus a few sockets to get the rotted decking out.

***Disclaimer*** I'm relatively unskilled in terms of building things. I've never welded, brazed, or riveted anything. I do have a pretty good selection of tools however.

So I'm a little stuck right now...there are 2 panels, one towards the bow where the forward deck started and one where the seats were right behind the console that are riveted to the floor. Also, there are 2 aluminum panels on either side that are riveted to the ribs and up just under gunnel, one is like a storage locker. To take either of these out, the front and back panels have to come out which means holes in the boat. Is this worth doing or should I just work around them. I'm not going to really change the layout or the existing deck framing and the floor I took out sat between the 2 side panels and did not go under them all the way to the side wall.

Next question...there is a lot of info out there about the decking. Trying to keep the cost down and want carpet. If encapsulating with some kind of poly, resin, enamel paint etc (which one?) is marine plywood really necessary?

Here are some pics to get started taken part way through the tear out...will post more as I go along.

 

[bigdaddydb]

sorry about the pics, I'll fix that next time

 

[bwingler57]

That will be a great boat when finished. All you do is drill out the rivits, they are easy to remove, get your self a pop rivit gun and aluminum rivits to put them back in, very easy to do.I am sure some may disagree with me, but what i did on mine i used 5/8" CDX plywood, i put 2 coats of marine spar varnish on it then added my carpet, I do keep my boat covered and the plywood should last a long time. CDX plywood and marine spar varnish is not very expensive. Just my 2 cents on it.

 

[Lost]

I went with marine grade plywood when menards had it on sale. Since I don't plan on selling my boat (it's my primary one right now, when I eventually upgrade it will go to one of the family cabins) I wanted to put some of the "best" materials in it. In my research, the general consensus was that you can use any outdoor plywood if you really want to, but ABX or BCX (A, B, C are plywood grades, I found A & B are generally sanded smooth while the X stands for the exterior glue used between sheets). Measure everything, draw your boards, and cut. I did all my cuts with a $30 jigsaw. Several (3+) coats of spar varnish should be applied prior to installation of your flooring of choice.

In regards to the floor choice, I went with vinyl due to the ease of cleaning. Talk to a flooring store, they probably have plenty of carpet samples/scraps you could take for free if you wanted some carpeting under your chair or for the dogs to lay on. You can put carpet over vinyl but you can't put vinyl over carpet. They have basically the same installation method, plan for 3-4" overlap on each edge (so add 6-8" to your overall dimensions), cut to size, apply marine rated glue, roll out air bubbles (I found a 4" hard roller on amazon for about $10, worked great), pull over edges, and staple with Monel staples (won't rust). I would recommend a pneumatic staple gun to make life easy. I got one from Northern Tool for about $30.

Panels that are riveted can have the rivets drilled out and replaced. If they go through the hull, either do solid rivets or do what I did and use closed-end blind rivets with 3M 5200 on/in them for good measure. One thing to check (and what I can't tell from the photos) is if there are separate "brackets" riveted to the hull that are then spot-welded to the actual interior piece. That's how they are on my boat, and I opted to actually drill out the spot welds rather than drill out the solid rivets. When I re-assembled everything, I riveted where I drilled out the spot welds (if you can get it accurate enough and with a small enough drill bit, otherwise I used machine screws). If you plan on doing a lot or riveting or don't already have a manual riveter I would recommend spending the extra $20 to get a pneumatic one. It fit in tighter spaces for me, and was 100% worth it on my rebuild.

Motor stand is really simple, use some scrap 2x4's and 3" screws and cobble one together. I did that and had my 25HP on it for most of my rebuild, didn't have any issues. Definitely check out the transom, mine was rotted even though it was a good 6" from the floor.

 

[fool4fish1226]

:WELCOME: Thanks for sharing.

 

[bigdaddydb]

Ok so here is the progress...was out of town and really busy at work. Got the motor stand built and got the console, side panels and the rest of the garbage out. Got the motor, steering, and throttle controls off and into the garage on the stand. Upon further inspection and some ridiculously thick paint removal, the transom cap was all mangled, one of the corner caps had a crack that was hidden by the paint, and the transom was kind of rotted. The transom had been done before and obviously the motor was not original so there was a half assed job done of fabricating a splash well to accommodate the new motor and there was a "second transom" installed. You can see in the pics below that they had a piece of plate aluminum that was glued to the original transom and then drilled thru. The corner caps were riveted on and sandwiched between the old and "new" aluminum. The old cap was bent over the top of the wood board and was cracked bent and broken...this was hidden by the "new" motor mount. Only option to get the transom board (which was rotted) was to cut off the old cap. Finally have the board out. Here are the pics: