Next Project

[Bduck]

My boat only had 2 factory downrigger mounts welded to the rail on each side at the stern area. I had 2 mounts that I had made years ago for another boat that I kept. What I wanted to do is eliminate my 2 homemade mounts and add 2 similar factory style mounts so I bought a 2'x4'x 1/8" 5052 aluminum sheet. At first after cutting the right size plates I proceeded to use my bench top vise to bend an 90º angle. By using a large 15" crescent wrench for leverage and a ballpeen hammer to assist in the bend my brackets looked a little too crude with hammer markings and teeth marks from the vise. While this did work I wasn't happy with the way they looked. Since I had plenty of aluminum I decided to approach this differently. I went to my shed where I store spare pieces of metal and from the scraps I made a brake for bending metal. Now after making new angle brackets again the new angles looked cleaner and more like the factory style. Next I prepped area for welding on top of stern but at rear of transom to the rail. Yesterday 12/12 I had my new angles installed. Only thing left now is dressing around welds, put a coat of etching primer over the bare metal and await spring to blend in paint that I had left over from previous painting the stern & gunnel.

    
           Before                         Prep                           Welded                DR Installed