Little winter project

[3 Squids]

Hey guys. So I picked up this little winter project however it***8217;s not for me. Money wise I don***8217;t see much value in this boat. It seems like something you would of ordered out of the Sears catalog back in the day. But there***8217;s a lot of sentimental value here. This boat belonged to my newphews father. Unfortunately he was killed a couple years ago in a car accident. My nephew, Tristan inherited the boat. His father was a waterman and loved being on the water and Tristan definitely got the bug from him. He***8217;s turning 10 in a few days and I feel a good gift would be me helping him bring his dads boat back to life for him to putt around the creeks in.

I***8217;d feel much better finding him a 18***8217; fisherman to fix up but it***8217;s his dads boat and he talks about it all the time. We talked about doing the work secretly and surprising him with it complete but I feel he needs to be involved to appreciate it more as well as he has no father figure in his life right now to do fun guys stuff with so maybe I can try to fill that void just a little.

From what I can see in the few minutes I***8216;ve looked at it is every bit of wood in it is soft. It***8217;s been in a barn and dry for the past few years but nothing is solid. Floor is just plywood that was never glassed. Transom is pretty much non existent. I***8217;m sure the stringers aren***8217;t there. One nice thing is I can pretty much just lift the whole boat up myself haha. Motor will be coming off and hopefully by spring I***8217;ll scrape up enough money to find a decent deal on something newer. I***8217;ve asked him in the past if he***8217;d want a little console in it but he insist he wants a tiller. His big brother has a little skiff with a tiller so I think that has something to do with it.

I***8217;ll snap pics along the way and hopefully we can get it together by this boating season. My plan is to gut it out and maybe try to find someone to soda blast it. It has quite a few layers of topside and bottom paint. It***8217;d be a nightmare to sand but I really don***8217;t know if soda blasting is in the budget so I may have to get dirty and do it. We***8217;ll see. Any advice you guys have is always appreciated.