slice

Here's another view. I decided on a post style nav light for the front so as not to interfere with a bow mounted trolling motor.

Under Bow light and front navigation light mount.

Lighting is very important for me. I go out before dark quite often and if I go out in the afternoon it's usually dark by the time I get home. I put 13 of these little LED livewell lights throughout the boat, as well as 3 larger ones under the bow and both sides of the transom. It was a lot of wiring, but worth it to me. All connections are water/weather proofed.

More shots to come.

This is how the front of the triangle is supported. I cut the aluminum parts at an angle to match the hull and glued on a chunk of tire rubber so there would be no direct aluminum framing to hull contact at that particular point. I figured a hole would develop there if i just left it metal to metal. This photo is looking up at the underside of the framing.

Triangular front deck support

Rear bench with LED lights installed.

Floor structure close up

the floor structure.

another view...

I used 1 1/2" x 1/8" thick aluminum angle for all deck and floor supports. You can also see the new grey paint on the interior. It's the wrinkly stuff from Ace. It's designed to stick to plastic yard furniture and put up with the flexing so it should be good for the boat. The can says it can be used on metal, plastic, wood, etc. We'll see.

Decided to paint the interior. Here is a prep shot.

Here's everything ripped out, with the flotation foam visible. I will actually put more foam in along the way.

more "before"

Well I'm not finished yet but I've got a lot of pictures. Here is my boat. Her name is Sunday. That's because I've spent so many of them working on her that I've lost count. I started with a 1984 12' Valco riveted V-hull. I like to fish for trout and bass, and it came with two downriggers (one electric!), a transom mount trolling motor, and a 15 HP Evinrude. After fixing 2 small leaking rivets I fished out of it 10 or 12 times before deciding to rip the whole thing apart and rebuild. Here are some "before" shots:

My pics are all over the place right now. I'll try to get organized tonight and post a few.

try these. You'll need to buy the seats and pedestal mount kits. They are usually sold separately. www.cabelas.com or www.basspro.com

One more vote for new plugs. They're cheap and even if thats not the problem, once you do fix the problem, you'll be running a new set of plugs.

Try 'Marine Goop' It's flexible and waterproof. Or, if it's a leaky rivet, get someone to help you by holding a small sledgehammer against the outside of it while you tap gently on the inside with another hammer.

Each boat is different. The floatation foam in a small boat is usually hidden inside of the bench seats. In my opinion, removing the bench seats on such a small craft would compromise the structural integrity of the hull and could lead to cracking from flexing, plus you wouldn't have a place for your foam. You could still put a floor in between the seats, and possibly deck across the front two benches. Try walking around on the bench seats with the boat in the water. If it feels stable enough for your liking, then add a deck at the bench height. If not you might want to just add some flooring between the benches just a few inches off the bottom of the boat. The reality is that a small boat can very easily become inundated. If that were to happen and there's no floatation foam, your boat and all your gear will go straight to the bottom of the lake. That would be a real bummer. Then there's that whole drowning thing...

I'm almost done doing a complete deck/seats/carpet/lighting mod on my 12 foot V. I will be posting a full series of pics as soon as i'm done. One thing I can't stress enough is DO NOT REMOVE YOUR FLOTATION FOAM!!!!! I'm sure someone somewhere will say how great it is to have all that extra storage, or that you really don't need all the foam, or that the coast guard makes the manufacturer put more in than is really needed, or, or, or. Bottom line for me: My six year old nephew fishes with me and my boat needs to float no matter what. Give some serious thought to keeping your foam.

Try these guys. Not sure if they have that exact size, but they have a lot of structural aluminum tubing. http://www.hollaender.com/?page_id=EC359A3C-0579-7DF3-2BE1D1DDF997D4AE

Check out this link. There are some helpful diagrams. http://www.boatfix.com/how/Ele2.html Also, do a search for "battery isolator."

I always remember to BRING the plug. I did forget to put it in once, though. My little 12 footer was half full of water by the time I parked my truck, figured out what I'd done, and sprinted back to the dock. Funny thing was that it was only my third time out, and it was my first time out solo. The first two outings were with my wife, and of course I just had to rattle on and on how important that little plug was during both of those trips. She laughed pretty hard when I got home and told her what happened.

I heard somewhere, (probably on this forum) that marine carpet is designed without 'loops'. That is, it's just a bunch of straight bristles sticking up. The reason for this is that it will snag far fewer fishing hooks. Cabelas has awesome marine grade grade carpet. Even the low end grade, which i'm putting in my boat right now, is totally awesome. It may be worth waiting and ordering some from them. Just a thought. here's a link to their carpet section. There are many other online sources as well. this just happens to be my bait monkey's favorite. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/index/index-display.jsp?id=cat21298&navAction=jump&navCount=1&cmCat=MainCatcat21276&parentType=category&parentId=cat21276