1432 duck boat project

New to the forum. I have been lurking for a while, finally joined a few minutes ago to post about the duck boat project I am starting.

Brought home a 1432 jon boat/trailer/motor last night. The boat is in OK condition, trailer is fair and motor is great.

Trailer: needs some new wood. Going to inspect the bearings. Lengthen the pigtail. New webbing for wench And why anybody would paint a galvanized trailer white is beyond me :?: How do I get paint off of the galvanized trailer? Wire brush or will that eat through the galvanized coating?

Boat: Camo paint job. Nav lights, battery, switch panel, couple LED interior courtesy lights. Front mounted headlight for those early mornings. Need to create some lockable storage. Thinking of cutting out the tops of the two bench seats, install hinges and a plywood top with locking hasp to store life vest, decoys, ect… (Whats the best/most effective way to create storage compartments from the bench seats?) Also thinking a small 500gph bilge pump would be a good idea. If I can find a cheap 30lb thrust 12v troling motor I will add it too.

Motor: Change oil in the foot. That’s about it. It starts on the first pull and runs like a top.

boat as I got it:


motor:

Oh yea, now that I look at that last photo. I need to find a pin to hold the motor....and replace the wooden dowel rod :lol:

caver101 said:

Oh yea, now that I look at that last photo. I need to find a pin to hold the motor....and replace the wooden dowel rod :lol:

Click to expand...

Nice little set up.You can find a pin here. https://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/index.action Just do a search using your model number.

Thanks for the link!

Spent $150 last night on wire/lights/anchor/paddle/carpet/safety chains/ect... Even with the boat being a smoking deal its not gonna be cheap to fix it up the way I want it, lol. I picked up a cheap set of off road driving lights for the bow. Two 55w halogen lights should light up the way pretty good on those 5am mornings on the river.

If it will ever quit raining here I am going to start working on the trailer first.

Whats the best place for OD green duck boat paint? Cabelas? And how much should it take to to do two heavy coats inside and out?

Where will you be duck hunting? Small ponds?
Be careful, two people shooting from a 1432 can be a little scary, they are not the most stable boats. And the water is really cold in duck season! Most guys I know who have 1432s only use the boat for transportation & then hide the boat & shoot from the bank or wading in flooded timber.

You need two thin coats, not two heavy coats. Thin coats adhere better & are easier to apply.
A 1/2 gallon, thinned correctly should be good. A lot of local paint shops can mix you up a batch of flat marine paint. It will save you shipping cost. Bass Pro & Cabelas also have paint.
If you take the boat down to bare metal before you paint, you will also need a primer.

Are you going to put on a blind? if so, let me know, I have a couple of good homemade designs that are a lot cheaper than buying a pre-made one.

As far as your trailer, I would not wire brush it. I'm not sure but I think a paint stripper would be your best bet.

Paint can be found just about any where...depending on what you want to put on it. I'd suggest that if you take it all the way down to get an acid etch primer and apply it to the bare aluminum. That will ensure that the paint will stick. I'd suggest several thin coats to one or two thick coats. Might even consider applying the Steelflex to it to keep it strong and avoid the damaging "bumps" in the predawn darkness.

Take some more pics of the inside and then others will be able to give you some ideas on how to convert your benches to storage. One thing you might want to consider is removing the benches and creating one large storage compartment up front for those thing that need to go in there and thereby leaving a large open area behind that for the decoys.

Thanks for the info! Going to hunt ponds, the shallow areas of lakes & rivers. Pretty much the corner of northwest GA and northeast AL. TN wants way too much for their duck tags this year

After thinking about it some. I may just leave the paint alone thats on the boat and just do a camo rattle can job on top of it. The existing paint is in decent shape....gonna have to think about it a little more and see where I am on my spending and time........goose seasion is the 5th of next month 8)

For the most part the boat will just be used to get from point A to point B to hunt (maybe a little trout fishing too). Probably not going to put a blind on it as I don't really plan to hunt from it unless I have no choice. Like the other guy said, not the most steady boat to be shooting from.

My intentions are to only keep this boat for a year or two then try to find a extra wide 16 footer.

I fished out of a 1432 a couple times in high school with a friend, and yes they can get a bit tipsy.

Would it be possible to clamp on some sort of outrigger on four corners? Something like a one inch pipe with 6"x6" squares (or duck bill from a pole) on the bottom that would get pressed into the mud at an angle and clamped to the transom/gunwale at the four corners? Not sure how deep the water is in your area, but our slough was probably only 4' at the deepest so it would have worked perfectly.

Just something I thought about at the time, but was too poor to implement.

If I can get in the water in my waders I will be in the water. But the idea your talking about is pretty slick! I like it! If I get a larger boat I may try something like that. Even if its only two "legs" off the transom I think it would work well to steady the boat (like outrigers on a backhoe). I think they could be made pretty easy/simple.

caver101 said:

I picked up a cheap set of off road driving lights for the bow. Two 55w halogen lights should light up the way pretty good on those 5am mornings on the river.

Click to expand...

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on what kind of beam they throw.

Lights on a boat are a love/hate thing because they are hard to get aimed. Think about it, every time you shift the load in the boat or the attitude of the boat changes while running, your point of aim for your lights changes.

Open waters tend to negate the usefulness of headlights as well but they are handy when running in backwater or sloughs with a lot of standing timber.

You guessed it. They are for the tight areas.

Have a similar setup on the bass boat, don't see how I could get along without it now.

Have had the little boat out a few times now and so far its doing all I could ask of it.

I need to take a couple updated photos of the finished product.

The trip from Sunday morning headed back to the truck:

Wow canadian geese...we don t see many of those down here in south La..

Whats the limit?

limit is "5 with 10 in possession"

We have a few weeks of early goose season here in GA. Hope to cap a few more for jerky before season ends. Just need more free time to hunt!!!