Re: Converting Cajun Fish and Ski to Bass Boat
So I'm finished (for the most part). Here are my steps in for future reference:
- Made template out of carboard
- Made template out of scrap wood found in alley. Cut it based on cardboard then kept cutting it down until it fit snug in place.
- Bought sheet of marine grade plywood and cut out based on template and trimmed til perfect fit with jigsaw.
- Cut out hatches with jigsaw
- Applied carpet to main piece. Used outdoor carpet from Menards and Outdoor carpet adhesive. Stapled carpet down as well. There are plenty of sites that explain how to wrap corners and how to carpet in general that helped.
- Trimmed hatch door cutouts to allow room for carpet. Did this by placing cutouts in holes and eyeballing how much should be trimmed to make room for the carpet/hinges. About .5" off of height and width.
- Carpeted hatch doors - again found some decent resources on web for corners- by the end I got pretty good at it
- Cut hinges to size - got my hinges here http://www.stainless-hinges.com/aluminum_continuous_hinges.html . cheapest I could find
- Installed aluminum piece as stop for hatch door - drilled a bunch of holes and used brass screws. I didn't have enough clearance to use wood.
- Screwed hinge into cutout/hatch door
- screwed hinge into main peice
- got seat-belt like material for pulls (to open doors) - made loop and screwed in with washer/brass screw
- The deck fit in place like a glove but I wanted to reinforce so I put a metal bar across the weakest point (see pics) and wood underneath the rest so it has a supportive frame underneath. This makes it stick up slightly above the original deck but I don't think it will be a problem. If so I'll try to build a different frame.
The one step I skipped (and I hope I don't regret it) was sealing my wood. My thought is that its above the waterline, my boat sits in my garage and never in a slip on the water or outside, and the carpet adhesive is waterproof. Also I read about waterproofing for boats and how you have to drill out holes, fill with epoxy then drill out epoxy for every screw to do it right and I basically didn't have the time or energy to go through all that.
I'm taking her out tomorrow for a high school bass fishing team practice - first test of the deck. walking on it and testing it out in my garage it seems pretty awesome - huge improvement having the hatches open outward instead of the long way. Plus I have my trolling batteries up front which should help with weight distribution
I think it looks a lot better than the original padded bench seats as well
Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions/tips/etc - you made it easy to figure out
