Hello, first post...a few questions about my Valco

I just got my Dad's old 14 ft. Valco. He died in 86 and my sister insisted on taking the boat, so its been sitting in her yard for 20 plus years. They finally gave it to me.
I've have sanded down the outside and am now focused on the inside. I have removed the old carpet and have been scraping the glue off. I removed the old plywood from the three bench seats.

Here are my questions:
1) Although I have most of the glue removed, does anyone know of a product that will help loosen the remaining glue? I've used paint thinner and Goof Off, neither really works.
2) I plan on having the inside sprayed with Line X. Should I install the new plywood seats before spraying, or leave them off and install afterwards? I Know thats my call, but asking opinions.
3) What do you call those 12 inch brackets that attach the side of the boat to the bench? I'm missing one, and would like to get all new ones, but can't find them online. I'm wondering if Home Depot might have them.
4) I sanded the outside down to where the aluminum looks new. I plan on using this boat mainly in salt water since I fish the local bay. Should I paint or otherwise coat the aluminum exterior?

Thanks for reading,
Joe

1 I know Lowes and Home Depot both carry glue remover. Dont know the name but ask for carpet glue remover. 2 Not sure what brackets your talking about. Might need to take a picture and upload it so everyone can see it. I do know that you dont want to use anything but aluminium for the brackets to prevent corrosion. 3 I wouldnt spray over the plywood becaue if you ever had to replace the wood it could be a problem. 4 My guess, only a guess because I fish freshwater, would be to use the steelflex coatings for saltwater. I also know that linex can be put on in a smooth finish that might work just as well for the outside. Ask your linex guy about it. Once again I dont fish salt water so Im not sure on that part. Hope you post some pics on the build, ive thought about having one sprayed also. Good luck with build and welcome to tinboats.

Thank you Tater,
I have been having problems downloading from the camera, seems my PC wont accept the info. I will try to get pics up soon.
I just got back from home depot and picked up the glue remover, I hope it works.

Here's some before pics of the boat:

I have already sanded the outside at this point. I didn't have a trailer, I found this one and got a good deal for 300.00...after the junk I saw in that price range I knew this was a deal

You can see how the boat looked before sanding by looking around the lettering where I didn't sand.


Sorry about the sideways pics, we tried to rotate them but they wouldn't stay that way. You see the foot long braces that connect to the seats? I don't know what you call those, but I am missing one. I wanted to replace all of them, but couldn't find them anywhere. At home Depot the guy said to take 1/2" conduit and cut pieces, crimping both ends to make a brace. So I picked up the conduit.

I took the old plywood out yesterday and bought new wood today.

This area still isn't done, I picked up an epoxy remover awhile ago at H.D. and it works great, should've gotten it earlier.

Here's an area that's pretty much done.
Back to work...

Nice boat. Good find on the trailer too. Looks like the boats cleaning up nice too. I dont know on the brackets where you find any like them. I would try to make some if it was my boat. Only thing about conduit is I dont think its aluminium. If its not it will cause corrosion where the different metals meet.

Thanks Tater,
And thanks for the heads up regarding the conduit...I dont think its aluminum...oh well, a 10 ft piece only cost 1.98.
I figure something out.

Joe, I have a 14' Valco like yours and I picked up a 4'x1"x.125" piece of aluminum flat stock at Lowe's and made new supports so I could add someBerkley wall mount rod holders to my boat. I cut it into 4-12" pieces and bent them like the originals. If you do this just make sure that when you drill the holes in the bottom end that you take into account that there right and left sides. I did not do this and I have extra holes. I hope the pictures are of some help.
Doug

Doug,
Thank you so much.
It never occured to me that the brackets do not have to be round.
It makes all the sense in the world to do what you did.
Thanks again.
I now have my answer.

Looks very similar to my existing project. Mine has been sitting for 20 years also and had a lot of bad pits on the outside of the hull. I ground them down as best as I could and used an underwater primer first before the paint. Mine will be used only in fresh water as I have another boat for ocean stuff.

Good luck and post a lot of pictures so I can learn too.

BTW, was the carpet glued down directly on the aluminum floor? We are going over all the options for the floor now. Thanks.

nomowork said:

BTW, was the carpet glued down directly on the aluminum floor? We are going over all the options for the floor now. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Yes, the carpet was glued to the floor.
It took alot of sanding to get the glue off.
I just used a drill and some wire wheels.
Then I bought "Jasco Premium paint and expoxy remover" at Home Depot.
You brush it on and wait 15 minutes, and it softens the glue making it easier to take off. Just wish I had gotten it earlier.

Where you at?
I'm in Chino.

sirbeigealot said:

nomowork said:

BTW, was the carpet glued down directly on the aluminum floor? We are going over all the options for the floor now. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Yes, the carpet was glued to the floor.
It took alot of sanding to get the glue off.
I just used a drill and some wire wheels.
Then I bought "Jasco Premium paint and expoxy remover" at Home Depot.
You brush it on and wait 15 minutes, and it softens the glue making it easier to take off. Just wish I had gotten it earlier.

Where you at?
I'm in Chino.

Click to expand...

La Puente.

Looking at the boat today, I'm still going to try a wooden floor. My other boat has carpet and dropping fishing stuff on it sometimes is a bummer. I'm going to try a non slip coating.

Good luck with the wood floor, I hope it turns out nice.