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Jon Boat Makeover

180class

180class

Well-Known Member
I have a 14 Jon boat that I'm thinking about giving a face lift. I'm wanting to sheet the inside with some light plywood and cover with marine carpet. I also want to add some pedesal seats to where the existing bench seats are now. I'm just curious if anybody here has done this or has any experience with doing this. If so, I would love to see some pictures, or get a few tips so I can get some ideas.
 
Funny you should post this right now. I'm in the middle of doing the exact same thing on a 14 ft V hull. If you got a jon boat, you better check out this link...this guy turned an old boat into nothing short of what you could get from the factory at a much lower price. I've got most of my ideas from here as well as another site. He has an online book you can buy for like $20, it was well worth it.

Jon Boat Modifications

You can email this guy any question you have and he's really good at responding too.

I've got some pics of what I've done to mine so far, when I get some actual progress pics I'll post them.

It's a fun project! Mine was an OLD 14' V hull that the seats were rotten, the floor leaked like a siv, it's had 3 different paint jobs that all show through, etc.

So far I've ripped all the seats out and totally cleaned it. I applied roll on truck bed liner to the floor to seal the leaks, and I'm in the process of stripping the old paint off the outside.

My plans for it are - paint the outside with paint made for aluminum so it actually sticks!, put in a plywood floor, carpet the floor, put in 2 pedestal seats, add 3 storage compartments (2 on the sides and a glove box in the front of the V for life jackets, anchors, etc.) Put in a stereo with speakers, lights, etc. This is what I hope to have done by July just to get me by. Then over the winter I'm going to put in a livewell, a fish finder, and a few more extras. I'd do those now but I have to buy a trailer and have my motor tuned up and I'm trying to stay on a budget for now just so I can get on the water.

It will rock by the time I'm done! I figure I can do all of this for well under a grand. Yes, it won't be a new bass boat, but it will have everything I need for much less that the cost of a new or used boat with these options! All of my ideas came from the link above.
 
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I have a 14 Jon boat that I'm thinking about giving a face lift. I'm wanting to sheet the inside with some light plywood and cover with marine carpet. I also want to add some pedesal seats to where the existing bench seats are now. I'm just curious if anybody here has done this or has any experience with doing this. If so, I would love to see some pictures, or get a few tips so I can get some ideas.

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I've actually finished the floor in a couple of jon boats. One was a 16' semi-V hull with side floatation, so there were no seats in the middle section of the boat. The other was a friends older style V with floatation under the center and front seats. Treated wood decking works great for placing in-between the ribs on the interior. It's approximately an inch thick, which is just about the depth from the top of the ribs to the bottom. We placed them every 10" or so between every section of ribbing anywhere there was going to be floor. You don't need to adhere them in any way, just make sure they fit in tight between the ribs, and tap them in to get a snug fit. After that we placed either treated 1/4" plywood over the decking and screwed the plywood down using 3/4" screws.( just make sure you're screwing into the decking material) If you can't find any treated plywood you can use regular 1/4" plywood and then some linoleum (sp) over the top of it to give it some waterproofing. We used a very short nap marine carpet over the top of it and then wrapped the ends of the carpet over the edges of the plywood. It's actually a fairly easy process, and makes for a great standing surface. If you wanted to make it a flat floor instead of the shape of the bottom of the boat you'd have to do some framework and probably attach it to the bottom of the boat. That's the nice thing about the 1/4" plywood, it'll bend to the shape of the boat, yet won't break. Let me know if you have any questions. GOLDTIP, from this site could probably snap a couple pictures of his floor in his boat to give you a little better idea of what I'm talking about.
CRITR
 
Shoot2kill, thanks for the link. That has a lot of usefull info. It's already given me some great ideas. Critr, any pictures you could get would be great.
 
Alright fellas....you got me thinking on this. I am happy with my boat (16' Smokercraft Deep V) but would like to add different seats. Also, I thought about converting the trailer to a roll-style to help loading.
rollers

I'd like a pedestal seat up front and a swivel for the rear. My boat already has decking but am unsure of how to mount the pedestal.
 
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Alright fellas....you got me thinking on this. I am happy with my boat (16' Smokercraft Deep V) but would like to add different seats. Also, I thought about converting the trailer to a roll-style to help loading.
rollers

I'd like a pedestal seat up front and a swivel for the rear. My boat already has decking but am unsure of how to mount the pedestal.

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Rudd - did you check out the link I posted above? Mine is a V Hull too - after hours of staring at it and looking at tons of pictures online of V hull mods, I've figured out what I'm going to do to put in pedestal seats, but I doubt I could explain it. I'd spend a while in that site and maybe buy his online book - it will really help, there is more info than just stuff about Jon boats.
 
There is a place in Ames on east Lincolnway that repairs pop trucks(at least they used to.) I built an aluminum blind 10 or so years ago for a duckboat and I bought some angle aluminum off of them and I also got some wrecked sheets of aluminum from them.
 
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