1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

These forums are the best for guys like me that are in need of some expert tutiliage from guys like you. I have adressed the transom issue with my wife (because as all of us know who are married, the final decision is hers to make) and she is 100% on board with re-doing it. I even told her we would rename the boat in her honor, "Nicole's Wet Spot". She was unresponsive to my humor, imagine that. I have also decided that I need to partially remove my back casting deck so I can get at the insulation under that portion of the boat (under the live-well and engine compartment). This may be a dumb question, but believe me I do not know anything about boats so to me there are no dumb questions, how do I check the hull for leaks? Again, I want to say thank you to all individuals on this site that decide everyday to share their knowledge of boats and boating to those of us that seek the information. I have been researching cooler building, transom repairs, aluminum cleaning, painting, and a plethora of other options I may need to complete my project and get my family and friends back on the water to enjoy the dog day's of summer. If people like you never get another thankyou from anyone you help, rest-assured that I will always appreciate the help you are giving me and mine.

 

[gooseofdeuce]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Scubby, if you are referring to the rectangle holes in the back, they are going to be new storage areas in the rear deck. I would really recomend pullling the livewell, deck, fuel tank, and "deck" or sheet the tank sits on. It's actually surprisingly easy to pull out. I just did this today, cleaned it out, adn already have the stern going back together, almost ready for carpet on there. But not to hijack i'll post pics on my build. Check for leaks one of two ways. Fill it up, or well, put a good amount of water in the hull with the drain plug in, if no water leaks out none will get in. Option #2, drag it down to the lake, preferably at a time there shouldn't be many other boaters at the ramp, and "launch it" keep it within a few feet or just over the trailer and keep a rope or the winch cable connected in case of worst case scenario. If no water gets in then you are good. Option #3 got a swimming pool?!?

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

After these first few pics they will be better. Just wanted to give my helpers an idea of what I am getting into, and anyone else who may be considering restoring an older tracker.

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Does anyone want to weigh-in on the notion of painting (treating) the inside of my boat before I start putting it back together. I am unsure if I should clean the aluminum and have it painted to ensure a long life for the hull. Is there any reward to doing this with aluminum? Or, is it a waste of time?

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Painting won't hurt anything, but I can't really see any merit in it. You're going to have your hands full just removing the old carpet adhesive for now. Then you're going to have to address the floatation foam. Then cut, fit, and seal the new decking plywood... then the deck finish. You're going to be busy for a while.

What kind of plywood are you going to use for the decking? What do you plan to seal it with? Are you going to recarpet or use something else?

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Hi Jig. I am not using plywood. I know a guy who knows a guy that knows, well you get the idea, that can get me some 1/2" composite board (unsure what it is actually made out of). The material is kind of like plexiglass but much thicker, stronger, and lighter. I struggled with the notion of using some form of spray-on bed liner to re-surface the boat, but I think it will be best if I carpet it with something good. I have kids that will be up and down, in and out, and all over this boat when I am done and I do not want to hear any screaming because of skinned knees and/or elbows. One of my neighbors is a flooring manager at home depot and says he can get me their best carpet at bargain basement price. I am not sure if the outdoor carpet they have is going to last a long time though, compared to marine grade carpet. What do you think? Tonight I had about two hours left to complete the tear-down of the boat, (insulation gone, aluminum scraped and wire wheeled to clean, then my brother in law came by and had a few beers and put a stop to the progress. I need to build a motor stand next (if I would have had one built I could have had him help me remove the motor). Then, it is on to the transom tear out and rebuild. My b.i.l. works in a body shop and said he can do the pressure cleaning and all painting related work with me in his shop some night. Awesome, it is about 5 below these days which makes it pretty hard to do anything outside like pressure washing.The transom really has me worried though. It seems like such a large task for one person to undertake, but I came this far on my own I do not see why I can't finish the whole thing by myself. Hope to have more pics in the next few days. SEE YA!

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Picked-up the materials to build mount for outboard yesterday, hope to have it done today. Then it's off to marking wires before disassembly of motor. Need to take lots of pictures cause I know I won't rmember where everything goes in a month or two's time. Been looking everywhere to try and find detailed pics of transom removal for my type of boat but have'nt had any luck yet. I think I'll have to just bite the bullet and start tearing into it. Hopefully I will be able to figure it out without causing too much damage. Will post pics when I get that far.

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

I have a question for anyone. I have a triangular shaped piece of equipment located on the hull of my boat about 6" from the very rear of the boat. Under the boat, at the very same position, is a hole cut in the hull about 1 1/2" in diameter. Above this hole is what looks to be an aluminum patch (covering the hole) with three rivets holding it in place. There is one wire going to the device, backtracking the wire, it dead-ends by the dash (cut). The entire area has been smeared with siliconed. Any thoughts?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Transducer for a depth/fish finder.

 

[fishnfull]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Thanks for the feedback guys. Was hoping to compare apples to apples, but I'd have to assume your deep V weighs about the same as the tournament.

Would it be safe to say that most of the new carpet is going to get destroyed in this process? I haven't looked too far, but i'm assuming that I'm not going to easily find all rivots and screws unless i tear up the carpet, including inside the front storage boxes. Doesn't sound fun. Wish I had found this last Fall when I brought it home (or before I sold my Guide 16 last week!).

I go up to Canada every year end of May. Not sure this boat is going to make it for that.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Thanks for the feedback guys. Was hoping to compare apples to apples, but I'd have to assume your deep V weighs about the same as the tournament.

Would it be safe to say that most of the new carpet is going to get destroyed in this process? I haven't looked too far, but i'm assuming that I'm not going to easily find all rivots and screws unless i tear up the carpet, including inside the front storage boxes. Doesn't sound fun. Wish I had found this last Fall when I brought it home (or before I sold my Guide 16 last week!).

I go up to Canada every year end of May. Not sure this boat is going to make it for that.

Finding your deck screws depends on how your PO did the carpet, if he did it right you'll be able to find them all. Doing it right means wraping each of decking individually and then screwing the finished deck down... unfortunately a lot of people don't do this and screw the decking down and then lay the carpet. In the latter it means all the carpeting has to be ripped up to remove the decking. If the PO did it like the factory install you'll just have to dig around through the carpet pile/nap and find the screws, it's not to hard to find them after the first few.

All the boxes are either riveted or screwed down through the top and the fasteners are exposed when the decking is removed. These Trackers are pretty easy to work on and after you take it apart the first time they're a piece of cake to do again.

If you decide to do this, you really should start your own thread and I'll help you as much as I can.

Here's a link to my resto:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=509163

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Hey fishnfull. I would not worrry too much about the front storage boxes. Mine were so rotted out that I had to remove the entire sub floor under the storage area. It is not a great deal of work to remove these things, but if you can try and keep everything intact as one full piece to use when cutting a new floor. My project is coming along quite nicely, and I am making a great deal of progress with limited road blocks. I am currently welding old rivets and stopping the leaks that I found when I water checked my boat. When that is done I am going to start to fabricate the new layout of my front casting deck (making the new deck come all the way back to the steering console). I can send you some pics if it would help you with your project. Just say the word. The biggest thing I learned in these forums are that these guys are here to give pointers, they cannot actually do the work for you (that would be nice though). Send me a private message (PM) if you need something in particular dealing with your project.

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Just to fill everyone in and ask another question of the experts. I have decided to use plywood to re-surface my boat. The question I have is one of sealing the wood. Can I seal the wood with polyester resin and call it good? Or, should I go with the pricy stuff that allows the wood to flex and give? I have heard that the polyester resin will become brittle over time and eventually crack when force is applied to the piece. Looking for recommendations from those that may have used both over the years.

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES) is the better stuff I am referring to in the last post.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Polyester resin is pretty much useless without glass cloth to strengthen it.

Epoxy resin is great stuff, but it needs to be protected from the sun with vinyl, carpet or some kind of paint.

Exterior grade Spar Urethane is another option, but the epoxy resin is much more money than the Spar and it is much stronger and longer lasting.

Whichever one you use apply 3 or 4 good coats with the recommended drying time between each coat.

I use the epoxy resin on larger projects because I order it from here:

http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html

I use the 635 medium cure, be sure to order the pumps at the bottom of the page for easy 3:1 measuring.

For smaller projects I use the exterior Spar urethane and just buy a quart at Wal mart.

 

[fishnfull]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Scubby - did you end up taking apart the rear of your boat? This is what I found...

I have the entire rear of the boat gutted including the foam that filled the side compartments. It's a bit of work, but well worth it if you didin't plan on going there. There are sheets of foam layed all through the center of the boat from the middle boxed cross section to the transom. That foam was the worst of it all.

I did not remove the center box that spans the width of the boat (the one your seats mount on). However I did cut a hole below the center drop in box to retrieve the foam that's under it. That section (in my opinion) is crucial to get cleaned out. With my entire boat stripped out and the foam still in that section, it would not drain properly. The foam was saturated and it had expanded to a point that it would not let water pass through the holes. As soon as I pulled that foam out, it was like a dam breaking.

Still working on clean up. In the next couple of weeks I plan to start pouring foam (from US Composites, also recommended by jigngrub) back in the boat. They recommended the 4# foam for the rear compartments because you stand on them. 2# is good for the rest of the boat. I just bought all 4# to make it easier. I'm going to use an exterior house sheet foam to form the rear compartments along with placing dams between the bilge sections to stop the flow of the pourable.

My next investment is a good rivet gun!

 

[scubby]

Re: 1985 Tracker Tournament V 17

Hey fishnfull,

I extracted everything from the rear of my boat except for the two side compartments at the very rear. I think these are what you are referring to as being full of foam. I also removed all the foam from these two spots. In this area I cut two new hatches for extra storage, previously I had only two storage compartments in this area I now have 4. Also, I gutted the entire boat of it's old foam. I did not touch my seating area (bench that spans the width of the boat), but did clean out underneath and replaced old foam with new floatation.

All of my new decking is cut, trimmed, and ready for hinges. My new decking is almost completely made-up of doors with storage underneath, very much needed. Will work on updated pics for everyone following.

 

[driz]

Hi. I know this thread is ancient history but I have a problem that you can probably answer. I have same boat w 50 merc. It behaved very badly only trimming nearly full down or bow rose excessively. Squirrely handling ect. I tore it right down to the ribs expecting to find totally wet foam. Dry as a bone and it's a straight boat no bends or other damage showing. The motor appears to be mounted right fully down on the transom ect.
I am replacing the wood which what was on there was 5/8" in the middle ( huge piece) and 3/4 on the foredeck and peak portions. Looking at these I have no real way of knowing if they are OEM or replaced and redone by prior owner. Its pretty obvious that some sort of weight and balance issue is creating this, there isn't anything else left. So tell me, What is the OEM plywood thickness of those front decks? I don't want to put this back together again to take it all apart.

 

[jigngrub]

5/8" is OEM for Tracker TV17 and I seriously doubt the difference between the 3/4 and 5/8 makes any difference.

Plywood weighs 25 lbs per 1/4" thickness per sheet, so you're only talking about 12 lbs. difference between 5/8 and 3/4" per 4'x8' sheet.

Have you checked the trim tab/zinc anode on the bottom of your motor? You'd be surprised at how badly one of these boats will perform with a broken or non existent trim tab anode, mine broke off and I couldn't figure out what in the hell was wrong until I noticed it was gone... replaced it and all was good again.

Have you core sampled the foam to make sure it's dry below the surface? Foam can be dry on the surface and totally saturated below the surface.