I bought this as a beat up, leaky, hole-filled hull back in February. 6 months, many hours of hard work, lots of welding & far too much money later.......








I'm unsure what year the hull was built, but I'm guessing late '60s - early '70s. It's an 1850 with 20" sides. All 1/8" aluminum hull. I put in a wooden (yeuch) sub-floor to save a little cash. I coated the outside of the hull with airboat bottom paint (I don't recall the brand now) & had the interior sprayed out by Speedliner (Including under the subfloor.
The deck is 6' x 6' all welded aluminum (2x1 sides, front & back. 2x1 crossmembers every 12" & 2x2 angle fore-aft braces every 18". 2x2 box legs) with an 1/8" aluminum floor, screwed every 6" I painted it with roll on bedliner from Lowes.
The rail is built from 1" ERW conduit & the lights are E-Conolights 150W HPS.
I've run 2 lengths of LED ropelight around the inside of the gunwales.
I cut out the center seat to make 2 stub-seats & create a lot more floor space.
The console I reclaimed from a junkyard & mounted myself.
Engine is a 2004 Force 50hp & the troller is a 55lb 12v run off a DLS-45 Iota converter.
The camo job is rattle-can crap, but it's cheap!

I'll post up a couple of night-shots as soon as it gets dark!

Very cool sir!      

That's great Rob....your hard work paid off with a great boat that looks like it will light up the night!  Awesome buddy    

rob
great job very professional looking
the only problem i see is with the squared up front  if you step out past the side of the boat it may become pretty unstable
(at least it did on owlbaits 1660)
we ended up 45 ing the front corners
now go fill that ol girl with fish
kevin

Nice set up for sure. Can't wait to see it get wet and some pics!

Great Job,looks like a winner.

whoa rob dude, AWESOME float!      

First thing I thought about too Rob. Be careful on those corners until you see how stable she is. What kind of fish bucket are you going to use? Check out your weight ratings and think about how much your deck weighs. My boat was way over the rated limit at one time! Have fun and put some blood, guts and slime in her!!!

Serious rig with all those lights and set up. Awsome.

Robo,

Great place to sip coffee and eat pound cake, Dude!  

Here's a few night shots.....

I bought this as a beat up, leaky, hole-filled hull back in February. 6 months, many hours of hard work, lots of welding & far too much money later.......

 
 
 
 

That thing can really through out some light.

Now that is a boat to be proud of.  You did a great job on that one.

That's a serious rig!  Looking forward to the action pictures  

LOOKS GOOD. NOW GO HAVE SOME FUN.I LOVE MY BOWFISH'N


   TXCP.

Can I come over and play? Nice work Rob!

That is one awesomely cool boat right there!

I looked into the LED rope lighting and that stuff ain't cheap! I really like the idea though. I've been wanting to put a floor in my 16' Lowe too. I'm trying to find an alternative to wood because of it being so heavy. Would really like to have an aluminum sheet metal floor, but I'm afraid it would be very expensive.

Looks like all your hard work paid off very well.  

Wow that is a nice job!!!

That is a great looking setup Rob

Awsome boat Rob - I would think all the weight you added will also make it ver stable but if you have issues with stability standing out on the corners you could try adding styrofoam under the floor in the bow(if there is room). Beats the heck out of my canoe that is for sure.  Also, if you  have not alreasy though of it and I am guessing that you have, I would put in a switch board to control the lights so you are only using the lights you need at any one time.  This will keep most of the skeeters and other bugs in one spot and not everywhere.
Looks like room for two - do you take passengers if they buy gas???
Bob Urban