1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Howdy folks. I have been following some of the restoration threads here for a while and got the bug. After trawling Craigslist for the past few weeks, I was almost going to buy a 18' 60's Holiday. In the end, the price was too high for me (700), I was afraid of the inboard/outboard, and I thought it was gonna be too heavy to pull with my 1988 first-gen Toyota 4-runner.

So, yesterday I found my new boat! I paid 350 for this 1963 aluminum Stardust. The add siad it was a 14' boat, but as soon as I saw it I knew it must be bigger than that! Here are some pics before I do anything (dont mind the snow...its chilly here in the mountains of CO and there is more to come tonight!).

It has an old Sea King 35hp motor (model # GG8997A) that I have found out is a 1958 model based on some other posts here. The guy I bought it from says it works "pretty good".

I am not yet sure what I have gotten myself into, but here are my initial thoughts/questions before I dig in:
1) Should I try to keep this motor or just bite the bullet and find something newer. When I get a warmer day, I will try to fire it up and then do a compression test, but I am not sure what kind of compression to look for. Does anyone suggest a psi that this thing should be near to be worthwhile keeping? I can do some minor engine work like impeller/carb cleaning etc., but I am not comfortable with tearing into it too deeply. Like I said, the PO said it "works good"?
2) As can be seen in one of the pics, someone caulked some places on the exterior front of the hull. PO said it doesnt leak, but it must have at some point! So my question is: If I strip down all the old paint (in and out) and use this gluvit stuff I see mentioned on this site, can I be fairly certain that it wond leak? Or, am I gonn have to have this thing welded or re-rivetted to be sure?

Well, I have already written too much so I will just post some pics and get back out in the snow to further evaluate this tin can.

I love this Starcraft forum and look forward to sharing my progress here. Any suggestions or comments are welcome!

Cheers
2)

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Welcome to the Starcraft club

Nice old rig, she will clean right up and look new I'm sure.

I'd be tempted to run the old Evinrude for a while, see what you like about the boat and stuff, then make a decision later if you need something more efficient, reliable, quieter, or just newer-looking.

That old motor should be pretty reliable if well maintained.

Say, what are those two things on the gunwales? One port and starboard amidships, kinda looks like a goofy rod holder or a water balloon launcher base.

You should check for loose/leaky rivets and replace those before Gluvit goes on the interior rivets and seams. Then the boat should not leak.

Good luck to ya!

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Welcome kbaum! Excellent buy buddy! At $350, that is my kind of deal, sweet! She looks great and I am looking forward to seeing what ya do with her.

Hey, whereabouts are ya in CO anyway?

Cheers man!

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Thanks guys. I am located in the mountains near Golden/Boulder CO.
So, I just tore through some stuff and have found bad news...hope it doesnt ruin the project.
When I first looked at the boat, I noticed that the bumper material (coping?) and aluminum track on one side of the boat was ground down, as if the boat had rubbed against a Jersey barrier or something. To my horror, I just noticed that the aluminum trim near the base of the side wall was also graund down! Not sure if the boat may have come off the trailer or how it could have happened, but I am very worried now. Seem like about 5/32" of the aluminum was ground off in the worst place. The side of the boat still seems very sturdy and doesnt seem to flex around this area, but it still scares me! Anybody have a clue as to how much metal is in one of those trim peices? It doesnt look like it punctured into the interior anywhere, but not sure how much metal is left. Could this be welded? I know I could use some JB weld or something alike to build it back out again, I am just really worried about the integrity of the hull.
On a different note, I realize that one of the PO's must have replaced the floor, dropping it to the aluminum ribs with no floatation...so the only floatation that was in the boat was 3 of those cheapo 10$ life jackets! I guess I will have to raise the floor back up?

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Cool! I was a Wilderness Ranger in the Collegiate Peaks Range for a bit back in the day. Absolutely beautiful area, I miss it big time.

I think from what I am seeing in your photo there and your description it kinda looks like you have some rubrail damage. So long as I am understanding what is going on there (I think I am) you are totally fine structure wise. Now, getting it back to original will be a trick though. Those rails are tough to find (though you may not need a new one) and the inserts are also very tough to come by. There are some replacements made by a couple of different companies. There are scrap Starcrafts every now and then that can give up that insert as well.

As for your deck (floor) - You can take it right down to your ribs or raise it up. Either way works.

Here is some light reading for ya, great examples of what you can do with your deck as well as the whole rest of your rig...

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=309879

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=338523

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=381811&page=2

Glad you are here!

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Thanks Jasoutside. Yeah, I love Colorado...even the snow!
With regard to the ground down edge, I am not so much worried about the upper bumper area. What I am really worried about is the lower exterior rib (circled in this picture), as this is definitely part of the sidewall aluminum on the boat. I am trying to get an idea if this is repairable by welding...ie can it be "built" back up to anywhere near the original curvature? And I wonder how close I am to having it come through to the interior of the boat?

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

OOOooooooo, now I am with ya!

Sorry missed that, dropped as a baby, you'll need to bear with me.

Yah, uber critical area for boat structure. So it's not yet worn through eh? That's good

Well, you could build it up with some JB Weld, MarineTex sort of a deal. You could also add some aluminum along with the JB/MarineTex in there to strengthen it even more, outside or inside. Take it to a welder. Several options actually.

Anyway you shake it it's totally fixable.

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

I just finished ripping out the floor...done for now as its getting cold and dark
Looks like it the outside grind had actually penetrated the hull, or nearly, as there is already a weld job don along the worst area. Welding looks OK, but not a very thick bead. I think I will call around here to see if its possible to "build" it up with additional welding.

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Congrats on the find, $350 was a great deal.

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Welcome to the Starmada, Great deal on nice old Starcraft. A welder should be able to fix that up for you reasonably. I wouldn't worry about it to much. Are you planning on a complete rebuild?
Glen

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

A great find @ $350! It looks like the 63 Stardust became the 64 Jet. Have you seen this thread?

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=338523

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Lakelover, yeah I had looked at that 64' Jet page before and it really does look like the same boat. It too cold to do anything for the next few days so I guess I will just think about how I am gonna proceed. The biggest thing I have to decide is what to do with the new floor and seat arrangements. If I keep the floor somewhat original (curved, like Bannanboater did) it will be much easier, but then I either have to level some places to put pedestal seats, or keep the original seat board setup. I dont think I like the layout of with the 2 seatboards going across the fron and back, as it seems to take up a lot of real estate. I think I like the idea of raising the floor and making it flat, but my worry is that I will throw off the balance and make the boat a little more unsteady. This is ultimately gonna be a fishing machine and so I would like to have as much open space as possible w/o comprimising stability.

DozerII, "complete rebuild"? Well I guess that depends on the definition of "complete"! Not really sure how much I will end up doing, but would like to keep it in spirit with the original design. I had initially thought about tearing out the metal on the bow and putting in a fishing seat but I havent made up my mind yet.

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

hey K--

welcome to the nuthouse. $350 made my little bottom feeder heart go pitter-patter.

on your side rail scrape, it's not as bad as you think. a welder can easily add some alum L-channel on the outside for a quick & sturdy if not entirely pretty fix. or you could bend up a reinforcement from flat sheet aluminum ad either weld or rivet it in place. if you have the reinforcing piece cut and bent to size/shape before you go to the welder, your job will be lots cheaper as that will be the time consuming part of the job.

raising the floor back to factory and putting foam underneath (and pivoting seats) won't make it unstable, but foam will make it harder to sink. YOU will be steadier on a flat floor than a curved one in a chop. and i think you'll find that easier than cutting and bending a floor to follow hull contour. bench seats with no back, even padded ones, suck after 3 hours of fishing.

your motor is the classic OMC "big twin", made like unto forever and millions of spares out there. great motors and easy to work on (esp compared to old Mercs) albeit quite thirsty for the amount of hp they make (as were all 2 strokes back then). not many special tools required. if you have decent compression (anything over about 110 (remember to correct to sea level....crude approximation would be add 2 psi/1000' elevation), should be within 5-10% between cylinders), these are very reliable, even if they are 50 yrs old, as long as you go through the ignition completely (all old coils on these have cracked by now, for example, but you can replace the whole ignition system for abt $125) instead of just doing stopgap fixes, replace fuel pump diaphragm, and clean/rebuild carbs as needed. i'll find and post links to some good info on these from Max Wawryzniak, sort of the guru on old big twins.

my 2 pesos' worth........

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

here's the info on how to go through your motor:
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/columns/max/24/index.cfm

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Hello and welcome to the SC. Im glad to see another 63 and if your boat is a 16 footer then a flat floor should be no trouble. I think our boats are the same except for the layout and it sure looks the same as my jupiter.

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

Thanks for all the responses everyone!

I was just down at the ACE, and found myself gravitating toward the paint section. I am interested in enviro-friendly stripping since I live in the mountains and will be working within 100' of my own well!

Anyways, I ended up picking up 2 different products:
3M Safest Stripper
Citristrip (barr)
I just got a quart of each and am gonna apply them to various different painted surfaces to see how they work. I will wait for a warmer day (looks like almost 60 on Thursday ) and try some small test patches. I will try doing 2 hours and 24 hours, and will also try applying uncovered and then covered with seran wrap or plastic (I think they will end up eating through it though). I will post results!

Looked into going the soda blaster route....sounds cool but it looks like it will end up costing me more than I paid for the boat and motor!

I have to confess that I tried stripping a 12' aluminum boat when I was about 16 yo. After about 6 hours of sanding and grinding I had covered about 4 square feet, gave up and painted the thing as is. Lets hope that these past 20 years have instilled in me some more stamina and patience!!!

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

In my experience, the enviro-friendly strippers are no good. The ones I've tried have been painfully slow and inneffective. You need something with methylene chloride in it unless you're way more patient than I am!

Re: 1963 16' Starcraft Stardust...the saga begins!!!

heat is a big deal with chem strippers and 60 may not be enough to really get em cookin. they work great when it's 80-90 or better outside. you may need to use a radiant heater (electric or propane like a Little Buddy/Mr Heater)(BEWARE flammability issues) or a couple of 500w halogen worklights close to the surface being stripped to heat the aluminum enough. if the stuff you bought doesn't seem to be working well, try more heat before you give up and go the meth chloride route.