Side Projects - Certainly Won't Float

Good At Things

Between working on my house, my actual job, and some less-than-glamorous side jobs, I like to work on fun projects. Some of my own, some for other people. They almost always involve wires and something with motors because they're simple creatures that I understand. So here is a post about one of my more shiny accomplishments.

Sub $500 Deals

I'm a sucker for any form of a vehicle that costs less than $500. They're just too much fun. It's kind of like a one bedroom house. You can have lots of fun, do real things, learn some stuff, and if you mess it all up...you're not out much. Turns out this is true for boats too. So, I got a boat.

The only picture of it in its previous condition

It isn't fancy, it isn't impressive, it's just a 14ft flat bottom Lowe. Similar to my house, I have high hopes for this one. I want a bass boat, dad wants a stripped down shell of a Jon boat. So we both win on this one.

Step one: jump the gun and start playing around

I wanted two batteries that would be out of the way

Carpet Burn

The next 10 steps have carpet in them. I don't like gluing carpet. It sucks. But it goes pretty quick and the results are large. After building a proper deck on the front of the boat, and laying some fresh carpet, I had somewhere to put my fancy electric anchor winch and trolling motor. 

I want to caption every one with Boats and Hoes

Many years ago, the previous owner had a great idea. Instead of using plywood flooring he lined the bottom with Styrofoam and laid aluminum sheeting over it. Genius! Lightweight, extra flotation...except Styrofoam.  It actually sucks up water and rots out. So I replaced that with closed cell foam and recovered the floor with nice carpet...and it looks decent.

What you can't see is the 500 hours of aircraft stripper and burning skin involved. 

Like all projects work, its the same handful of processes over and over again. 

So:

-Rip it apart

-Strip all the old things out

-Strip the paint

-Paint

-Glue the carpet down

Here we go!

Stripped, painted.

Oh that looks better than I thought it would.

LEDs, Switches, and 100ft of wire

If you've ever read my previous posts(pretty sure you're the only one, mom!), I like to be a little excessive. But it doesn't seem that excessive to me.
Logic lesson:
-Flash lights are annoying, batteries suck, and you lose them. So wire the lights into the boat.
-Air horns go bad, whistles are for kids. Wire the horn into the boat.
-Bilge pumps are for big boats, or my boat. So I put one in.
-Nav lights are needed for night things, but you can get battery ones. Again, not my style.
-Electric anchors are for exerting no effort, add a switch 3ft closer to you.
-You're gonna want a live well. Well maybe not. But if you do, put a timer on that recirc pump.

Good conversation guys. Now its just wires and more wires and fancy switches.

I LOVE SWITCHES.

Also I'm pretty good at wires.

Fast Forward One Year

I didnt really take any more pictures after this. I just kinda piled through it, put it in dads garage and forgot about it.  

Other things I did:

-Rebuild the trailer

-Add new fenders

-Weld up light brackets to avoid that generic trailer lights

-Buy dope ass wheels for it

-Forgot that I owned it for like 8 months

BUT HERE IT IS! 

Maybe the only project I have ever 100% finished. Because its a boat, and an unfinished boat is bad.

This is the day Ty puked all over my truck.

It's a 14 foot boat. It holds 2.5 people. It ain't worth much. It don't do much. But every once in a while,  it's everything a person needs.

Things that make sunday's even more perfect.

He cannot swim. We learned the hard way.