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Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 2:54 pm
by Crowsridge
I searched for a guide style boat for two years and stumbled upon this boat.
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So I dragged her home.
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Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 3:09 pm
by Crowsridge
They had removed the Chevy 496 and the Hamilton pump, but I liked the size and overall condition. More importantly, my Wife LOVED it and couldn't get over how safe she felt with the sides ans the added rail. Brought it home, stripped off the swim platform and had a local builder add the offshore bracket. I was having a Black Max rebuilt to hang on her and got a 15 hp Merc for the kicker.
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Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:03 pm
by Crowsridge
Did some surgery on the old motor compartment. Made storage and a new deck to cover the floor opening behind the center console.

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:19 pm
by Crowsridge
Took it out to the lake. It worked like a champ.

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 9:28 pm
by Crowsridge
Since getting this boat, our situation has changed. We will be moving up north and when we tried the boat on last New Years (2015) and 15 degrees, we decided an open boat is no longer the right fit. Hence the title, build a pilot house.

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:36 pm
by Chaps
Interesting project!

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 1:36 pm
by Crowsridge
I took the boat to another boat builder to have him spruce this one up to sell and maybe build a new one. He looked it over and said just build this one into what I want. Now, I will state right off. I know its a jet sled hull. I know it will not be an ocean boat. This is more of a "See if I can do it" project. So far, I have to say, its as much fun designing and building it as it is to fish it.

Armed with the blessing of the builder to figure out what I really want, and to "do whatever I want to do to save on shop time" I came home to strip out the floors, wiring and plumbing. He said I didn't need to pay him $100 an hour to do that if I don't want to.

Sooooo, here we go.

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 11:53 am
by Crowsridge
Hmmm. Can no longer add photos. Haven't changed anything, but now they are all too large.

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 11:23 pm
by wdlfbio
Get that fixed. We are gonna want plenty of photos of your progress! :)

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:29 pm
by Crowsridge
Sat in the boat every day after work to envision what I wanted the end result to be.
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Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:45 pm
by Crowsridge
Started playing with paint removing trials. Nothing seems to be the silver bullet. Too hot for liquid. Gel was better, but flashes off before it worked completely. Mechanical removal SUCKS! It turns out that a combination is the key. Whatever they used at FishRite for a primer was intended to bond!!!!
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Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:58 pm
by Crowsridge
It was my intention to strip the boat inside and out and then take it back to the builder. The more I sat in it after work, the more I wanted to see what the possibilities were. I bought some bending plywood and cut out some parts to see what it would look like, get a sense of scale and proportion. Since I didn't have a set of plans, its all in the mind and eye. kind of a crap shoot, but I wanted to prove to myself i could do it. I figured making some templates would save some time and give a true view of what was coming.
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When I took the flooring out, I was excited to find that the 50 gallon tank I thought (from the tag on the tank) was actually 2ea. 50 g welded together. BARGAIN!

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 10:16 pm
by Crowsridge
By now, my creative side was spinning out of control. I wanted to do more. I had a big Lincoln TIG but knew that want going to fly. I bought a new Miller 210 and a Spoolmate 150 and brought it home and practiced the daylights out of it. I melted about two pounds of wire just practicing, breaking and sawing the joints open to see if I was getting the correct results. After all, I was just going to tack some of the parts together and have the builder do the "real" welds.
So next, I went to Pacific Metals and got a little bit of metal. 502 pounds to be exact.
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Ive been told "You cant have too much Diamond Plate". We will see if that holds true.

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 10:33 pm
by Crowsridge
So I took my measurements from the templates I had made and drew them out on paper and took them and the metal to a shop I knew had a big press. You have to wear gloves and sun glasses when working with this stuff outside. Its worse than a mirror, pretty nasty. Gary (owner left)and Jason were great to work with. $250.00 and a couple hours later and my sheets of flat stock were sheared to the proper size and the others were formed and back home I went.
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Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:04 pm
by JonH
Do you plan on removing all the foam that is in the hull?

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 8:06 pm
by Crowsridge
The jury is still out on that. I was going to, but there is zero corrosion under it and having some flotation seems comforting.

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:01 pm
by Crowsridge
This piece is the forward bulkhead/dash. It will hold the windshield up and keep the water out. It is formed to create a small trough just below the front hatch in the front deck. Water entering the bow will drain to the trough and out the scuppers on the sides.
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I call these pieces "conversion pieces" as they will make the transition of the curved gunwhale to the flat walls of the pilot house.
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Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 5:50 pm
by Crowsridge
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Put up the side panels to finalize the height of the walls and the angle of the front windshield. I have 6' 2" at the sides of the cabin. Im 5'11" and middle son is 6'2". He might have to duck a tiny bit with his hat on.
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That rear post adds lots of rigidity/stability and keeps the theme of the original boats (lots of diamond plate) theme.

Re: Guide boat build into a pilot house. Cant wait!

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 6:03 pm
by Crowsridge
This section is the center beam of the pilot house. 6'6" headroom there.
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