66 Starcraft Sunchief Re-Build

[North Beach]

This will be my first attempt at restoring an old boat, so I thought I’d do a build along. That way, in exchange for providing you folks a little humor (inevitable due to my inexperience), I can ask a bunch of redundant silly questions!

The boat is a 66 Starcraft Sunchief. It’s 21’7” long and came with the 110 HP Mercruiser Sterndrive option.

The motor had a head job in 83 and a full engine rebuild to 040 over in 84. When not in use, it was parked in a carport. She hasn’t been in the water since 02 when she was winterized and parked in a garage. I bought her from my brother a couple of months ago and I’m ready to try and bring her back to original condition with exceptions being some small cosmetic upgrades.

The plan is to re-do the floor and flotation, new paint top & bottom, complete re-wire, re-upholster the seats, new fabric in the cubby hole area on each side (haven’t figured out the term for that area) new finished wood side panels and dash in lieu of the fabric covered stuff, and new marine vinyl in lieu of the deck rotting carpet, new gauges & steering wheel.





My brother’s teenagers piled all sorts of stuff on it, and a few months ago he painted his 71 Harley some sort of red color, resulting in the entire boat being pink from overspray???





I’ve been really worried about wet flotation and the resultant rust/rot. So today I removed the seats, carpet, fuel tank and one side panel. So far everything’s looking good!




The sun started going down and the temp started dropping and this stage of the restoration is being done in the carport, so I decided to remove the reinforcement and yank out one sheet of the plywood just to get a peek at the danged flotation I’ve been losing sleep over. Everything looks pretty good here.




Tomorrow afternoon I’ll remove the other side panel and all of the flooring.

[North Beach]

Almost forgot! Here's what the 65 model looks like.

[HONKER1]

Wish my ribs would have looked that good when I replaced my floor and flotation. I have an '86 which had poured in flotation and the salt water got in and started eating the aluminum. I am a believer in the styrofoam block for flotation. Gives the water a passage to the bilge pump.

[jcsercsa]

Welcome , cant wait to see the rest !! looks like you well on your way !! keep them pics comming , and we are all here to help all we can !! John

[oops!]

hi.....welcome to i boats !

i will aboslutely gaurentee you....there is 200 jelous guys here looking at your dry boat !

you are so far ahead of the game.......


check the underside of the styrofoam for wet.....and use gluvit as nessary.


search core sample and check the transom for rot.........

if you are good....(no rot).....replace the deck and do the interior any way you want !.....your imagination is all that limits you !

[tashasdaddy]

great find. agree do some core samples on the foam, just in case. it will perform well with that drive train.

[North Beach]

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys!

The foam that is exposed so far is bone dry. Does this look like a STOCK setup? The foam is just loose laid in pieces and the plywood was reinforced with one ply of glass with Resin(?) sloshed all around. In some places it was really thick and I believe that's what was making the cracking sounds when we walked on it.

I should have the rest of the floor and sides out by sundown this evening.

[tashasdaddy]

no it has been redone in the past.

[oops!]

there are some really great alum jobs in the compleated projects forum.....see dj's and lundwanissa's

if the transom is good.....its just a decking job....a realaxing weekend...or a good 6 hrs.

read up on installing a deck.....types of wood and drying plywood

[HONKER1]

I had a '72 Starcraft Jupiter 16' that I purchased off the showroom floor and the flotation was layed in just like yours. Don't know about a '66 Starcraft.

[DJ]

Great boat, Great find. An easy re-do.

That hull went well into the nineties with very few mod's.

You also have a very serviceable engine/drive package. Not a hot rod but adequate.

I would stongly recommend removing the foam planks and giving the rivets and ribs a coat of Gluv It (available here on iboats), from the inside. After that, just replace the dry foam planks.

Keep us posted!

[North Beach]

Sorry guys! I got a case of buck fever and opted to spend the afternoon in a ground blind We'll be back on it tomorrow.

Tashasdad & Honker, after going back and looking again, looks like the only rivit holes for the decking are the ones in use now. I'm thinkin maybe it did come that way from the factory. Who Knows?

Gluvit huh? I think I will seal the inside before I put the flooring back in since it's already exposed.

I've seen a couple of videos of my fatherinlaw in this boat and it looks like it moves accross the water pretty good.

[North Beach]

Just a little update here.
Got the starboard sideboard off and most of the plywood flooring out this evening. Everything is still looking good.




Tashasdad and Honker-I spoke with my brother and he says my father in law did a little glassing of the floor on the back two thirds when he replaced the carpet years ago. That explains what I’m seeing now. The front third of the floor still had the original vinyl on it with bare plywood.


Based on what I’m seeing here, I played around with just replacing the worn out aft two thirds of the floor and leave the bow area alone, but after mulling it over, decided to yank it all out, use the gluvit and purchase some new flotation. We have an EPS manufacturing plant just up the road and they’ll cut the stuff however I want. Besides, all the flotation around the engine and under the gas tank is fairly well boogered up with oil and gas. Still can’t find any rot/rust. Hard to believe this boat is almost 43 years old!!!



Next step is to replace everything I just took out, and then my son will come over and help me with the total re-wire.

I was also informed that the hour meter we found under the stern was installed when the motor was re-built-it shows 150 hours.

[sschefer]

Wow, they sure didn't change much over the years. I have a 91 MonArk and the hull is identically made. Mine had pour in foam with nothing between the stringers except the gas tank. Mines a OB and stripped down completely now. My thoughts are that replacing everything wood (transom, etc) will give it a new life and if it lasted this long, I won't need to do it again in my lifetime.

[DJ]

NB,

There is nothing wrong with those closed cell foam planks. I actually like them better than poured foam. I DO recommend replacing any gas/oil soaked pieces.

The planks allow any water to work around them and drain. I have rarely seen completely rotted decks on boats using the foam planks vs. poured.

Good work, she'll look like new in short time.

[North Beach]

I agree. We're just gonna replace them with new and put her back together.

[North Beach]

I know this is a question for another forum, but figured while I had folks looking I ask a couple of prop questions....

Again, The boat is 21'7", is powered by a slightly bored 110 HP Mercruiser and the whole deal weighs in at 1700 empty. I'd like to get a new prop and I'd like to forego the taking three or four to the lake and trying them out routine.

I found the following markings on my worn out prop. Can one of you more knowledgable folks tell me what they mean so I can order a new one?

.W .W
-21
12660
14-251

Also, what would be the better route stainless or aluminum?

Thanks in advance!

[sschefer]

I've been looking at props too so all the help I can offer is what's been asked of me when I call manufacturers. They all want to know the engine and in your case, outdrive manufacturer and model for the spline size and max capacity. Then they need the boat length and estimated normal capacity weight. Finally, they ask how fast you want to go and if you need a good hole shot or not. Everybody wants to sell you a prop with a great hole shot.. O.K I'll buy it as being necessary to get up on plane faster so I'm pretty much convinced that a good hole shot is a good thing.

I've looked a enough numbers on props lately to take a guess at yours using what little I know about your boat. All things considered, I'm guessing it's a 14-1/4" diameter prop with a 21" pitch.

Aluminim vs. Stainless Steel -- I've been told that stainless is far superior and necessary if you plan on doing in excess of 50 mph. Apparently they hold their form and balance better, (just what I've been told by people trying to sell me props). I've also been told that a far less expensive good quality Aluminum prop is just fine for the average boat.

[jcsercsa]

Hay guys , well on the prop you need to know your max rpms, of the motor and then with the prop you need to know what your max rpm is with that prop running and then you can go from there , I not the expert on this , it would also be better asked in the prop forum , after you find out the info !! and yes stainless is the best it will give you a few mhp out of it !! John

[North Beach]

Thanks Guys! Looks like propellers are about the most complicated part of this whole deal.

I finally contacted Mercruiser and gave them the specs for the boat. They're telling me I should go with a 14" x 19 pitch, standard (right) rotation and that this motor stock should run at 3900 to 4300 RPMs. Their rep also said that the overbore on the engine would not have enough impact on power to justify going to a 21. I have to consider that the last prop placed on the boat could have been the wrong one???? Any thoughts?

While I've got folks looking again, more silly questions-

I finally got all the wood removed and I'm able to look under the flotation. Down the center of the boat is a fair amount of sludge. I assume that's a combination of dirt, engine oil, and fuel. Prior to using the gluvit, is there any special cleaning proceedure? I assume I'll have to use some sort of engine de-greaser, but what should I use to make sure I have that off so the gluvit will stick?

After that, I've decided to just install all new flotation.

[proshadetree]

Oven cleaner is about the best Ive found but it will turn aluminum diffrent colors.Simple green and a lot of scrubing will work to.

[North Beach]

Thanks Proshadetree! this stuff is loose and dotted all over the bottom so it should come off fairly easy.

[North Beach]

We had a nice day here weather wise so while my brother was grinding and welding on the Hillbilly Gantry (see other thread), I decided to yank out the flotation and shop vac all the debris out of the boat bottom.

Thought i'd post up a shot of what it looks like.


I know there hasn't been much progress to report, but basically I'm just running around ordering up all the stuff I need for the new floor and waiting for it to arrive.

As you can see, there's a fair amount of motor goo down the center and I'm still fighting over what I want to use to remove it. I'm thinking at this point I'll just scrub it with engine cleaner and drain it into containers.

[North Beach]

OK. Another nice day temerature wise and the wife decided to do a one day road trip to visit family. So... I decided to go buy a couple gallons of commercial de-greaser and have at it. After scrubbing and a lot of scraping with a plastic putty knife, this is what I've come up with so far.


I had to run wire thru the bottom of the VEE in the stringers due to build up of engine gunk-the water wouldn't even drain.

Danged bottom is just about as clean as I can get it. I think I'm gonna let it air out a couple of days and get the new foam in.

I'm thinking about using the extruded(blue or pink board) instead of expanded so I won't have to deal with the beads in the bottom. Any thoughts?

[North Beach]

Thought I'd add an update of recent progress.

Knowing cold weather was eventially goint to happen I decided to use up some of the materials left over from recent jobs piling up and try to close the carport in. This is what I started with.

I took that shot while we were building the Hillbilly Gantry for lifting the front of the boat.

Here's what we ended up with about five days later. Days four and five included about an inch and a half of rain. Got it closed in just before the temps started to bottom out. BTW, the date is screwed up on my camera and evidently I'm too danged dumb to fix it.


We had an old redeye heater that burns just about anything out in the shop so we filled up a bunch of cans of deisel and started heating it up. Everything was pretty much OK till the temps started getting into the single digits. With no insulation the metal roof started condensating and drops started freezing on the ceiling. No Problem! That is until I overslept this morning and the heater ran out of fuel. Danged inside of the Boatel looked like a rain forest

So we experienced a heat wave today. Started at 6 degrees and climbed to 16 so I hitched up the boat and drug it out into the yard. We cant really do any of the floor or gluvit work until we get into some higher temps so I fired up the 89 dollar gravity feed blaster and dumped in a 50 # bag of walnut shells and started working on stripping paint off of the rivits. A lot of them would have required some heavy sanding and I hoped the shells would do the trick. I blasted till I ran out of shells. Did a pretty good job, but it was a tad on the slow side. I figure three more bags and one long day will do the rest.


After I ran out of shells, I fired up the orbital sander with some 100 grit pads and started on the paint. I'm really amazed at how quickly this setup takes off the paint. Base on how things went today, I'm thinking one long day to finish everything I can reach before I have to pull the trailer out from under it minus the blasting.




If we don't see snow I'll be back on the sander tomorrow.