The well traveled 1979 Starcraft 18' V5 SS

[hayko1971]

Wow I've been away too long pursuing winter pursuits. Congrats on the new acquisition Rob, I've been looking forward to see this one turn out for a while, it's got great lines.

 

[Decker83]

Read your thread today.. Great new project.. Making good progress..
Looking forward to following along..

 

[Watermann]

The clean up abatement of silicone and steel mandrel blinds has finally ended. I came to the conclusion that the factory had used this clear sealer in an attempt to move to the stern any water coming down the sides of the hull. They added damns that bridge the ribs with huge beads of the sealer and riveted them to the stringers. There were steel mandrels cocooned in the sealer so I'm thinking it wasn't a PO with a tube of goop and the fuel tank support was loaded with it too, the same stuff.

The bridges to seal water from getting to the bottom of the boat. Who ever thought of that should be flogged! No they won't be going back in either.

I spoke too soon about transom pitting, there's some tiny pits that I'll just paint over but I have one spot that's been gnawed at, a lower motor bolt hole that will need some MT. When I hit that spot with the wheel there was a huge plume of white nasty with the smell in the air of dirty gym socks and chicken soup that was made in a homeless shelter cafeteria. :concern:

I've got another road trip coming up Friday morning, another forum member cloudrnr from Idaho has a 1996 19' SFM Starcraft bunk trailer we made a deal on. It needs a little rust abatement but overall it looks like it will fit the SS nicely being 92" wide. Looking forward to meeting another forum member and picking up the trailer.

 

[GA_Boater]

Say Hi to cloudrnr for us, Rob. The trailer should be a good fot for the SS.

What's up with those water blocking bridges? Flogging is too good for whoever thought those up. Against the wall at dawn for his final cigarette!

 

[budski]

That's the same trailer as my 1995 SFM, great trailer very well built, I really like it good choice,

 

[Watermann]

So the trip to pick up the SC trailer went off without a problem. Got to meet another great forum member in the process. :thumb:

The trailer looked as though it needed some rust remediation but nothing too bad. Until I started tearing it down. The step pieces that bolt onto the frame to hold the fender between them are completely roached out, the rust has claimed them. Under those brackets wasn't really visible so there was no way to know until they were taken off. Once off the metal fell apart in sheets but the main beam wasn't as bad but when I used a scraper on the paint it came off along with a thin layer of rusted out steel with it, leaving deep pits behind. :grumpy:

Every last nut and bolt fought tooth and nail to stay on the the tetanus trailer. My rattle gun got a severe work out and I broke my 1/2" drive breaker bar along with 2 phillips bits in my drill but everything is torn down to pieces. I'm assessing this now and trying to decide if I should keep going or call it quits. All the raised tiny rust freckles open up to a quarter sized rust pocket. I can see at least 30 to 40 hours of time being spent with an angle grinder and flapper just to knock off the rust to bare metal.

I could go on about some other stuff but it's depressing enough as it I think. No hard feelings over it at all, seems this go around is going to be a challenge and bottom feeding has it's own set of issues mainly lots of extra work.

Tool cart includes the end of the work day refreshments.

 

[classiccat]

you'd never guess that it was a total horror show from the pics :facepalm: Is it corroded enough to warrant reinforcement?

 

[will w.]

I have that same trailer. I also had close to the same rust issue, only my fenders had big patches of rust. 7-8 years ago I disassembled side steps and fenders. Wire brushed, then used spray on rustoleum rust converter,(only in rusty areas) sanded then a second coat. Next I sprayed 2 coats of brown rusty metal primer and followed that up with rusto semi gloss white reduced and applied in 5 or 6 coats with a foam roller. Wet sanded between the last few coats. I only rolled on as I had the boat on trailer. The remainder of the trailer just got a light scuffing with rusto directly rolled over top. I even used JB as a filler on the outer side of the step frame for filling deep pits. lol:lol: Even though the boat was covered, the trailer sat outside for 4 of those years and it still looks good. I,m just now seeing a little rust color next to the carpeted step and that's probably for not prepping the tray the wood lays in.. Judging by looking at your close-up frame shot, that trailer has plenty of meat left. That's steel, not the white stuff. Hope you get her figured out Watermann.
I enjoy your build threads and look forward to seeing you bust out another Starcraft, nice work.

 

[uforty3]

Don't forget we imported a huge wasp nest with the trailer.. Good times

 

[jasoutside]

Hey man, glad to see a Starcraft coming back to the homeland rather than being swiped by one of those rotten kanuck's! :canada::canada:

That was cool you fellas could work it out and this awesome hull will be put back together, rockon:rockon:

 

[Decker83]

If you can, sand blasting would save a lot of work for you..

 

[Watermann]

you'd never guess that it was a total horror show from the pics :facepalm: Is it corroded enough to warrant reinforcement?

Yeah it's not too bad off, just needs some love and a couple weeks of work is all. :lol:

I have that same trailer. I also had close to the same rust issue, only my fenders had big patches of rust. 7-8 years ago I disassembled side steps and fenders. Wire brushed, then used spray on rustoleum rust converter,(only in rusty areas) sanded then a second coat. Next I sprayed 2 coats of brown rusty metal primer and followed that up with rusto semi gloss white reduced and applied in 5 or 6 coats with a foam roller. Wet sanded between the last few coats. I only rolled on as I had the boat on trailer. The remainder of the trailer just got a light scuffing with rusto directly rolled over top. I even used JB as a filler on the outer side of the step frame for filling deep pits. lol:lol: Even though the boat was covered, the trailer sat outside for 4 of those years and it still looks good. I,m just now seeing a little rust color next to the carpeted step and that's probably for not prepping the tray the wood lays in.. Judging by looking at your close-up frame shot, that trailer has plenty of meat left. That's steel, not the white stuff. Hope you get her figured out Watermann.
I enjoy your build threads and look forward to seeing you bust out another Starcraft, nice work.

Thanks for the support will, you're right there is plenty of meat on the bones

Don't forget we imported a huge wasp nest with the trailer.. Good times

Standard for anything I buy is a delousing with bug spray. I think that one tube was full of bee nests!

Hey man, glad to see a Starcraft coming back to the homeland rather than being swiped by one of those rotten kanuck's! :canada::canada:

That was cool you fellas could work it out and this awesome hull will be put back together, rockon:rockon:

Yeah them guys up north like the good stuff. :heh:

If you can, sand blasting would save a lot of work for you..

I've thought about that Decker but there's no way to get the frame to someone now that it's a skeleton so I would have to buy me a sand blaster, do the home versions sold at the tool places work very well?

 

[FrankenCub]

I've thought about that Decker but there's no way to get the frame to someone now that it's a skeleton so I would have to buy me a sand blaster, do the home versions sold at the tool places work very well?

I'm not sure which version they sell by you but I use an old pressure pot and it's great. If you can find a pressure pot with a good quality deadman valve on the hose it will probably work just as good as the 50+yr old one I use. The little hand held ones with a cup suck.
Kinda like this but mine has a different valve on the hose.. http://www.harborfreight.com/110-lb-pressurized-abrasive-blaster-60696.html

 

[Tnstratofam]

We bought a sandblaster from Northern tool about 13 years ago to do some work on my dads Mustang we were restoring. We laid a tarp down to catch debri and sand as we worked. It was messy but did the job. The key is having a good compressor and going slow. It's eazy to get caried away and take off more metal than you mean to.

I think my dad has used it a handful of times for farm implement repairs, but all I ever managed to do was look like I just trecked through the Sahara any time I tried to use it.

 

[StarTed]

One of my sons bought a pot unit from HF at least 15 years ago and used it on a Toyota P/U he was working on. It seemed to work OK. We used tarps and collected the grit. I think it was glass beads. It would work well for steel but probably too harsh for aluminum.

It's still around here somewhere.

 

[oldhaven]

Many years ago I bought a Sears blaster with a 3 gallon hopper to work on motorcycles parts. It worked well and I even built a homemade cabinet to use it for small parts. I have it around here still and now that my big compressor is fixed I will be using it on the Fleetcraft trailer that is in similar shape as yours. Make sure you can find the replacement nozzles if you get one, since they wear out. I see the ones at NT have them available. I used to buy some media called Black Diamond and it looks like that is still available too, as well as a lot of other more or less aggressive media that I did not have access to as an amateur back then.

Ron

 

[budski]

Looks like you have a bit of work cut out for ya, but I;m sure it's nothing you can't handle, still looks like quite a bit of steel left and should come out great as usual.

 

[Candutch]

A couple weeks in your hands and she'll be a gem again.

 

[Watermann]

Thanks guys for the replies and encouragement. I'm having to work on the trailer outside which makes me subject to the unpredictable spring weather. I think I'm going to strip the all the paint, hammer off the flakey stuff, rust reform the bad spots, fill some pitting that will be visible, prime and paint.

 

[Watermann]

Plugging away... man the ole gal sure is floppy all tore down. I have to brace the sides with 2x4 and clamps. Going to need to put the transom in and gunnels back on before flipping or doing much inside. Starboard side has little bit of primer haze to scrub off and then onto the port. Some fairly large gouges I'll have to sand out too.