1989 Duracraft 1854 XL Project

I just bought a new project! I picked up this 18' Duracraft boat last week. I have plans to do a full rebuild over the winter. As for this summer, I am going to stick to making it functional. I bass fish a majority of the time and occasionally will go after trout, redfish and catfish. This is what will drive most of my design choices.





It currently has Minn Kota Powerdrive trolling motor with a remote control. I'm going to have to buy a foot control for it. I also have no idea how many lb thrust it is nor what voltage. It has a 1976 Evinrude 115 on the back that runs on muffs. Obviously I will have to water test it. The guy I bought it from also threw in a 1978 Evinrude 115 that supposedly also runs for parts. Which most likely means he already used some of those parts. And it also has a Humminbird Helix 5.



The trailer is in decent shape, but needs new lights and wiring. Updates to follow!

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If I ever do another boat restoration it would be on a boat closer to this size. Good luck on your project.

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Made a little bit of progress on the boat. Nothing major yet. I have ordered some things that should be arriving soon, but right now I want to concentrate on functionality. I replaced the trailer lights and wiring. I only have the wires secured with zip ties for right now. I will make that more permanent after I get around to painting the trailer.


All of my electrical connections are soldered and heat shrinked to prevent water intrusion and corrosion. I also just discovered liquid electrical tape which I used on top of the heat shrink. I will be using the liquid tape on all connections from now on. The rails that came on the boat were secured with close to 50 large self tapping screws. Positive side - they were easy to remove. The negative is that it left a bunch of holes in the gunnels. I unmounted the console that was sitting on top of the front deck.


I mentioned that I got two motors with this boat. The one that is currently on it runs, but it does not have power trim/tilt. For me, that is a problem so I was going to try to take the trim/tilt(mounting bracket) from the parts motor and swap it on. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until the last moment that the brackets were slightly different between the 76 and 78 Evinrudes.


So now I am going to try and see if I can get the other motor running good. Lol, that's how much I want the trim/tilt. If that doesn't work out, I may have to look for a replacement motor. That's all the progress I have for now.

Unfortunately no real progress on the boat itself, but I have been gaining some ground on the motor in the tiny bits of free time I've had lately.

First thing I found is that there is a lot of water in the fuel tank. I plan to drain that soon and will order a water separatorfor future piece of mind. I initially got the motor running, but it was obviously down a cylinder. I replaced the plugs, wires,¹ and adjusted the linkages to set the pickup timing. I also noticed that I was getting fuel out of the carb when priming, so the carbs got a thorough inspection/ cleaning also. Its running good now so I went ahead and replaced the gear oil and water pump. Still a few small parts that need replacing or were missing.

If you are into motors, I have a video on youtube documenting the process.
https://youtu.be/oJkgTVH00EQ





I know most people here are looking for boat content not motors, but that was something I had to get done first. Now I can devote my time to getting this thing ready for the water. I have a bunch of parts sitting in my garage ready for install. Im going to draw up some preliminary plans so that I can attack this stuff efficiently. The wiring was a mess when I bought it, so that definitely needs to be addressed. The floor foam is saturated, haven't decided whether to try and tackle that issue now or kick that can down the road and wait for winter. I think most likely the latter because I know how labor intensive and time consuming that is.



There's also more stuff in a different corner. Im excited to get some work done tomorrow!

I made some progress today. Shifting focus from the motor to the boat, I wanted to first address the water in the fuel tank. I transferred the bad fuel from the boat to external storage and removed the tank. During the process I noticed that the gas cap was missing an o-ring which is most likely how the water was getting into the fuel. So I'll have to place an order to fix that.



Once the tank was out and I could see how wet/nasty the wood in that compartment was, I decided to remove that as well. Under that wood floor there was a considerable amount of water in the foam. Obviously I had to take the foam out as well..... Today was a cascade of discoveries that are more easily explained with pictures, so here ya go










So the floors are out. The foam is out. By the way, I weighed just the waterlogged foam from the rear compartment and it was just under 90 lbs. The rear foam was the worst, but I would estimate that all the foam I took out today weighed about 200 lbs.

I also came up with a wiring diagram for the boat's electronics. I have most of the things I need already, just waiting on a couple items.



But before I get to that, I need to replace the foam that I removed. I am thinking about going with a 2 part pour in foam that is closed cell. My only concern is keeping it out of the drainage channels. Any advice for that issue?

You could pre-place some PVC pipe before you pour the foam. Maybe have to plug the ends too.

CedarRiverScooter said:

You could pre-place some PVC pipe before you pour the foam. Maybe have to plug the ends too.

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definitely an option

Progress has been very slow. There has been a lot of rain in the forecast and it looks like it is supposed to rain most days this week. I had to wait for a hot and dry day so that the remaining moisture in the bottom of the hull could evaporate before putting in new foam. My plan was to use two part pour in foam, but my concern was not getting it into the drainage channels. I ended up using a layer of foam insulation boards under the 2 part liquid foam.





I severely underestimated how much of the pour in foam I would need and I had no interest in waiting for more to come by mail. Luckily I bought way too much of the insulation board so I ended up using that to fill in the voids.



One of things about building aluminum boats that I have grown to hate is pop riveting. Especially when you have to do a lot of them. Unlucky me, the flooring and side walls are secured with rivets. But then I remembered that I picked up a pneumatic riveter at an auction last year.



This thing is my new best friend. I have to frame out a front deck extension and a bench for my seats, so it should continue to come in handy. Not sure what will be next. Probably framing and electrical, but mother nature is definitely working against me right now.

Looking good! I've been using the same pneumatic rivet gun for probably close to 15 years now without any issues. It sure is a time saver.

^ Same here on the rivet gun, I priced out a Milwaukee Fuel rivet gun this weekend, $350.00...I'll keep my Harbor freight pneumatic that was less than $50.00!

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been making progress here and there over the last month. I've used (cheap) carpet in all of my previous builds, but I never really liked the the function of it. I fish bare foot a lot and carpet really isn't that comfortable, plus it gets very hot. Im trying out EVA foam this time. I laid the front and rear decks, as well as half of the main floors before I ran out. I also installed pedestal bases for the decks.






Also built a bench and installed seats for moving with the main motor. I keep forgetting to order a shorter steering cable so I haven't hung the 115 Evinrude on the back yet. Right now I have my 9.9 yamaha on the back which isn't bad because we have some pretty good horse power restricted lakes around.

A few thing were added to the trailer like: retractable transom tie downs and a spare tire. I know I should have done this first but I need to inspect/repack the bearings still. I have pulled the boat a few times and haven't noted any heat in the hubs. The gas tank and 3 batteries are "soft mounted." I wanted to fish the boat a few times to see how the balance was before permanently mounting them. Stability is excellent so far. The boat sits a little flat in the water for my liking currently, but once the big motor is on I think it'll have just the right amount of squat in the rear. So next I will be mounting the tank and batteries and installing all the wiring. Itll be nice not having my wires laying across the decks. Lol

There's a video of the process if you're interested.

https://youtu.be/vQ99_sd1ojk

And of course I had to protect my investment with a cover!

Treeratsniper said:

^ Same here on the rivet gun, I priced out a Milwaukee Fuel rivet gun this weekend, $350.00...I'll keep my Harbor freight pneumatic that was less than $50.00!

Click to expand...

I restore vintage Airstream trailers for a living, and know riveting front to back (which is why I dislike riveted boats). I have been torture testing a Harbour Freight pneumatic rivet gun for years. It just keeps on truckin... It’s my one and only HF tool.