Vintage AlumaCraft semi-v boat restore

[Itsogood]

I have bought a Semi-Vee boat and this thing is way cool. Have started some of the restore and looking for help on several things about it. First one would be the transom. The wood is totally shot and needs to come out. The wood on the inside is the worst. Falls apart when you touch it. There is a little bit of a splash well there and I am not sure how to remove this to get to the wood and replace it. Anyone out there know about these jon boats? I can't believe how sturdy this thing is. A friend came over and looked at it and his comment was "Whoa this thing is built like an ice breaker" We both got a good laugh about that. I have started to remove the exterior paint and watched some videos on youtube about polishing the exterior... wow.... that would take forever... tried to do some already and it took forever just to do a little area. Think I'll junk that idea and go with a paint job. Will need a little help there too. Not sure how to prep aluminum for doing a new paint job on her but I gotta say the lines on this boat are cooler than the other side of the pillow and can't wait to see her in all her glory. There are some rivets missing and loose and I am not too sure how to address that problem either but I have read in some other posts that for structural areas you should use rivets that are full and not pop rivets. Any one know what I need for doing that kind of work? Hey this place is great and can't wait to hear back from you guys on how to do this right.
Tony

 

[g0nef1sshn]

Welcome to the club itsogood, thats a long list of stuff to do. Were gonna need to see some pictures of exactly what your working with too. To get started, Tear everything out and address the rivet issues, then leak test and gluvit.

 

[GA_Boater]

Welcome to the Tin Nut Association, Itsogood. Any idea what model you have. +1 on pics - Our form of perversion.

 

[Itsogood]

I know I need to get out the camera and get that thing working to post some pics of how things are going and that will be coming soon. There is so much to do and not enough time to get it done. I have a few other boats and have been working on them to get them up and running for the season... live in Connecticut so all you southerners can get a good laugh at us who live in the colder regions and only have so much time to get work like this done. Used to live in FL but the ex-Admiral got to be too much to bear and thought CT where my son serves from Groton in the Navy would be a logical place to get away from her.... China wouldn't have been enough mileage to keep her from messing around and still trying to keep me in line.... lol... Anyways new life .... new Admiral ... or this time maybe I should just make her a deck hand.....lol... But I also have a 16' Blue Fin that will probably be my next restore and for now I am fishing out of a 14' Sears Jon Boat with a few modifications like raised front deck, fishing chairs and foot controlled trolling motor. But this boat is gonna be my fav I can tell already. The Blue Fin will be for salt water which I am not as keen on as fresh water fishing. I have learned about pickerel and a few other nuisance fish since moving to the NE but I see most other things are very similar to what I had in the south. Well gotta go make some money to buy all the stuff to get my project moving along. Can't wait to hear back from some of you who know the ins and outs of what I will need to do to make this the best fishing boat I can. Never done a complete restore before and will be proud to be skipping along the boat wakes in my favorite fishing holes with the help of the many who reside here on this forum. Thanks in advance for your advice

 

[Itsogood]

I was wondering if someone has any advice about what to do now that I have taken most of the exterior paint off with a wire wheel. I read on someone else's thread that someone there says that little bits of the wheel get imbedded into the aluminum and will cause a reaction later on because almost all metals that come into contact with the aluminum will do that..... Hope I didn't screw up too badly there.... I have learned so much since getting into the postings here about aluminum boats that I can't believe it. I have never attempted a restore before but now I am gung-ho about doing this to my Blue Fin too. That would be a monumental task but I am up for it and look forward to seeing this boat first brought back to original or even better glory and then the Blue Fin too.

 

[Watermann]

:welcome: to the iboats forum! Once we see what you're working on and verify it's a Starcraft, we'll send you a Starmada ring and instructions on the secret handshake. :lol: jk...

So tear down, paint removal, clean up and while doing that start preparing for the rebuild. Kleen strip in orange label can with some plastic drop cloth to cover the goop and get a 3M scrub pad with handle oh and a nice scraper too. Gather your plywood, glue, paint, drop clothes, tack clothes. Rivets are sort of a specialized task but very cheap to get into, air hammer, 3/16" rivet set brazier head, 3/16" dia brazier head rivets 2117 alloy for structural repairs. The length you need is the tricky part, need to see what your fastening together first to offer a suggestion there.

 

[Itsogood]

Oh yeah, GA asked what model I have .... funny thing about that. I have the title and in the box for model it says "Brown" I had to chuckle a little after reading that because the boat is or should I say was.... mostly brown. But hey .... just maybe they made a jon boat back in '71 that was a "Brown" model..... not sure, but just watch now that I thought 'no way' on that being the model that will be what it really is.... doubtful but just my luck... lol.... The boat is 15' long with a bit of a bow covering on it but definitely not a bow rider. The covering is probably about 2 1/2' - 3' from front to back and probably about 3' wide from side to side and is made from the same grade aluminum as the rest of the body of the boat. It looks like if you gave it a good rap from the back knocking it forward that it would probably pop right off as there only seems to be the way it curls around the rub rail that is holding it onto the front of the boat... kinda afraid to try that so as not too mess something up with it. It had a front light on it and a cleat that both look to be OE but not sure if they were PO add-on's.
If anyone knows where to look at pics of what boats they were making back in the day so I can look them over to see if my boat is pictured there... I would appreciate that info. I would like to know what model I have too... so I can see if it's really a "Brown" lol.... Ok... gonna go get the camera now and see if I can get it working and figure out how to post some shots of this boat here.
Thanks in advance for any help given guys.
Tony

 

[Itsogood]

Oh yeah also wanted to say to GA .... you asked for pics.... you just wanna see my girl with no covers on don't cha!! LOL

 

[Watermann]

We got ya covered... browse away..

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/owne.../s/starcraft-boats/358596-starcraft-brochures

 

[g0nef1sshn]

your phone take pics? I didnt read everything, so if it was mentioned im sorry, But thats the easy way I found to get it done. I take a pic, email it to myself, then download and upload it here.

 

[Itsogood]

Thanks for all the help guys. I tried for a few hours to upload photos and for some reason this thing.... maybe my computer won't let me post them here. Took em, uploaded to the computer and when I try to upload here always get unknown error popping up. Will continue to try to figure it out. As for gonefishn, I have and old flip phone that takes the crappiest pics ever and to email them is always very blurry... just can't make myself go with the newer smart phones.... tech stupid and learning curve is toooooo looooonnnnggg.... lol.. And thanks to Watermann for the web site for starcraft.... again tech stupid and can't find a pic of my boat there.... some come kinda close and it's makin me wonder if PO has cut this thing up or I just don't have enough savvy to find the right pic. Will continue to try things tho on the pics... have a dif camera and will prob try it next.

 

[Watermann]

Option #4 is the best for posting pics here on the forum.

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/othe...8-how-to-posting-pictures-and-videos?t=533219

 

[Itsogood]

Think I might finally have gotten some of the pics to download..... here they are.

 

[Itsogood]

Wow Watermann.... I am the worst at understanding how to do things with a computer and looked at what the options there are and I gotta say that I hope I can figure out how to post without doing all that... lol.... I might need to take a class to learn any of those methods... lol...

 

[jbcurt00]

I;m going to guess the PO made some changes, jon boats don't have splashwells, semi-V utility fishing boats (tiller not remote steer) don't either, at least no Starcraft I've ever seen does.

probably used to be a Jet, JetStar, Mariner or some other remote steer boat that saw some changes...

Pix will help, but no matter, you can make it however fits your intended use of the boat, remote steer or tiller....

 

[Itsogood]

Pic 009 shows the rear of the boat and should give a good idea of how the lines of this boat come together and the handles you would use to pick up the boat are formed right into the corner pieces of my little gem. I looked at the brochures that Watermann posted a few posts back to see if any of the pics even came close to what I have and none seemed to be an exact match so I have to wonder if my boat is and odd duck or something.... lol.. I will continue to look around to see what I can come up with but at this time my paperwork does say I have a 1971 StarCraft but none of the pics for '71 were all that close to what I am seeing out in the yard... hmmm.... my search goes on the find out the model of this boat. In some of the other pics I show something protruding from the under side bottom of the boat. The opening is pointing forward and would probably send a good fountain of water spewing when on the fly if it was left in the open position. On the inside floor of the boat this is connected to a swinging closure/open type of attachment. Not sure what the heck it is but I will probably use it for a live well inlet or outlet... not sure at this point what to do with it... might just wind up with a patch there.

 

[Itsogood]

The way it let me upload the pics I have here are not like the pics I have seen on other posts. These only seem to be a thumbnail type photo. Hmm.... I will figure this out but for now I think you guys can get an idea of what I have. Just need to get the hang of this stuff...

 

[Itsogood]

No Title

You can see the "door" to this off to the left of the hole. The door part swings around in a 360 covering or leaving the hole in the open position.

 

[jbcurt00]

Um, yeah, Not a Starcraft.... Alumacraft if I had to guess, but no Starcraft I've ever seen had this stern:

The AquaDuct transom was distinctive, this is from 1958:

And I doubt it's a 1971, maybe an early 60's or late 50's......

No matter, if you want to rebuild it to suit you, it'll still make a great platform to start from.....

If it's alright w/ you, ItsGood, I'll move this over to the Resto forum

 

[Itsogood]

No Title

Anyone recognize what the heck that is? You can see it from the bottom underside of the boat here.