1978 MonArk 1644P Aluminum Bass Boat in Ky

Well I got her the first of the month and As soon as I got it home I stripped the Rotten front decking off. Weather has been kinda wet around here. I was beginning to think I was going to have to wait til spring to get any real work done to her. I didnt have a garage or shop to put it in out of the cold to Paint. Well, Do to the Fact That I have the Perfect woman, She asked a Friend of hers that has a heated shop with air and all if we could use it for a week or so and the Wonderful friend said YES!! So Shelly (My GF) Told me to get My supplies together and she and I will do the Work together this coming Month!! WOOO HOOO!!

Im going to Post a couple Early pic's and some new ones of the progress today! It wont be hard I have only put 3 days in working on the boat.

Guys if you have any suggestions please dont hesitate!! Im new to this and would like to end up with a goodlooking, Comfortable, dependable, and Safe boat to enjoy!!

this is going to be an exciting mod - and we'll be with ya 100% of the way.

Just make sure you scour all of the boats on the mod page... you can pic of tons of ideas from every boat on there

Thanks Russ! Im excited as all get out! since i have a shop to work in now. Its only about 4 miles away from me.
Ive been through the boat build and Mods pages probably 5 times and Ill do more before Im through!!

Thanks,
Scott

lookin good!!! I see in the pics that you have old garden hose plumbing too. All of my garden hose was inactive but still in place. Took forever to remove it. Keep it up. The race is on.

Heated garage? Extra help? Def going to win. Be careful when you go to flip it upside down to paint and steelflexx. It is really heavy and the airvents (each side of rear deck) and motor control mounting box will crush pretty easy. What we did was push it up on its side, and as we lowered it upside down, we placed old tires in critical crush spots. When you get it turned over look where the trailer bunks slide. That is where most of my bad rivets were.

Did you Hammer and dolly them? How did you fix them?

well when I say bad, I don't mean just loose. Many of the rivet heads (just in the path of the bunks) were worn down to almost nothing. There was a couple basically missing. So i took a chizel and removed the heads on all the bad ones. Took a punch and knocked them all the way out. I went to the hardware store and bought a box of stainless steel 1/4" Carriage screws by 1/2" long. I also bought some stainless nuts with the nylon lock insert. The head on the Carriage screw was almost exactly like the head on the rivets. Just a tiny bit bigger. I did have to drill the holes out to 1/4" but most were almost that size already. put a little silicone in the hole and tightened them down. Works perfect and looks pretty good too. Rivets that just looked loose we used a hammer and bucking bar to tighten them. SteelFlexx and Paint should take care of the rest.

In other words your boat been used!! But its one helluva boat!! I cant find any info on them (Arkansas Made MonArks) Starcraft bought them out and I guess they didnt care about the previous customers.


Even though My boats a 78 model I dont think its seen that much water other than rain. theres hardly any dings on the boat.
Are you going to replace the transome wood? What are you going to use?

Heres some of the bottom rivets on mine, the worst ones anyway. I dont have a rivet on the bottom of my boat that doesnt have the factory pain on it.

Looks to me like you might want to make some trailer adjustments. Get the 2x4 bunk set so the boat sits on the wide side. Also looks like there was a nail sticking out. Look like a nice project, the boat looks in great shape for it's age.

Im definately Going to get the trailer right. Ill be doing that when I pull the boat off her for paint

SWEET!!! ANOTHER 'ol GREEN TINSTER on the forum!!! GO GREEN!!! 8)