fishdog4449
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2007
- Messages
- 462
This was my first boat, and even though I did this three years ago I am posting pics anyway!
All through middle school I had a close friend who had a river house on the Potomac, and I would spend weekends there. I got really hooked on boating and decided I needed a boat. I had no experience with working on boats prior but I rebuilt and built all manner of things so I thought I could handle it.
So in the summer of my 9th grade year I picked up a deal for $300 of my grass cutting money. Boat was a 1971 Lonestar Cadet 14' closed bow with a trailer and two 25HP Johnsons, a '75 and the original '71 as a parts motor.
The '75 motor had seen better days, but ran. The trailer had seen better days as well. Matter of fact, so had the boat. It had a hole in the floor and was water logged. But the price was right.
I decided to restore both the trailer and boat at the same time. The boat was placed on two 4x4s on top of blocks inside the garage, which allowed me to slide the trailer out from underneath.
I'll start with the trailer because i took the most pictures.
Here is the trailer as I found it. The rear beam holding up the bunks had rusted completely through and would bend if you kicked it. Not good!
Here is the cleaned up trailer with the first coat of primer.
I replaced the rusted beam with two 2x4s bolted together and bolted to the frame, which has now been painted a nice blue that I found in the garage. Always good to save money on paint!
Now, those old 12 inch bunks simply would not do. I made two new ones made of two 2x4s bolted together, with an angled 2x4 on top which I synced to the boat hull. The bunk assemblies were bolted to the trailer via pieces of 90degree angle stock.
Results!
All through middle school I had a close friend who had a river house on the Potomac, and I would spend weekends there. I got really hooked on boating and decided I needed a boat. I had no experience with working on boats prior but I rebuilt and built all manner of things so I thought I could handle it.
So in the summer of my 9th grade year I picked up a deal for $300 of my grass cutting money. Boat was a 1971 Lonestar Cadet 14' closed bow with a trailer and two 25HP Johnsons, a '75 and the original '71 as a parts motor.
The '75 motor had seen better days, but ran. The trailer had seen better days as well. Matter of fact, so had the boat. It had a hole in the floor and was water logged. But the price was right.
I decided to restore both the trailer and boat at the same time. The boat was placed on two 4x4s on top of blocks inside the garage, which allowed me to slide the trailer out from underneath.
I'll start with the trailer because i took the most pictures.
Here is the trailer as I found it. The rear beam holding up the bunks had rusted completely through and would bend if you kicked it. Not good!
Here is the cleaned up trailer with the first coat of primer.
I replaced the rusted beam with two 2x4s bolted together and bolted to the frame, which has now been painted a nice blue that I found in the garage. Always good to save money on paint!
Now, those old 12 inch bunks simply would not do. I made two new ones made of two 2x4s bolted together, with an angled 2x4 on top which I synced to the boat hull. The bunk assemblies were bolted to the trailer via pieces of 90degree angle stock.
Results!
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