1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

[THEMANFZ1]

I have been lurking on this forum for some time now and finally decided to join. I want to thank all of the folks on the forum who are ready to help those in need of information. For it?s because of your willingness to help that I was able to get several questions answered without ever having to join and ask said questions. Now due the the empowerment that you have given me I now offer my boat mod for your viewing pleasure and hope that it helps others as other posts have helped me.

I searched quite a few posts looking for a 12' alum mod but only found a few and neither was a mod that I was looking for. I really liked the mods that I saw on boats of longer lengths and was going to mod my boat accordingly but that was not to be possible.(more on this later) As the title states I have a 12 foot alum boat that I want to turn into a bass fishing machine. Here she is I bought her about 4 years ago and have never had her in the water! I know I know, hey life happens.

The previous owner had 12 x 1 painted boards atop 2x4?s for the floor. I removed those and the seats cleaned it out and started designing.

Now I had several designs in mind that I found in this forum as well as online like this one

and especially this one. Actually this is the mod that I was going to copy

I decided that I should check the boats stability and see if a deck mounted high or on the seats would affect the center of gravity and make the boat too unstable.

as you can see from the picture the boat is shall we say slightly tippy.

So I decided that a floor rather than a casting deck would be better (safer) design to go with.

 

[THEMANFZ1]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

I started with the floor frame and center seat/storage compartment using cardboard for templates

below is the wood floor frame and the center storage/seat.

Below is the rear floor frame

I used 5/8 ply and painted it with about 4 coats of exterior latex paint. I know spar varnish or resin would have been better but to be honest the last boat I had with a floor on it had 2 coats of paint and it lasted +/- 8 years so I figure I should be ok. That and I got a gal for only $7.00 at HD from their screw up paint bin. haha. Ok moving on. I wanted to move some of the weight forward so that the boat planes out easier so I decided to make the center Seat pretty wide for storage and for some support of the sides of the boat since all the seats were removed.

I have already painted the wood and have already started laying the carpet on the front deck. I just realized that I did not take any pictures of the deck in situ before or after I painted it so I will post the pics of the carpeted front floor tomorrow.

 

[THEMANFZ1]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

Here is another pic of the ctr seat/storage

Here are the hatches that were supposed to close the top however I failed to take into consideration the thickness of the carpet and did not leave enough of a lip to support the hatch so in cutting the hatches I left too thin a piece of wood in between the hatches as you can see from the pics.

look between the hatch on the right and center as well as the space between the hatch on the left and center you can see only 1/2 inch of ply that would be impossible to cover in carpet with out breaking it. So I have decided to make just one large hatch to cover the compartments from left to right after all why lift 3 seperate hatches when I can lift one?

As I said earlier I'm in the process of gluing on the carpet and should be done with that tomorrow. Err today (I just noticed the time) I will post more pics then. I do have a question for anyone that may have an opinion. I am not sure what to do with the sides of the boat, the inside sides if you will. Originally I was going to run carpet all the way up, but since I did not make a casting deck, I would now need to run the carpet from the floor up to the gunnels and the lower ribs would be tough to get the carpet around and I don't think it would look too good. So I was thinking about Line-x,Herculiner or the sort to add a fished look, seal the seams (although it has no leaks whatsoever) & quiet the hull a bit, or simply leave it as it is. This is the impasse that I am at.

 

[KD Fisherman]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

I do have a question for anyone that may have an opinion. I am not sure what to do with the sides of the boat, the inside sides if you will. Originally I was going to run carpet all the way up, but since I did not make a casting deck, I would now need to run the carpet from the floor up to the gunnels and the lower ribs would be tough to get the carpet around and I don't think it would look too good. So I was thinking about Line-x,Herculiner or the sort to add a fished look, seal the seams (although it has no leaks whatsoever) & quiet the hull a bit, or simply leave it as it is. This is the impasse that I am at.[/QUOTE]

I really like the storage that you built in. Check out Huron Angler's thread, he used the bedliner material and indicated that he would not do it again on his boats. I know how you feel about the casting platform, I really like them but the COG on my 14' Klamath will not allow for one either.

Cheers,
Kyle

 

[THEMANFZ1]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

Check out Huron Angler's thread, he used the bedliner material and indicated that he would not do it again on his boats. I know how you feel about the casting platform, I really like them but the COG on my 14' Klamath will not allow for one either.

Cheers,
Kyle

Thanks for that I had seen Huron's thread but did not read it completely. He states that "it always looks dirty and is hard to clean" This is exactly what I was thinking would happen, so I'm glad you referred me back to his thread and I actually read it. Looks like its au naturell for me. I'm surprised to hear that your 14' was tippy also, you would think it would be more stable but every boat is different. That's why mine took a dip in the pool first haha. Well back to the carpet laying I will post more pics later.

 

[5150abf]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

Wow, you are pretty handy with the wood there nice.

I like the 3 doors on the seat, that is pretty slick, seems to be coming along nicely.

Building your own boat is really cool, when I redid mine I changed the lay out of both casting decks to suit how I use the boat, no matter where you look on it you can say "I did that myself" it is really neat.

I have a 16' Sea-Nymph "bass" boat(I catfish),2 livewells,2 casting decks ect that I stripped to the hull and rebuilt, prior to finding this site so it never occured to me to take pics.

Nice build keep the pics coming.

 

[THEMANFZ1]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

I like the 3 doors on the seat, that is pretty slick, seems to be coming along nicely.

I agree about the 3 doors. I figured that I would just make one long door due to my mistake in allowing for enough room between the hatches, but I like the 3 hatch look as well so I think I figured out a way to be able to still have 3 hatch doors and not have to worry about the pieces that are too thin to carpet. I will post those pics when I'm done cutting, painting and carpeting. Until then here are some update pictures.

underside of rear deck:

underside of front deck, notice the cut outs for the bracing this allowed me to have just a bit wider deck:

front deck in place:

rear deck in place:

almost done:

 

[KD Fisherman]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

The deck is coming along nicely. That will sure make fishing more enjoyable. What thickness and grade of plywood are you using for the deck? Nice work on the progress so far.

Cheers,
Kyle

 

[Fishpoop]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

Nice work so far! Are you going to secure the floor somehow or are you going to let it loose (floating) so they can be removed? I'm thinking of doing something similar. I'm working on a 13' feathercraft skipper that is kinda like your boat. I'll be posting pictures of my rebuild when I'm finished (hopefully within the next two or three weeks).

 

[THEMANFZ1]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

The deck is coming along nicely. That will sure make fishing more enjoyable. What thickness and grade of plywood are you using for the deck? Nice work on the progress so far.

Cheers,
Kyle

I was going to use 1/2 ply but didn't think it was sturdy enough, and the 3/4 was too heavy so I used regular exterior 5/8 ply wood for the deck and box 2x2's for the framing.

Nice work so far! Are you going to secure the floor somehow or are you going to let it loose (floating) so they can be removed?

The plan is floating for now, but if it makes too much noise I may secure it yet allowing it to be removed for cleaning.
I'm headed out to carpet the hatches I'll post more pics when I get them done.

 

[THEMANFZ1]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

Well I'm done with the carpeting at least for the moment. I still haven't decided if I want to build another platform for the trolling motor and carpet it. For now here are some pics of the hatches that I finally decided to go with.

Here they are with the carpet in place:

Little loops to open them cheap & simple:

livewell and battery compartment. You can't see the batt but its there in front of the ice chest..er...livewell:

one of the compartments with lure boxes fitting perfectly:

The front waiting for the new seat and offset pedestal:

Its turning out ok I think. Not quite the "deck" that I wanted to build but I'm happy with it so far.

 

[Fishpoop]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

Very nice.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

I like it. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. I'd love to have a little boat like that to fish the skinnier river areas near me that I wouldn't dream of putting my boat in.

 

[KD Fisherman]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

Wow that looks really good...I am really impressed with the three hatch system. That looks really nice and very functional!

Cheers,
Kyle

 

[THEMANFZ1]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

I like it. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. I'd love to have a little boat like that to fish the skinnier river areas near me that I wouldn't dream of putting my boat in.

Yeah that is the reason I have this boat to get it in the small coves and rivers. My wife cant seem to understand this and wants me to sell it and get a larger bass boat. I tell her I plan on getting the bass boat but I'm not selling the little one. haha

Wow that looks really good...I am really impressed with the three hatch system. That looks really nice and very functional!

Cheers,
Kyle

Thanks KD I had screwed up the measurements on the hatches initially and thought that I was going to be stuck with only one instead of 3 but I was able to do it after all. The problem now is that they do not have a hinge. They are pressed in pretty tight which is ok but I wanted to put in a hinge so that they don't fly off during transport. I bought a piano hinge at HD yesterday but it doesn't close flat, it actually closes with an angle so I have to return that and head over to another hardware store to try and find a piano hinge that closes flat. All part of the experience I suppose.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

Wow nice work there, I really like what ya did with that middle bench seat for storage. I've been thinking about how to tackle that and have had similar ideas.

What kind of outboard is that? Looks like a 10hp Evinrude fisherman to me from the 70s. Any more photos of the project?

Mike

 

[chanley28]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

Very nice, My father just bought me a 12 foot Mirro craft boat. I have never owned a boat before, but I would really like to get a motor with a steering wheel console and linkage and all of that. I am going to attempt something similar to what you did with the floor, but I need a little guidance if you don't mind. What type of wood are you using for the flooring, what type of carpeting, do you glue the flooring down, or is it more of a floating set-up where it is not permaently attached to the aluminium. I am going to attempt a storage compartment such as yours, but I would like to make it a 2 comartment setup, with a steering wheel console. Any suggestions might be helpfull if you wouldn't mind. Thanks

 

[Toney100]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

I have almost the same boat,good ideas. I started my mod a couple days ago, trying not to steal your design, at least not all of it ha ha. Really looks good, great job. Your pics dont show how the floor is fastend,care to share. Will post pics of mine when I figger out how.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

That is a very nice looking fishing boat. It really doesn't look like it really cost all that much money. The center seat you made with the 3 storage compartments is very nice. The little loops might have been like you said a cheap and simple way, but sometimes that's the best way to go with it. Now have you thought about building a fish holding compartment to hold your fish? You did come up with a great simple way of doing it though. Excellent work.

 

[osborn159]

Re: 1968 12' foot Mirrocraft aluminum boat mod

outstanding looking, i like the hatches and the way your making it work for you, this will be one nice little shallow water fishin machine.
D