Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete
Thanks for the compliments. I think it turned out pretty good for my first project. For the amount of time I had it out this season, I had several compliments. Even had one guy looking at it at the dealership, the day I was picking up the final motor/gauge install.
DozerII
The motor is great. Although I think that a 90 would have been fine. It had a 80 mercury on it previously.
64osby
Believe it or not, that is the original CC that came witht the boat. I was able to get someone to cut and bend a piece to go over the existing CC. I then used some caulking to hold it in place and hopefully remove any future vibrations. As you can see, I then added 4 bolts on the top section to hold it securely. I didn't add anything to the lower section because I thought that between the panel, steering wheel, gauges and throtle it would be fine.
Once it was in place I designed the layout of the CC myself. I think it turned out pretty good and clean looking.
Weepn Willy
Yes there is a plan to have a top put over the CC, just not at this point. It's on the short list of things to complete. It would have to be something that will go up for fishing, but come down for Hunting. Budget was used up and and I wanted to get some use out of her this past season.
Pckeen
Nautolex was not really an issue. It was a bit harder because I placed it down as one piece over the riveted floor. The rivets area's don't seem to show that much.
The bow section were done prior to installing. Therefore I was able to glue them and wrap them individually.
If I had to do it over again, I would wrap the floor individually and rivet them after for a couple reasons.
1) One piece is allot of work. More than a one person job.
2) One person can do it.
3) I had to bend some aluminum and caulk it in place over the edges. This will hopefully prevent it from coming up in years to come.
4) If by chance one piece rots out, I can simply redo it and reinstall it
5) During the layout portion, make sure to leave enough space for the two sides of Nautolex. This way the floor will still fit snug together.
Lessons learned, none the less.
Wayne
(Starcrazy)