The Sea Pickle Floats!

New Interior

For those of you that have hung around this blog for a while, you know I bought an old Lund last year.  I have never owned a boat and thought it would be nice to get a fixer upper for me and my boys to work on together.  I found the old boat in White Bear Lake and paid next to nothing for it.  Once we got it home we ripped out the floor and nasty old water-logged foam.  Everything was painted black, so the boat was always hot to the touch!  We decided to go with a lighter color to help keep temps down.

I opted for a cedar floor and MDO hatch doors.  The seats will be replaced with light brown units, but the black ones will work for now.  My boys learned how to properly varnish exterior surfaces, pop rivet aluminum, use a router, drills, a grease gun, various saws and learned how to care for and use many other critical tools needed to become men.  They also learned how to disassemble the steering column and properly maintain the cable system. 

The real fun was cleaning and tuning up the motor.  The boys changed the plugs and cleaned off years of grease.  You should have seen their faces when they turned the key and she fired right up.  We serviced the lower unit and replaced the impeller too.

They loved working on the electrical.  They installed a horn, electric anchor, electric trolling motor, lights, pumps, stereo...all hooked up to a breaker panel. 

What a great project!  We will take her out tomorrow for a ride on the river.  Planning on painting the exterior a light brown color because my boys named the boat The Sea Pickle.  Their Uncle Dan calls turds sea pickles....what a fitting name for this boat!

Here are a few of the original pictures of the boat (1980 18' Lund Mr Pike).

1980 Catalog Picture

The Day I Picked it Up

Rotted Interior