Fixing the 184 ChampioN Trolling Motor Deck

18 Attachment(s)

This ChampioN has had numerous trolling motors thru the years and several had different mounting bolt patterns. Now I have not decided if I want to fully repair including flake or not because I'm very Left Handed and it would be great if the trolling motor handle would be on the right side where my Live Sonar stick usually is. I am installing a Humminbird Helix 10 Mega and the Humminbird Live Sonar transducer on the trolling motor shaft to clean up the front deck for single pole fishing anyway.

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First off is to clean every bit of silicone from the deck & mounting holes. It takes a while. I used the adhesive remover and wax & grease remover to assist.

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After the holes are clean I use a Step-Bit to further remove any contaminated wood any apply a taper to the hole. The taper gives more surface area for the epoxy to stick and just makes a better, stronger repair.

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Using hardwood dowels the right size I cut shallow plugs on the miter & bandsaws first.

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Once the plugs are cut I mix the epoxy. Using a Q-Tip I first completely wet out all the holes top to bottom so the epoxy gets a very good bite. No Filler is used yet, just straight epoxy.

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Using micro needle-nose pliers I first dip the plugs in epoxy then place in the holes flat. Then with the punch and hammer I tap the plugs to the bottom of the holes.

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Now I add the reinforcement ground up fiberglass to the epoxy and fill the remainder of the holes just a tiny bit high.

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By placing the bondo spreaders on the repairs I make sure no sanding will be needed if mounting the trolling motor on this side. Once cured the bondo spreaders peel right off. Not sure where I'm going from here and epoxy takes a long time to fully cure so I'm going to work on other areas of the boat.

Wow, looks like Swiss cheese. I’d be so nervous drilling into it like that. It already looks better even though not complete. :highfive

Thank you for the way to fix the holes, as I am sure it will be needed when I start on Mine...

Well I'm over thinking which side of the deck to install the trolling motor as my Skeeter and every other boat I have owned with a hand control trolling motor the motor was mounted on the Port side. To keep confusion out of my muscle-memory I'm going back where the originals was located. This epoxy repair is a strong as any possible and will totally prevent any water intrusion. With the hand control trolling motor it has reverse, mounting the LS transducer on the TM shaft I expect to be the bomb if single pole fishing. I won't have to rotate the TM foot 180 degrees to stay off a tree loosing my lock on the structure itself period.