My Xpress boat restoration (Lots of pictures)

[FurFlyin]

I'm finally finished with my boat restoration project. I don't know of anything on the boat, or trailer that hasn't been restored or replaced. Only isue that I now have is the boat is porpoising so I've got to redistribute some weight because it didn't do that prior to the restoration. It only had one trolling battery in it when I bought the boat and it was under the front deck. Now it has 2, group 31 batteries along with the cranking battery in the rear compartment. I may just stick a couple of extra group 31 batteries under the front deck to see if that balances the boat so I won't have to move anything that's not necessary.




This is what the Xpress like when I bought it.

[FurFlyin]

There was around a 2 foot "gap" between the front of the console and the back of the front deck. I decided to make the deck come back to the console. Building the deck was no problem, but allowing enough room for the carpet so everything would look good when completed made my brain hurt.


The deck extension:





Added feet under the front deck for added support for 2 people:

[FurFlyin]

In the paint bay:


Before:







After epoxy primer and urethane paint:







Motor cowling after new paint, new decals and clear coat:

[FurFlyin]

Green LED lights under the gunwale for night fishing:







White LED's in the compartments:

[FurFlyin]

This is her now! It was cloudy yesterday so the new paint doesn't shine, but the paint looks great. I also added a step to make getting on and off the deck easier, plus it gave me a great place to install another seat base so 3 can fish comfortably while casting.

[Crappie Pro Wannabe]

FurFlyin,
Very nice work, looks great.

[huntinslabs]

Looks great.

[ET Fish]

Excellent work!

[cevans]

Awesome job of rebuilding! Your going to enjoy every minute of fishing that rig knowing the amount of sweat and work that went into it. Fish on!

[Central Minn]

Very nice job. Looks like some nice fabrication and aluminum welding you did there.