Bass Fishing

All Things Washington Bass Fishing

boat restoration

I just finished most of my boat restoration project and thought a few of you might like to see the photos. I started with my well used and abused 1986 Ranger 373V. The carpet, while still in tact, was faded, stained and raspberry pink. It may have been nice looking in 1986, but is gross by today's standards. It all came out, as well as the torn seats and the useless little love seat in the front. The biggest issue I always had with this boat was the complete absence of storage in the front of the boat. So my fishing partner, Mark Mrzna drew up plans for a deck extension and we went to work. After two days if scraping glue from the old carpet, we began lying down new stuff and building the box. It took a week to get it done, but it looks amazing! Way better than I ever hoped. Thanks Mark for all of your work!
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    Shawn O'Connell

    Looks like a completely different boat, great job!
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    Mike Lukjanowicz

    Very Nice! Looks great Aaron!

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    Aaron Christel

    For guys that can't afford $40,000 for a new boat, there are lots of these old Rangers out there. They are usually much more solid than other boats of the era. You can get a running boat for under 5k, and if you're handy, you can make it do anything a new boat can do other than go 70 MPH. It will do 60 MPH with a very light load, and it rides awesome. You would be amazed riding in rough water in it. It rides like a boat 2 feet longer. Ranger knew how to build a quality product.

    It was a actually a really fun project too. It would be cool to restore these old boats as a hobby. I don't think you could ever get your money back by trying to sell them though, especially if your time is money.