He had the phone number so I called and spoke with the owner who told me he was looking for 3 grand for the boat, motor & trailer.  The boat was a 1987 Grumman Challenger, 16 1/2 foot, side console steering, working livewell, bilge pumps, bow mounted Motorguide trolling motor (replaced with a new Minn Kota in 2007), Guest 2608A onboard battery charger, and a Humminbird Wide fish finder.

The motor:  Mercury Mariner 50 HP. 

The trailer: single axle galvanized with galvanized wheels.  I get the boat for around 2 g's, but it definitely needed new carpets and seats to look decent.  Once I tore up the carpet, I found the plywood decks to both be rotted, so I went and purchased a few sheets of 3/4" marine grade plywood, a complete carpet kit of 20 oz. charcoal  colored carpet from http://www.bassboatcarpets.com, and four new Tempress seats in the gray color from cabelas. 

I also bought about 150.00 worth of stainless steel nuts, bolts, and washers at Lowes and Home Depot to replace all the rivets with.

 

I used the original seat hinges to bolt down the seats, and just used some blue loctite so the nuts wouldn't loosen up.

 

My brother used the old wood as a template to cut the new decks.  We noticed that the old carpet was actually installed on the decks first, and then the whole ensemble bolted to the boat.  I did not want to do it this way, so we bolted the decks down first, and then I carpeted them.  It didn't come out half bad imo considering I've never done a carpet job before and my brother being a seasoned carpenter, did a first rate job on the new decks!

 

Please, I can't stress enough how much a part of this the guys at bassboatcarpets.com played. I have no connection to them other than the fact I bought my carpet from them.  If you don't want to screw up your carpet job, I suggest you listen to what I'm saying and buy your carpet kit from them.  You get triple A+ support, plus a step by step how to manual with pictures and if you think I'm going to walk you through that job you're nuts, so instead of emailing me and asking me how to carpet a boat, do the smart thing boys and listen up and order your kit from them.  If you just go and buy a chunk of carpet from the carpet place down the street, you're screwed so don't come crying to me for help.  I'm giving you the best advice here that will help you do the job right so enough said about that....ok, sooooooooo,

I used Super 77 and Super 90 to glue down the carpet, and wore a good respirator style mask while spraying the glue which is actually a contact cement and not good to breathe in.   The seats were pretty much plug and play.  I did sand down and repaint the top lip of the boat all the way around.  The engine didn't need anything replaced, except we did have to clean some leaves and junk out of the pee hole tube, and I had to put new spark plugs in but after that she ran like a rocket and still does. 

Both casting decks were ripped up and replaced, as well as the carpeting.  I also replaced all four seats, and in addition, everything that was fastened with rivets, I replaced with stainless steel hardware.  Before doing any restoration work, I went over the top edges where the deck would be screwed down, and removed any existing rivets with a chisel.  We drilled new holes as needed and affixed decks and seat hardware. 
The complete carpet set I purchased from was a charcoal color, and it is 20 oz. carpet which was strongly recommended so I went with it.   I am very pleased at how it has held up since I did this job 4 years ago (work done in June 2003).   I used a spray on contact cement to install the carpet.  It sticks very quickly so you must do a pretest fit to make sure you don't mess up.

 

I'll start by saying it wasn't easy, and I did mess up a few things here and there with the carpet. But this was the first time I'd ever carpeted anything so all things considered I"m pretty damn happy with way it turned out. 

 

Please visit http://www.bassboatcarpets.com to inquire on carpet for your boat...oh, and don't forget to protect all that hard work with boat cover.   I bought a canvas cover from Cabelas and as you will see from the pics on the last page, the carpet still looks as good as the day I installed it.