# Hi Ya’ll...don’t judge, but yeah I’m probably the only female here



## Litlreridngal

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I stumbled across this site looking for ideas and answers to repair the deck/floor in my newly acquired single owner $100 barn find! Bought the boat from a widowed lady whose husband had torn out the weak deck prior to his passing and the boat had been sitting since 1995 in a shed basically I’m touched. I’m still in the process of getting the paperwork formalized in order but anxious to get this little boat on the water. What I know so far: 
1. Dixie Boatworks is no longer in business so there’s no luck finding assistance from the manufacturer. 
2. There’s a lot of hoops to jump thru with NC Wildlife getting registration when the original owner is deceased.
3. There are even more hoops to jump thru with NC getting the trailer registered with the Deparment of Transportation.
4. There’s a lot of cleaning (and spiders) to do on a boat that has been sitting 23 years in a barn. People look at you funny at woman vacuuming and washing a boat at the car wash. 
5. ‘Marine’/treated plywood is expensive (also heavy) but a 4x8 sheet WILL fit inside my little Ford Explorer (short girl triumph shown in pics). So far I’ve invested $91 more dollars in plywood, resin, expoxy, water resistant (closed cell) foam, brushes and disposable mixing bucket.
6. I have no idea if the motor that came with the boat even works yet, but I know it is not the original motor. The original motor was swapped with a pontoon boat by ‘one of the grandkids’ because it had a higher horsepower. Supossidely it ran before the swap. 
7. I am tired of sitting home on weekends while my older son takes the ‘other boat’ out and there’s not enough room with his girlfriend and the dogs. I have another son who is twelve who will be assisting me on this build and this will become ‘our boat’ until he gets a girlfriend & outgrows hanging out with mom. (Side note: I’m a single Mom, but ain’t raising no sissy’s & we all love to fish). 
8. Apparently there are rodents who tunnel thru foam under the deck based on the “evidence” that have found recently. But not anymore! 
9. I am already in love with the LED lighting strips ideas. Although this is a 1976 Dixie 316 and I would like to keep it as original as I can...we will have those secret lighting upgrades 
10. No the boat is not for sale...yet! I’ve already been offered five times what I’ve paid for it! 

I look forward to insight and discovering tips from you guys. I hope you don’t get disgusted by my constant photo barrage as I document my progress or my mundane questions as I come across them. 

Here’s day one! The before photos:


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## anytide

welcome!
youll get plenty of help here.


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## Pole Position

If you could source some meranti or okoume plywood rather than the marine, it would be significantly lighter and stronger as you can usually get by using 3/8" w/ the right lamination of fiberglass; also, when all is said / done, the expense is near the same as you use far less epoxy.


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## devrep

nice little skiff. I don't think resin or epoxy will bond to pressure treated ply will it?


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## yobata

I'm with @devrep - skip the pressure treated ply. 3/8" marine ply is the way to go if not using synthetic composites.

And welcome


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## Litlreridngal

devrep said:


> nice little skiff. I don't think resin or epoxy will bond to pressure treated ply will it?


I’m not sure yet! Somebody please comfirm before I start cutting! Should I take it back and get something different?


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## jonrconner

Epoxy and resin are NOT compatible, you need to use polyester or vinylester resin along with okume or meranti ply, the pressure treated stuff is not going to be a good choice for many reasons. It would probably be a good idea to fill the space under the ply with Coast Guard foam, it would provide floatation and keep the water out of that space.
JC


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## hostage1985

Where in NC ? Just went though a year lonh rebuild in Oriental.


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## anytide

10 pages on epoxy.


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## eightwt

Seems there was another gal on here, but who cares so long as you like to fish and interested in the shallow side...welcome to ya.


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## DuckNut

Litlreridngal said:


> I’m not sure yet! Somebody please comfirm before I start cutting! Should I take it back and get something different?


You should take it back. Okoume is expensive but the best. Marine ply is definitely good enough.

Coatings do not bond well with pt wood. In addition they are wet and when you seal it the water is now trapped in and will eventually cause delamination.


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## LowHydrogen

DuckNut said:


> You should take it back. Okoume is expensive but the best. Marine ply is definitely good enough.
> 
> Coatings do not bond well with pt wood. In addition they are wet and when you seal it the water is now trapped in and will eventually cause delamination.


X2


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## topnative2

Welcome! Hope to get to oriental, nc soon


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## predacious

anytide said:


> 10 pages on epoxy.


at least sir !!!

pressure treated "cdx" plywood - nothing will adhere to it - poor choice in materials


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## olsaltydog

Welcome to the forum


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## devrep

For what you are doing Marine fir would be fine and less expensive than okume. It's not that much money.


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## Mike C

Looking at the pics of your motor it might have the long shaft and it appears to have the ventilation below the hull. 
If that is in fact true, your lower unit has a 5" section that can be removed to make it a short shaft. 
You can replace the drive shaft or have a machine shop cut and weld it.
If the pics aren't showing it properly, ignore this.


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## predacious

Mike C said:


> Looking at the pics of your motor it might have the long shaft and it appears to have the ventilation below the hull.
> If that is in fact true, your lower unit has a 5" section that can be removed to make it a short shaft.
> You can replace the drive shaft or have a machine shop cut and weld it.
> If the pics aren't showing it properly, ignore this.





You may have forgot a few things ....


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## Mike C

predacious said:


> You may have forgot a few things ....


Like? 
I re-read my post and the only thing I forgot was the word plate after ventilation. 
Help a brother out


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## Pole Position

Mike C said:


> Looking at the pics of your motor it might have the long shaft and it appears to have the ventilation below the hull.
> If that is in fact true, your lower unit has a 5" section that can be removed to make it a short shaft.
> You can replace the drive shaft or have a machine shop cut and weld it.
> If the pics aren't showing it properly, ignore this.


It would be easier, cheaper, and get better results to build up the transom than go thru that trouble, if indeed it needs to be done. ( I cant see the pics..)


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## Mike C

I did it to a 25 Johnson. 
Remove lower unit. 
Remove 5" extender section. Two or four bolts, don't remember. 
Take shaft to machine shop cut exactly 5" out of the thin center section. 
Weld it together. Check it for trueness.
Reinstall.
Very painless. 
My first quote from a drive shaft shop was $65.00. I had a machine shop do the work because of the broken bolts holding all of it together. Still less than $200.
That's way cheaper than a new motor if the one she has runs well. 
It's an old Johnson. It will probably run well with a bit of maintenance


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## Mike C

The area outlined with yellow is the 5" extension section.


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## Flatbroke426

Litlreridngal said:


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> I stumbled across this site looking for ideas and answers to repair the deck/floor in my newly acquired single owner $100 barn find! Bought the boat from a widowed lady whose husband had torn out the weak deck prior to his passing and the boat had been sitting since 1995 in a shed basically I’m touched. I’m still in the process of getting the paperwork formalized in order but anxious to get this little boat on the water. What I know so far:
> 1. Dixie Boatworks is no longer in business so there’s no luck finding assistance from the manufacturer.
> 2. There’s a lot of hoops to jump thru with NC Wildlife getting registration when the original owner is deceased.
> 3. There are even more hoops to jump thru with NC getting the trailer registered with the Deparment of Transportation.
> 4. There’s a lot of cleaning (and spiders) to do on a boat that has been sitting 23 years in a barn. People look at you funny at woman vacuuming and washing a boat at the car wash.
> 5. ‘Marine’/treated plywood is expensive (also heavy) but a 4x8 sheet WILL fit inside my little Ford Explorer (short girl triumph shown in pics). So far I’ve invested $91 more dollars in plywood, resin, expoxy, water resistant (closed cell) foam, brushes and disposable mixing bucket.
> 6. I have no idea if the motor that came with the boat even works yet, but I know it is not the original motor. The original motor was swapped with a pontoon boat by ‘one of the grandkids’ because it had a higher horsepower. Supossidely it ran before the swap.
> 7. I am tired of sitting home on weekends while my older son takes the ‘other boat’ out and there’s not enough room with his girlfriend and the dogs. I have another son who is twelve who will be assisting me on this build and this will become ‘our boat’ until he gets a girlfriend & outgrows hanging out with mom. (Side note: I’m a single Mom, but ain’t raising no sissy’s & we all love to fish).
> 8. Apparently there are rodents who tunnel thru foam under the deck based on the “evidence” that have found recently. But not anymore!
> 9. I am already in love with the LED lighting strips ideas. Although this is a 1976 Dixie 316 and I would like to keep it as original as I can...we will have those secret lighting upgrades
> 10. No the boat is not for sale...yet! I’ve already been offered five times what I’ve paid for it!
> 
> I look forward to insight and discovering tips from you guys. I hope you don’t get disgusted by my constant photo barrage as I document my progress or my mundane questions as I come across them.
> 
> Here’s day one! The before photos:


Welcome and ask anything you like. There are no bad questions


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## Litlreridngal

Great o


Mike C said:


> The area outlined with yellow is the 5" extension section.
> View attachment 33334


Great observation! I hadn’t caught that before now. I do know the 1990 Evinrude came off of a pontoon the previous owner had. Not certain what the original motor was but according to the widow “the grandkids swapped the motors because they wanted more hp on their new pontoon”, “the current motor probably had maybe less than a hundred hours on it”. So yeah I can see why the shaft could be longer. 

When you say ‘ventilation plate’ I am assuming you mean the ports that water goes in to cool the motor am I correct? If so, then yes it is below the hull...so that will be a problem? 

On a good note, my mechanically minded twin boys tinkered on the motor yesterday. They installed my new ignition switch (Old keys were never found) in the OMC box, attached it to the portable gas tank and battery from the other boat and got it running with minimal effort (starter shaft needed lube and battery had to be charged up more)! I’m so excited to know that it works and my $100 boat/motor/trailer combo suddenly is worth several times that now! 

I had to special order the wood for the deck, it should be here by the weekend, so this week I will be re-wiring both the boat and the trailer to clean up the rats nest of tangled wires and get them properly tucked out of sight.


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## Flatbroke426

Welcome. No gender problems here. Glad to have you part of the family. Any questions on building you have give a shout. No questions are bad ones. If you can get West system resin and hardener is so great to work with and no odor to boot. Look into Jamestown Distributors if you are having a hard time finding things. They are a great resource.


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## Riversmith

Just finishing the same boat project in Greensboro. Let me know if I can answer any question


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