Re: 1974 21ft. Starcraft Super Sport Rebuild
Allright Andy, here are some pics. After a few days not being able to do any work on the boat, I took that kids and wife to the lake for a day on a pontoon and at the end of the day my loving wife said, "You need to get that boat done". Man I love that woman.
The scary moment was when I took of the rub rails on the top, the basically sprand apart. Most of the rivets that attached the side of the boat to the gunwales were broken. I didn't really think it was a big deal until today when a friend and I started replacing the rivets. We could only get a few to line up. We pushed and pulled and just couldn't figure out what was wrong. We decided to go ahead and remove the motor, thinking that maybe the pressure it exerted on the transom was pulling on the boat sides and gunwales and making them not line up. Nope, that wasn't it. Then we thought we had it when we thought the straps holding the boat on the trailer were possibly pulling too much on the transom and keeping everything from lining up. Nope again. At this point I was considering that maybe the busted rivets were going to do me in. Eventually we decided to squeeze the hull in multiple places with ratchets to create a compression mold of sorts and voila! Things started to line up. After another hour or so all of the rivets were now in. Here is a pick of part of the process.
In the previous picture you can also see that we needed to use the engine hoist to lift on the gunwale as well to get everything lined up. If you enyone ever has this type of problem here is a recommendation. As you get holes lined up don't seat the rivets right away. Place steel rivets in the holes the same size as the aluminum ones that you will use. As the straps are moved to compress different parts of the boat the steel rivets will not sheer off like the aluminum ones. Once all rivet holes are lined up then remove one steel rivet at a time and seat a aluminum rivet. It is the only way we could get all the rivets in without continuing to either pop or sheer the rivets off. It was quite a pain in the butt, but if I had not removed the rub rails I would never have known the condition of the rivets underneath. Once it was all done the gunwales were very stable and firm, unlike how they seemed to me before I had fixed them. Now I know why.
The next step was to begin tearing out the deck. What I learned right away made me think of Rick. The PO had apparently replaced the deck and put in wooden stringers along the sides and had actually nailed the deck to them. Luckily, no nails went through the hull though some were close. Here are a couple pics of the wood.
And as you see in the last pic someone actually used the "great stuff" in the bow under the deck for foam. I was very pleased to find what appeared to be original foam in the rest of the boat. Here is the deck removed.
After that it was remove the foam and sweep and hose down the hull. I was amazed that when I removed the foam I only found three pieces that had any water in them at all and it had only saturated them about 1/4 of their mass. To say I was pleased is an understatement. I was concerned because for the last few years this boat lived in Fla and I was concerned I would have saturated foam and a bunch of corrosion. Once everything was removed I found no corrosion. It appeared that there had clearly been some sort of waterproofer put on years ago. In the pics it looks red/brown. It is darker than the waterproofer that was put on at the factory that is clearly visible on the sides. Does anyone know if this is original. I could not tell if the foam had ever been out before. Look at the dark color on the hull to see what I mean.
reading everybody elses threads and seeing everyone getting closer to water than me. So I picked up rivets and began re-attaching the gunwales to the sides. There are a ton of these little holes to fill. The question I have is about rivets. Does anyone know if the closed end rivets are any stronger than the standard pop rivets? It looks like there was a combination of both that previsouly attached the sides and gunwales so I would like to go back with whichever is the strongest. I also picked up my gas tank from the radiator shop. They steamed it out like they do radiators and leak tested it. I now need to figure out the fittings. It may need to have one of the openings welded and another put in to adapt to a new line to the motor and sending unit for a gauge. I am thinking the best hookup for the fill line is the vented model that is vented near the fill cap. I will get a picture up this evening and see if anyone has any suggestions. I think I will still use the tank even though it is heavy. I keep hearing talk about the higher levels of ethanol beginning to eat through plastic and fiberglass tanks so the stainless would be more durable if that is the case. Kev, I was looking at your whole thread last night and man that boat is looking good.
