I'm finally finished with my boat restoration project. I don't know of anything on the boat, or trailer that hasn't been restored or replaced. Only isue that I now have is the boat is porpoising so I've got to redistribute some weight because it didn't do that prior to the restoration. It only had one trolling battery in it when I bought the boat and it was under the front deck. Now it has 2, group 31 batteries along with the cranking battery in the rear compartment. I may just stick a couple of extra group 31 batteries under the front deck to see if that balances the boat so I won't have to move anything that's not necessary.


This is what the Xpress like when I bought it.







There was around a 2 foot "gap" between the front of the console and the back of the front deck. I decided (after you peckerheads talked me into it) to make the deck come back to the console. Building the deck was no problem, but allowing enough room for the carpet so everything would look good when completed made my brain hurt.

The deck extension:



Added feet under the front deck for added support for 2 people:




In the paint bay:

Before:




After epoxy primer and urethane paint:




Motor cowling after new paint, new decals and clear coat:




Green LED lights under the gunwale for night fishing:




White LED's in the compartments:

This is her now! It was cloudy yesterday so the new paint doesn't shine, but the paint looks great.

You did a great job. FIne looking rig there

When can I drop my boat off for one of these custom renovations? Looks great.

congrats you should be proud ( im sure you are)

Great job. Looks awesome.

Looks great! Are you bringing it to Weiss in a couple weeks for the spring fishing trip?

Fur, you should be sooo proud. You did a great job. That's a fishin machine!

Fantastic work Fur.

Little work, little reward, Lot's work Big Reward, Looks great

Wow! A ton of work but it's a beautiful fishing machine now. You need to break it in with a big slab crappie!

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it. Nick, yes I'm taking it to Weiss for spring camp. Since I've never driven a boat on Weiss and it's as dangerous as it is, I may never get on plane the whole week. LOL,


I forgot to list it, but it's an 18' 6" boat. I figure I've got somewhere between 125-150 hours of labor in it. It took me nearly a week just to rewire it, working 3-4 hours each day after we closed up the shop.

Adding all the weight in the back compartment has screwed up the ride/drive. It's bouncing badly on plane when I pick the nose up out of the water. I know I can move some of the batteries up front if I have to, but I'd like to know if raising or lowering the motor would fix it. I REALLY don't want to have to move batteries. I'd have to pull more wires and I'd have to add length to the leads on my brand new 3 bank charger. If moving the motor will fix it, I'd much prefer to do that.

Marlon I tried to get some crappie slime in it yesterday but only managed to catch ditch pickles, white and yellow bass

Can’t wait to see it in person and get a ride in it . I probably won’t get on plane either. Been to Weiss one other time but had a buddy leading the way.

Looks awesome! The porpoising is probably because of the weight of the added deck. Leave the batteries in the back. Add a whale tail. Im not usually a fan of them, but it will help you.

Looks good!

Try raising the motor some that may make it level out, not trim it but actually raise where it is mounted if possible

Nice!

klay, it's already got a whale tail on it. Well, it's got a hydrofoil, I don't know if all of those are referred to as whale tails or not. I dang sure don't want to put the batteries up front. Nope, don't want to even think about it.

Thanks for the info Ben, the motor has been run in 2 different holes over the years and I put it back in the higher of the two, keeping the motor lower. I'll try raising it one hole and see if that helps.

Before my daughter and I went to the lake today, I went by the shop and grabbed 2 battery "cores" to put under the front deck. A 31 and a 27. It helped a little, but not much.

Thanks for the compliments guys!

I caught my first crappie out of it this afternoon. It was a dink, but it was still a crappie. Lord knows the wind was sure blowing today.

Hydraulic Jack plate. Maybe trim tabs too. Open your checkbook (again).