At a garage sale one Saturday morning I noticed the seller was using an old aluminum Jon boat as a bench to display some of the stuff he was selling. The paint was peeling and it was obvious the wood seats were long past their useful life but all in all it didn't have any visible holes or other damage. I asked the gent what he was going to do with the boat after the sale and he said he was just going to leave it behind when they moved. I offered him twenty-five dollars for it and he quickly agreed to the sale. The boat then joined some of my many other pending projects outside my shop. My grand kids who love to fish in our small lake kept asking when I was going to "fix" it so on the saw horses it went for a rebuild. The first problem to tackle was an infestation of carpenter ants that had made a nest in the styro foam floats under one of the seats. I tried sprays, ant traps, gel baits and when they seemed to be gone I would find still more ants the next day. I finally settled on wrapping the boat with plastic and tape and setting off one of those home insect bombs.
Since the boat was outside I could leave it alone for a couple of days before unwrapping it. I unwrapped the boat a couple of days later and could not believe how many dead ants I found. I had removed dozens beforehand and now I had to use a shop vac to get them all out but it appeared I had finally won the battle. I removed the last vestiges of the wooden seats and discarded them. Using flat putty knives and wire brushes I cleaned every inch of the interior of the boat checking all the rivets as I went. Once the inside was completely clean I vacuumed and tack ragged all the surfaces and then applied a good coat of primer made just for aluminum. With some help I flipped the boat over so the bottom side could be repaired next. Again I carefully scraped and wire brushed every square inch of the bottom of the boat. The bottom side paint was in much poorer shape than the inside so I used a hand held orbital pad sander to speed along the paint removal process. I wanted to use no chemical strippers as the boat was going to be used in our lake.
Once the bottom was well sanded (my wife kept reminding me that, that part was going to be underwater) I applied a coat of the same aluminum primer. Checking each riveted seam I found a couple that had some dried sealing caulk in them so I removed the dried material and applied a new bead of silicone sealer. Flipping the boat back on it's bottom side the next item of work was to replace all the wooden parts of the boat. The boat has two wide seats and one small triangular metal seat in the bow. The bow had a small triangular piece of wood at the point where all the metal parts of the boat joined. Mostly for appearance sake I think but it did dress up the front a little so I cut out a new one and screwed it in place. I was able to find two rough cut fourteen inch by one inch thick pine boards that I was able to use for the new seats. Cutting them to size and then sanding and finishing them with three coats of marine clear urethane made sure they will give me years of service. The rear transom was compiled of two pieces of half inch thick wood, one inside and one outside. These pieces were intended to hold the clamps of any motor used on the boat. We have no motors and allow only oars on the lake but the wood would stiffen the rear of the boat in any case.
I could find no pressure treated wood in a one half inch thick size so I used PT plywood. I did cheat a little as a sheet of marine plywood was dollars at my local yard so I opted for using PT plywood instead. I had a small piece left over from another project so the price was just right. I cut out two new pieces tracing the shapes of the old ones I had removed. Using new galvanized carriage bolts, nuts and washers along with a good dollop of silicone sealer in each bolt hole, I carefully pushed the bolts through the pre-drilled holes twisting them as I went to allow as much sealer to stay in the holes as possible. The carriage bolt head type left as little metal outside for rust to attack. I applied two coats of blue paint to both the inside and outside of the boat and then installed the new wood seats. I made two new anchors out of large metal juice cans filled with cement and a large screw eye bolt. Some poly rope tied to the ends of the boat completed the setup. Each child has their own safety flotation vest even though they are all good swimmers. The boat is now ready for myself and the grand kids to enjoy on our weekend fishing adventures.
Pete
Your Friendly Building Inspector
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