The Dubs 14/36 Project

Here goes nothin'... bought this hunk for $100. The guy I bought it from had restoration intentions for a duck boat, as you can see he made it through sanding one exterior wall. My plan for now is front/rear carpeted wood decks, foot controlled trolling motor, live wells, tackle storage, on board charger, nav and interior lighting (for night catfishing), pedestal seats, and a partridge in a pear tree. Your basic bass boat that can be put into most any small lake with minimal effort.

Major issues right now are:
Slight leak from the transom area where the bottom meets the back. There was a failed JB Weld attempt that requires some love. The plug hole is misformed a bit, should be a simple fix. The plan is to find someone local to touch it up and potentially the rest of the boat as well depending on cost I'll see how much body work I can get them to do.

No trailer -- I loaded her up in the back of my Honda Pilot, obviously not a viable long term solution. I plan on primarily using the boat on my neighborhood (backyard) lake, but I definitely want the option of some small lake bass prowlin'. Probably going to be the most expensive part of this venture and it needs to be done soon so that I can truck it around to metal shops, etc.

Concerns:
As with everyone on one of these projects -- stability and maintaining front/rear balance.
Title -- there is no serial # plate. I'm not even sure what the make model is... so immediate bonus points for anyone who can nail that one. I spoke with Arkansas Licensing yesterday and she told me that I wouldn't have issues titling a pre-1969 home made boat... so I guess it's a 1967 homemade 14/52 flat.

What's the best way to set it up for rod storage? I was thinking of walling the side, cutting a hole in the center seat, and having a hole in the decking to put the rod tips through with rod holders on the wall, thoughts? Is there a better way to do it?

Still not sure on what product to use for paint, I like the idea of using concrete paint and sealer. Still exploring options, I think I'm going to go with gray for paint/carpet. I want to keep it all the same type/color and would like to stay away from a Rhino-Liner type product.

Right now I don't have plans for an outboard but I do plan on building to suit that option in the future.

I'm between jobs right now so I have some time for an all out blitz over the next 2 weeks until I start again. Last night I got most of the paint off of the remainder of the exterior. I am hoping that it'll warm up enough to get the stripping complete today with a pressure washer.

I thought I read somewhere that someone had used oven cleaner to remove paint... well I must have done something wrong because that didn't work for me. What did work well was gel paint stripper, 20 minutes soak, followed by scraping. I think I will be able to apply the stripper and then remove it with the pressure washer which will make it much much cleaner. I hope to explore that technique this afternoon.

More to follow,
Doubles

not bad for $100

True... unfortunately it looks like I will not be so fortunate on the trailer. Calling around it looks like we are hovering in the $1500 area for her throne.

Doubles said:

True... unfortunately it looks like I will not be so fortunate on the trailer. Calling around it looks like we are hovering in the $1500 area for her throne.

Click to expand...

Keep looking you should be able to find good used trailer for much less then 1500.

Great find on the the boat =D>

where are you located?

meltonhill said:

where are you located?

Click to expand...

Broward County Florida

I got my trailer for 200 (Craigslist) and put about 300 into it plus labor (lots of labor)

We are in the Little Rock area. My beautiful wife found one on Ebay; 3 hours away -- current bid under $200.

Stipper and power washer is definitely better than scraping. The exterior is 98% paint removal complete; I ran out of wire brush right at the end.

I hope to be painting next week, I will have to drop it off to a metal shop early next week to pull that off.

Progress for sure,
Doubles

Final answer was $188 on the untitled trailer, so I get to go through the rig-a-ma-roll on that one as well. I wasn't expecting the administrative side of this to be more painful than the build. I finished up stripping the exterior yesterday and prying all of the JB weld off, plan on attacking the interior today. I'll get some pics up once complete. Spent the majority of yesterday figuring out how to title and register an untitled trailer and on the boat plans below. Open to suggestions on those if anyone sees anything. I like the way it came together in the plans -- I'll have the center seat moved up when I get the cracks fixed. Called around for paint yesterday, we'll be looking at $500 to do it with marine primer and paint. Not sure yet if I want to go that route or with the oil primer and garage epoxy. Don't need to make that decision right now.

Doubles

I'm definitely learning... the beam width is taken on the bottom which makes this a 1436 significantly different than a 1452. I've been doing some calculations on weight: wanting the boat to displace 6" (16.5 cubic feet) I'm looking at about a total weight of just over 1000 lbs. I think those numbers are conservative and obviously 6" displacement is conservative. Out of that 1000 lbs - 400 (for two old out of shape fishermen) - 150 for initial boat weight = 450lbs conservatively. I'm thinking 2 pieces of 1/2" ply at about 100lbs and 10/8ft 2x4s at about 20 lbs. I think that's right where I need to be for total weight... livewell, compartments, trolling motor, seats, etc. I think I'll do a test run with anticipated building materials to back up the math prior to construction.

I had already purchased treated 2x4s when I read Jonboat Jerry's advise on not using treated lumber. My gratitude to Tinboats and Jonboat Jerry for saving my build out of the gates. Something tells me it won't be the last time.

Here are some pictures from the deconstruction:

On the second picture you can see completed exterior and the color difference on the interior front paint where the stripper was applied just prior to pressure washing it off. The third picture is stripping complete. You can also see some of the transom cracks; although I don't have plans for an outboard right now I still plan on having the cracks repaired, replace the wood, and then place custom metal support along the back, over the top, and on the inside down to the support brace.

I've spent about 4 hours on the wire wheel working on the interior; definitely more difficult that the exterior. My back and neck have driven me to strap it to the rafters so that I can work in almost comfortable positions.

We pick up the trailer tomorrow, I'm going to work on licensing, registration and tags on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll be far enough along (interior and transom wood complete) that I can bring it into the welder for a look-see.

Thanks friends,
Doubles

Is it alright to use treated lumber on the bunks of the trailer, painted and then wrapped in carpet? Should I just go with untreated? Is the carpet enough insulation or will the treatment seap through the paint and carpet to make we forevermore regret doing it?

Doubles said:

- 400 (for two old out of shape fishermen)
Doubles

Click to expand...

Evidently your fishermen aren't as old as ours, or as out of shape as ours. Of course my standard reply when anyone suggest that I need to get in shape - "Round is a shape".

Doubles said:

Is it alright to use treated lumber on the bunks of the trailer, painted and then wrapped in carpet? Should I just go with untreated? Is the carpet enough insulation or will the treatment seap through the paint and carpet to make we forevermore regret doing it?

Click to expand...

I'm glad you asked that question, I've been wondering the same thing myself. I've been thinking about using cypress 2x4's if I can't use treated, but they are a little harder to come by than treated pine.

Looking forward to watching your build.

It probably will leach through the carpet eventually. Use untreated with carpet, and you should be fine. The untreated bunks will last years, and the carpet will wear out before they will most likely. So when you need to re carpet, just plan on getting another 2x4 as well. The wood is usually the cheapest part of bunks.

Thanks ShadowWalker, I figured that was the answer; sometimes you just need to hear it. We picked up the trailer yesterday, the chariot looks pretty good but needs TLC as well.

The welder came and looked at her today. He was impressed with my work so I guess I'm on the right track. Should be around $200 for everything I want done... repair 2 hull cracks, straighten out the front, patch drill holes, move middle seat, repair transom and fabricate new transom plate. He said he would so some trailer work as well. He's going to do the work over the weekend.

Since I finished up the interior cleanup work today, I will turn to on the trailer for the rest of the week. Bunks need to be reworked and shifted which is going to require some braces being moved around. Light wiring needs to be rerouted so it doesn't look like a kindergardener put it together. All of the mechanical parts need love, the trailer is in worse shape than the boat was... at least for my level of maintenance.

I'll post some pictures when I get a chance. Thank you for the advice and support.
Doubles

ShadowWalker said:

It probably will leach through the carpet eventually. Use untreated with carpet, and you should be fine. The untreated bunks will last years, and the carpet will wear out before they will most likely. So when you need to re carpet, just plan on getting another 2x4 as well. The wood is usually the cheapest part of bunks.

Click to expand...

I agree with ShadowWalker. Use untreated with carpet. That's what I did. I figured it would take a long time for my untreated bunks to rot for as little as they are in the water. I stow my boat & trailer inside too so even less exposure to the damp. If I remember (its been a couple years now) correctly, I think I gave my bunks a quick coat of exterior primer and latex before carpeting to give them a little bit of protection.

Here's some pics from this morning.

I've removed the center seat and fit it to it's new position 15 inches forward; cut a hole through the back of it so it can welded prior to paint and cut reinforcement tubing to replenish the support structure from my paint hole. Started working on the trailer -- removed the lights, bunks, rollers, fender, cut and layed the first coat on the new bunks. I'd like to have the trailer complete by Friday, needs to me mobile by then fort the welderthis weekend and if it's not complete it'll mean double time on assembly and disassembly. Obviously from the pictures on reassembly there are some adjustments required, I plan on extending the center bunks and moving the outside bunks tighter. Ordered primer, paint (red) and the livewell today. Seems like it's slowly coming together.

Doubles

Coming along nicely - The boat cleaned up great.

Brought her into the welder today, the trailer is almost ready for paint and obviously the boat is ready. Mass influx of parts this week so that the assembly can start once the paint is laid.

Welder is repairing the hull cracks, filling the rivet holes, moving the seat, touching up the front to get it as straight as possible, and fabricating a new transom support for the boat; on the trailer he's fabricating forward supports for the bunks (since I extended them), new angle iron supports for the guide bunks, strap hooks side and rear, new fender to replace the missing one on the right, straighten the bumper, new front bunk support to replace the ineffective front roller, and shorten the tongue. I think all of us would agree that its a tad long right now.

Should be ready for pickup tomorrow, hopefully we'll be laying paint on the boat and trailer this week.
Doubles

Too bad we weren't a bit closer or I would swap you trailers. I have a 1436 flat bottom on a trailer made for 10-12 ft boats. Someday in the future I plan to add 2-3 feet to the tongue. I know come tax refund time mine is getting new leaf springs and bearings+seals.

So, things continue to progress. The boat and trailer are back from the welder and he did some pretty nice work. I've completely dismantled the trailer... not a single bolt to be seen. I sure hope I remember how to put that tilt trailer back together, won't be very funny if it doesn't go together at least as easy (which it wasn't considering the rusted bolts) as it came apart. Plan is to wrap up the trailer 100% over the next few weeks and then get cranking on boat paint and construction. I'm getting anxious with shelves of parts and no where to put them... all in due time. I definitely need to maintain the slow and steady/do it the right way the first time mantra. I'll sling some more pictures as things start coming back together... hopefully next week.

DD

Trailer is almost complete, I just need to wire the lights. I managed to remember how it went back together, and it came together fairly well. On to the boat now, I dropped her in the water this evening and discovered a small leak that the welder must have missed. So back to the welder she goes.