Little background regarding this thread. I picked up a 12' jon boat from a neighbor back when I was a teenager. It has set at my parents through the years. Since I'm now in Dallas and have the room I'm headed home to go fix it up for this upcoming crappie season. Just gonna start out fixing any leaks, painting and herculining it. I've got most of the materials picked up. I've been browsing the web getting any information and ideas I might need. Not trying to do anything fancy at this point. Just needing a boat to get around with on the creeks. I thought I would start this thread and get input from my forum brethren. Any comments, suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Pictures from start to finish will follow shortly.

Jerm

surely you must have seen www.tinboats.net but thought I'd throw it on here just in case.

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

When I was a teenager, my friend and I bought a flat bottom john boat and customized it for fishing in the creeks off the DE River in Southern NJ. I unfortunately don't have any pics to show, but I can tell you some things we did that made it nice to fish out of.

We cut some plywood to fit in the bottom and covered them in outdoor carpet, (glued on top and stapled on the under side) then screwed a couple drawer pull type handles on the top around the sides so we could remove them easily to clean the bottom of the boat out. We also went and got some pretty heavy gauged diamond plate cut to fit over the bench seats and mounted some decent folding pedestal seats before anchoring them into the benches. Silicone was our friend! Then we mounted a couple Berkely rod holders to the sides of the benches to help keep things organized. We found a smokin deal on a lil 5 hp four stroke Honda. Got a 40 lb MK and an Eagle FishFinder. We were set! Named her the Widowmaker! LOL!

Best of luck in gettin yours ready for its maiden voyage!

I got a 16' lowe deep v with a 1979 Mercury 40 on the back, all sitting on a trailer for $200. Also had titles for the boat and motor. I Tig welded an aluminum square tubing sub frame for an elevated deck in the front, decked it all out with marine plywood sealed and wrapped in gray carpet. Added hatches where I wanted them and built an aluminum diamond plate side console, and a diamond plate mount for the controls. Restored almost the entire motor, except the powerhead. Put a Minn Kota Edge 45 up front and a Humminbird on the console. A few months ago I repainted the whole boat a dark gray and rebuilt the trailer with new bunks, rollers, winch, jack, and wiring/lights.

I love fishing out of it almost as much as I love working on it and adding new things. Good luck with your project!

Thanks for the ideas so far. Yes tin boats has been my friend as of late.

Got the first coat of herculiner on and will be finishing up soon. Lots of pics coming soon.

I got a lot of great ideas off of tin boats. Here's one a TFF member did a while back. Very thorough job with detailed pics and descriptions.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3265442/Jon_Boat_Build_Thread_REVISED

As promised:

Like I stated before nothing extravagant right now. Just took all the paint off the outside and around the edges with a Milwaukee grinder and wire wheel. Painted just around the edges with some spray paint. Then Herculined most of the outside. I got on the inside last night and caulked a few holes just for double protection. Will try to finish painting the edges tonight and maybe give her a test tomorrow afternoon to see if it leaks.

Hey Jerm, nice project! Should be a worthy boat for sure when you finish!

Do you have a title for the boat or are you going the non-motorized route?

I had a 12ft Ward's Jon Boat that I ran a 5 hp Mercury with for years. Easy boat to load and unload in a pickup!

Will be fun to watch your progress with the project!

Thanks chuckwagon. Currently just gonna go the non-motorized route. Really just wanting it to get up and down small creeks to crappie fish during the spawn.

Sounds great! Wish I still had my 12 foot Jon!! Swapped it for a canoe. I could WALK around in my Jon Boat!! Try that with a canoe! .....LOL!

Nice work!!! Can't wait to see it finished.

Keep it coming, love watching project jons. Ive got 3 myself, fixing to build a deck on the front of one of em

The Herculiner went on great. Unfortunately it only got to about 50 degrees the whole time I was working on it. At night the temp was dipping into the high 30's. This slowed the drying. On top of that there aren't lights in my dad's shop so I had to work with a drop light. So I got some runs in my work. I was just wanting to protect the bottom and get all the rivets covered which I did accomplish. While I was applying the Herculiner I had my friend tape off what I had painted and he didn't get it where I wanted it and left 2 thin lines of bare metal which I will have to tape off and paint again. ARGGGGGG

want it done right you gotta do it yourself!

going to coat the inside?

In the very near future.

what's that hole in the bottom for?

drain hole

no, the big one; right in the middle, joking.

Oh ok.... gotcha That's for the fish to jump in the boat so I don't have to catchem

Good job!