1981 18 SS

[dozerII]

Figured it was time to start a thread on the Bottom Feeder priced $300. 18 SS that we picked up in St. Paul Minnesota. This boat belongs to Darcy the owner of Naked Lady, which will be all cleaned up and listed fore in April. The 16SS is just a little to small for his family,so the 18 should fit the bill perfectly. She came with no trailer but a very good running Mercruiser 140 that will need a complete tune up and replacement of all rubber components, ie: bellows, water pump, belts.
The plan is to get it A1 mechanically and improve the outside appearance a bit, then run it for a season or two to get a solid idea and plan for the re-fit that will come after that. We have found a very nice 1997 ezloader trailer, that has hardly any miles on it, only used to launch and retrieve a boat once a year till the boat was lost in a storm last summer. Here's a couple pictures of her when she arrived in Canada.










The interior is in remarkably good condition, with solid floors and transom. It will get a good shampooing and rub down with Armourall. The out side od the hull is in extremely good condition with no dents, a few deep scratches, but really bad paint on the sides. I can't figure out why the PO who obviously took very good care of the boat did not use dock bumpers to protect the paint on the hull sides, they are scratched really bad.



Continued

 

[dozerII]

As you can see from the last picture in the previous post and the first one in this post it looks pretty bad.

The plan is to strip the paint of the sides from rub rail to spray rail and give it a polish to improve the appearance till the re-do.

I was quite anxious to try the Natura Safe strip again on a hull that only had one coat of factory paint. We may have to figure out how to get this product down to you guys in the U.S.



I started on the starboard side yesterday at 6 am and used 1.5 liters of Safe Strip $12 and had it looking like this at 3 pm.





All previous Starcrafts I have worked on had the factory color contrasting stripes painted on, this one is vinyl decals, what a pain in the arse.
My preferred method for removal is a heat gun razor scraper and GoofOff Grafiti remover.



Use just enough heat with the gun to get the scarper to lift the decal, and only take a third at a time and it won't take as much force, after all the vinyl is off there will be a thick layer of glue left. Coat it with a liberal spray of the Goofoff and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes.

Continued.

 

[dozerII]

Test the glue with the scraper it should lift right off in one pass, try not to get it on the floor or trailer as it is real gooey and if you track it in the house the Admiral will be looking for the Frying pan.



I decided to experiment with the safe strip a little to see if I could speed up the process, on the port side of the hull I placed a tape line and on each tried something different. The back side of the tape I did a quick sand with 60 grit sand paper to try and open the paint up before applying the stripper..



I let the stripper sit for 40 minutes while I removed the decals, then used my razor scraper to lift the paint. As you can see in the photos the rear side that was sanded came off better, but I think I was a little aggressive with my sanding an will now have some scratches to polish out, If I was repainting this would not be an issue.



I think I will just continue with out sanding, as it's easier to scrap the paint than polish out the scratches.

 

[GA_Boater]

It didn't take long before you got tired of making snow angels, Glen. :smow: So this is "Naked Lady II"?

 

[Tnstratofam]

Thanks for posting the process you have of removing both the stripes, and the paint. How will you polish out the sanding marks? That boat is gonna be nice when it's done. I've thought about doing something similar to my 16SS as the hull paint on mine isn't the greatest. I like the polished look on the upper side of the hull. I like it flipped as well though. Paint on top polished on the bottom. I'm wishy washy like that.:indecisiveness:

 

[dozerII]

It didn't take long before you got tired of making snow angels, Glen. :smow: So this is "Naked Lady II"?

Yup GA a guy can only sit on the couch for so long, when there Starcrafts in the hanger Not sure what they will name this one??

Thanks for posting the process you have of removing both the stripes, and the paint. How will you polish out the sanding marks? That boat is gonna be nice when it's done. I've thought about doing something similar to my 16SS as the hull paint on mine isn't the greatest. I like the polished look on the upper side of the hull. I like it flipped as well though. Paint on top polished on the bottom. I'm wishy washy like that.:indecisiveness:

No problem tns, the sanding marks will polish out pretty easy, start with some super fine Scotchbrite, then the Sonus polishing compound on a medium 7" orange polishing pad. When we do the complete refit on the hull it will get flipped and stripped on the bottom as well, the top wide lapstrake and the top of the gunwalls are going to get painted with an emerald green from what I understand. Polish on the bottom is the only way to go in my books, if you do any beaching at all you don't have to worry about scratched paint.

 

[MNhunter1]

Looking good!! Wish I had a larger hanger to keep mine out of storage for the winter. It's been completed over and over in my head, just need to get the actual work done I'm just sitting around spending money on new parts now!

 

[jbcurt00]

So, tell us more about the covert Natura SafeStrip border crossing.......

Looks like a great SS, and a quick cleanup for use in the spring sounds like a great plan.

 

[dozerII]

Looking good!! Wish I had a larger hanger to keep mine out of storage for the winter. It's been completed over and over in my head, just need to get the actual work done I'm just sitting around spending money on new parts now!

Thanks MN, having the hanger to work in is big plus.

So, tell us more about the covert Natura SafeStrip border crossing.......

Looks like a great SS, and a quick cleanup for use in the spring sounds like a great plan.

Thanks jb, I'm going to look into it with Home Hardware, it is non toxic and not classed as a hazardous good, heck you can get the stuff all over your hands and it does nothing. Once I find out what they can tell me I will check with U.S. customs to see what's involved to get it to the States. If that all works out the only issue I can see is if freezing hurts it.

 

[jbcurt00]

Sweet, thanks Glen

 

[Weep'n Willy]

That sure is a lot of boat for the price! Nice looking 140 in her. Nice to see some rebuild action going on and you certainly aren't wasting time getting that paint off. Lookin good.

I can see I got to find me another project. Kinda missing tinkering with them.

 

[SigSaurP229]

Good Stuff I was wondering when you were going to get to this one. DECAL removal SUCKS, I actually use a propane torch long enough to watch the vinyl bubble then I use a LONG handle razor scraper to take care of the rest

 

[Watermann]

That sure is a bottom feeder price on that 18 SS, man I wish I could find one 3 times that price around here. I was a bit dumb struck not seeing the ole gal being gutted and everything ripped out before the paint removal. I had to start reading to figure out what was up. :lol: The PO sure must of taken care not to let her sit in the weather for decades, a big plus there. :thumb:

I hate paint stripping, only thing I'm not looking forward to on my next one. That sure looks nice and clean from where I'm sitting and in such a short amount of time too.

 

[astor]

Wow, Glen that made quick work of the paint. I've gotta try some of that stuff, I really struggled getting the paint off my SS, last summer, tried all the nasty stuff with little luck. I wound up using a stainless brush around the rivets and it took days, then lots of sanding to remove the scratches.

Are you planning on polishing the same way as you did the Holiday? I had little luck with the Caswell's white and blue compounds, I would use the black and brown compounds again, but will be looking for something different for final polish.

 

[crankbait cowboy]

great find right there glen, and glad to see you back at it. nice to follow along while mine hibernates.

 

[dozerII]

That sure is a lot of boat for the price! Nice looking 140 in her. Nice to see some rebuild action going on and you certainly aren't wasting time getting that paint off. Lookin good.

I can see I got to find me another project. Kinda missing tinkering with them.

Thanks WnW, that's kinda why I started working on her , was starting to suffer from withdrawls.

Good Stuff I was wondering when you were going to get to this one. DECAL removal SUCKS, I actually use a propane torch long enough to watch the vinyl bubble then I use a LONG handle razor scraper to take care of the rest

Hey Sig, propane torch is a little aggressive for me, I just use the heat gun on low till the blade start to loosen the decal then push like h^^$%

That sure is a bottom feeder price on that 18 SS, man I wish I could find one 3 times that price around here. I was a bit dumb struck not seeing the ole gal being gutted and everything ripped out before the paint removal. I had to start reading to figure out what was up. :lol: The PO sure must of taken care not to let her sit in the weather for decades, a big plus there. :thumb:

I hate paint stripping, only thing I'm not looking forward to on my next one. That sure looks nice and clean from where I'm sitting and in such a short amount of time too.

Price was great but it did cost $700. in diesel to go get her.

Wow, Glen that made quick work of the paint. I've gotta try some of that stuff, I really struggled getting the paint off my SS, last summer, tried all the nasty stuff with little luck. I wound up using a stainless brush around the rivets and it took days, then lots of sanding to remove the scratches.

Are you planning on polishing the same way as you did the Holiday? I had little luck with the Caswell's white and blue compounds, I would use the black and brown compounds again, but will be looking for something different for final polish.

I'm working on getting this product down to you guys, we will se what happens with that. No Caswells this time I'm going to stick with Sonus, I'm still picking black fluff and dust out of the hanger.

great find right there glen, and glad to see you back at it. nice to follow along while mine hibernates.

Thanks CC

 

[classiccat]

you make it all look sooo easy Glen!

I still can't believe someone coughed-up that boat for $300...even without a trailer!!!

 

[dozerII]

you make it all look sooo easy Glen!

I still can't believe someone coughed-up that boat for $300...even without a trailer!!!

Either could I. When we got there he boat was sitting on a trailer way to short for it all covered up with the nice canvas cover. I took one look at the hull and knew the trip was worth it without looking any further. Darcy's was talking with saying we should pull the cover and take a look and I'm going don't bother it doesn't matter lol, so when we got in the truck to go to the boat launch I had some splaining to do:facepalm:

 

[InMotion]

I had a feeling you would be getting at it sooner than later! Nice work man.... that's the way the safe strip should work! No black fluff and dust in the hanger this year huh?!!! I polished the Jupiter OUTSIDE this summer... area cleanup was a snap... me on the other hand... I looked like a seasoned coal miner!!! :facepalm:

Looking forward to the ongoing progress reports man!

Jim

 

[SigSaurP229]

That was a screaming deal it is absolutely amazing how much more room the 18 footers have than the 16'. I know just cruising in the S/l was much more comfortable than cruising in Flipper. Sooner or later I would like to get out of car mode and back into doing another tinny or even finishing up S/l. But making hand over fist money doing car repairs at the moment so we go with what pays the bills.