1989 1700XR fishing mod project

[isurchmnd]

I'll use this as my introduction as well. I'm a new boat owner, purchased a used 1700XR, with the 85HP Force outboard. The structure of the boat itself is in good shape, had the floor redone about 5 years ago per the PO. Got it for a decent price and decided I'd start refurbishing it, as well as making some modifications so that I can fish from it as well. The wife and I decided we wanted a fish/ski boat so that we could use it as a family as the boys grew up, all I wanted was a fish boat, but could see her point of wanting to do more than just sit on a lake and fish.

After digging in to see where would be the best place to start, decided to start simple. Since all the seats were in pretty bad shape, I decided to start there. I was going to remove the deck mounted lounge seats and replace them with 4 decent fishing chairs that could be moved around to future installed post bases. After researching how the seat bases were installed on this boat, realized that just swapping out for replacement lounges would be the best and not involve me ripping up and cutting the redone floor. That was an easy afternoon swap after ordering replacement seats from Overtons.

I also discovered that when the floor was redone, they removed and glassed in all the speaker openings, as well as never reconnected any of the electrical outside of Battery-Motor, Motor to Ignition/Guages. So, none of the switches function, no nav lights, no radio, etc. Add that to the project list.

Onto the adds, and future projects that I'll be tackling with the boat.
Adds:
Minkota Bow mount V2 50# trolling motor
Humminbird PiranhaMax 197DI depth/fish finder
Second Battery for Trolling Motor
Overtons Deluxe Lounge seats

Projects:
Rewire feed to dash
Upgrade Stereo
Install and Wire new speakers
Cut and upholster new seat cusions for Bow and jump seats
Make a carpeted fishing platform that can be removed when not fishing
Install a seat mount to fishing platform and rear deck of boat for leaning seats.
ReWire trailer

Luckily the hardest part, to me, was done recently, so that leaves all the small stuff, and customizing (fun part). I'll post pics as I go along. I'm pretty excited to get the project going, but am going to wait til winter to tackle the rewiring since I'll have to remove all the side panels to access it. And winter is about 4-5 months long in NE Iowa.

[mmwjr]

Welcome aboard

Sounds like you have a plan, post some pictures as it progresses.