Late 1970s Landau 1663 (1650) Semi-V

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crabbingdan

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2014
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Location
Harrisonburg, VA
I bought this boat and trailer about two years ago for pretty dirt cheap. As far as I can tell, it's a '78 or '79 Landau 1663V semi-v. I guess Landau measures the width from the top of the gunwales, so it's 16 feet long and 63 inches wide at the top, right at 50 inches wide at the lowest point of the hull. It's more like a 1650, compared to most other manufacturer's standards.

I've been using my 12' Sea King semi-v that I restored a while ago, so while this "new" boat isn't huge, it will definitely give me work space, stability, and piece of mind.

In the past two years since I bought it, I got married, bought a house, and we had our first kid, so the modifications to this 16 footer have been slow and far between at times. It's been a fun and wild ride, but those things take priority over an old aluminum boat. I'm getting kind of close to being done though, so I thought I'd do a couple posts to show the progress.

I wanted more open space in the boat to create as close to a "work boat" as possible for crabbing. My plans included checking for and patching leaks, removing the middle seat, adding a support frame/system parallel to the gunwales to add rigidity to make up for the seat being gone, flat floor, replace the transom, new paint, front deck to store a cooler and anchor, and small rear deck to cover the gas tank, and add foam for flotation.

I also wanted to give it a kind of classic look, with a lot of exposed wood, as opposed to covering all the decking with carpet.

Here are a couple before pictures:
 

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First step was to take it out and check for leaks. I was really happy and surprised to find that it didn't leak at all.

Next I removed the middle seat.
 

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The transom was in pretty bad shape. It had a piece of aluminum over the top half of the wood, and the exposed wood was rotting. I was able to get that metal sheet off and drill out the through-bolts and get the old wood off there.

Looks like this boat at one point had a splash well, but someone removed that a while ago.

I used the old transom board to shape a new one out of two sheets of 3/4 inch plywood, laminated together. Then put a ton of coats of varnish over it. I waited to install it until after the painting was done.
 

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Good looking boat! I'm new here too and joined to post some Q's and later some progress on hopefully decking mine in. I bought what appears to be a 1978 (based on HIN) Landau 1463 with trailer for $150. Excited to see the progress on yours =D>! Mine didn't come with a title so I'm busy going down that road with mine for the time being.
 
Awesome! Mine was $175 for the boat and trailer, I thought it was a sweet deal. And the real selling point was both boat and trailer had titles to go with them, so that made it a no brainer.

Not too long after I started the modifications, I traded up for a slightly better and rust-free trailer at a local marine repair shop, I'll post that in a bit.
 
crabbingdan said:
both boat and trailer had titles to go with them, so that made it a no brainer.

I'm in Missouri and waiting on someone to get back to me with the results of a HIN search trying to locate an original title holder to get duplicate title paperwork submitted or to try for abandoned property title. Trailer needs a bit of work on my end but nothing I can't handle.

I'll be following your build and many others to get some ideas for mine, I'll know more when I can get it out on the water and stand on the front bench and give it a stability test.
 
I used Rustoleum self-etching primer and Pettit Easypoxy paint for the two shades of blue on the hull. I did two coats of everything.

Before painting, I went crazy with 3M 5200 fast cure and sealed up most of the rivets and seams on the floor. After painting, I installed the new transom back in place using stainless steel bolts, washers, and non-slip nuts and applied 5200 in the through holes. I secured the two transom braces back in place with the stainless steel hardware and coated everything with 5200. It's wasn't the cleanest job, but I won't see that floor when I'm done with it and most of that transom won't be too obvious either.
 

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With the middle seat gone, there are two bench seats left, not counting the small "seat" up in the bow. I removed the old wood bench boards and wanted to reinforce and attach the metal sheets from the bottom of the hull to the sides of the boat near the bench braces. I ran 1" aluminum angle horizontally lengthwise along the bench seats and attached them to the side braces.

Then I attached the front and back benches with 1" aluminum angle running lengthwise on both sides of the boat. Also ran angle from bench to bench at the floor of the boat, screwing them into the floor ribs. Then connected these top and bottom angles with vertical 1" angle supports to form the framework for side rails.
 

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Next I got started on the framing for the front deck. I used mostly 1.5" inch aluminum angle and all stainless steel hardware. The plan was to create a deck that sits just under the gunwales. Not so much for casting or fishing from, but for cooler, anchor, fender, and gear storage.

I formed two pieces of angle to fit the curves of the bow and bolted them to the sides at the height I wanted the deck. This would provide support for all the cross pieces and eventually the wood decking that covers it. I framed in a rectangular opening for an eventual hatch for cooler access. Also framed in braces for the plywood floor for the cooler to sit on.
 

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Looks good! Looks almost like the project im starting! So you like the stainless "screws" over aluminum "rivets"? Why?

Just asking because im going to start mine soon and want opinions!

Thx!
-carl


Sent from Mossy Oak Swamp Bottom
 
Carl - Thanks!
I didn't use rivets mainly because I've never used them all that much before, so I just don't know much about them. ...not the best reason to not do something, but I guess I felt more comfortable going forward with material I'm familiar with.

In my experience once you tighten a nylon insert lock nut onto a machine screw, it pretty much stays there, so I just used those. So I used stainless steel machine screws and stainless steel nylon insert lock nuts for all of the aluminum angle framework, and for the through-hull connections. And just stainless steel screws for screwing the angle onto the ribs (where you can't get a nut on the back side).
 
Framing continued...

Framed in two hatches on the bow deck, along with vertical supports from ribs to deck frame. Connected bow deck to the front bench seat at a softer angle, to prevent it looking too boxy with so many right angles. The front bench will have a flip up seat, and will serve as a storage compartment for batteries. So I added supports inside the bench just above the floor for battery platforms, and added supports to the top of the bench for the flip up seat.
 

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The back bench seat will have stationary, permanent boards across it. I cut out the front face of the bench to make two cubby holes for storage inside the bench.

I framed the back deck to cover the gas tank storage area, leaving an opening for the outboard, hoses, wires, etc.

Connected the back deck to the back bench seat again at a slightly softer angle.
 

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I coated the SS with loctite 243 and some with TefGel to prevent corrosion in the brackish waters I go in.
I've had the same SS hardware in an old aluminum boat for years now and no reaction has occurred yet.
 
To add a flat floor, I added braces along the bottom of the side rails for the floor joists to sit on. Ran the joists across and tied them to the center of the ribs across the floor.
 

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Used cardboard to get an idea for the layout of the front and back decks. For the side rails and risers, just measured and cut. Used a hole saw to cut the round edges of the under-seat storage area, then jigsaw to connect the curves.
 

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Cut holes in the top rail boards for cup holders, rounded the edges of everything, and sanded. I chose an oak stain to darken it up a little and bring out the grain. Then I put 8 coats of marine varnish covering everything, with light sanding between every other coat. I don't really care for using varnish all that much, so I was really happy when this was over!
 

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