18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

[ezmobee]

Just picked up a new project. I'm really excited about it because an 18' open bow aluminum Starcraft is the hull I really wanted. I think I got a fantastic deal on it. The hull is in great shape, the trailer is in great shape except for some minor things, and best of all, the 1981 Evinrude 90 RUNS and the power tilt & trim works flawlessly. I've been wanting TnT for years but adding it to my old Johnson was cost prohibitive. The boat came with some nice extras like awesome guide-ons on the trailer which should make loading a breeze and also a cool teak swim platform that I think will clean up nicely. The transom on the boat is solid. The floors are springy but solid although I'm still planning on replacing them. Basically, if this thing had some seats in it, it would be completely usable as-is! But that's not the plan. The seller had it listed for $1800. I offered $1000 and he accepted. I would have been willing to go the full $1800 but for that price I would have wanted to do some tests on the motor. Now for some pics:

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Although I'm not a big fan of the color, the paint is in decent shape. With a little washing and buffing it should clean up nice. So, with that in mind, I think I will do and inside-out restoration like I did with my Jupiter. My plan for the interior is to copy a number of the design features from a 2010 Starcraft Superfisherman http://www.starcraftmarine.com/Show...Type=Aluminum&Series=Superfisherman&Model=180 I think it's interesting that after looking at all the new aluminum boats available right now for some interior ideas....the boat I like the best, by far, is a Starcraft. I plan to try to mimic their design in the bow and the stern. I'll be using lounge seats in the middle instead of pedastals. Right now I'm leaning towards this seating group from iboats: http://www.iboats.com/Fishing_Chair...9838710--**********.735967917--view_id.394390 I'd like to get 2 loungers, 2 jump seats, and 2 pedastal fishing chairs which I will make removable. I'd like to canabalize the jump seats into flip up seating in the stern like in the new Superfisherman. Those are my ideas for now. I haven't really started on the restore yet unless you count playing matchbox cars in the boat with my son last night for an hour

My Jupiter is currently on Craigslist though the thought of selling it makes me ill. But two boats in the same general genre really isn't practical.

 

[bigskiohio]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

bow platform as mine is a i/o, i also like another i saw that had three seat plates up front side by side. but i would like a closer look at the new design.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

SUCCESS!!!!! We had a great first run with just a few issues. My wife was able to get off work and join my dad and I which was great. Everyone loves the boat and was happy with its performance. Bullet points:

Good:
- Motor starts from cold practically instantly. The primer system is clearly better than the choke on my '73

- Motor runs great at speed, quick smooth acceleration

- Boat goes great with the 90HP. Better than I thought it would. 39MPH GPS!!!!

- Boat planes really well. It glides on the water. It produces practically NO wake

- Original Starcraft speedo works and is surprisingly accurate.

- Riding up in the bow is great

- little to no taking on of water

Bad:
- Motor has some sort of fuel delivery issue. It conks out when being put into forward. It is currently VERY difficult to get past this and get it into gear and moving. Possibly dirty carbs or bad fuel pump maybe? The strange thing is it can idle very nice and low in gear with no coughing or sneezing. So it may be a linkage and/or timing advance issue. I'll have to put up a post in the J/E section. This almost ended our day before it began but after much messing with it, I was able to get it thrown into gear and out of hole. Had a similar problem both times I restarted it after stopping. It runs GREAT other than this. (Much like my Johnson, darn it)

- I have clearly not yet mastered power trim

Couple of pics and video to follow

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Boat at the dock. The river was really high today from all the rain we've had:

My dad driving and dana in the passenger "camp chair"

It was a beautiful day. Warm and absolutely 0 wind:

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Videos (audio is pretty much just wind noise. Oh well, you get the idea):

First video:
http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w200/ezmobee/New Boat/?action=view&current=first_video.flv

Discussing the GPS data:
http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w200/ezmobee/New Boat/?action=view&current=gps_discussion.flv

Hole shot:
http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w200/ezmobee/New Boat/?action=view&current=hole_shot.flv

My dad driving so I could ride up front for a bit:
http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w200/ezmobee/New Boat/?action=view&current=dad_driving.flv

My dad and my wife:
http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w200/ezmobee/New Boat/?action=view&current=dad_dana.flv

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is my seats came (way early,thanks iboats!) and they are GORGEOUS. Much higher quality than what I had put in the Jupiter (they cost twice as much so they certainly should be). The bad news is, they don't fit. I kinda failed to really measure anything before I ordered them. There just isn't room for the loungers and the jump seats. I was thinking of just returning the jump seats but my wife did not like the idea of not having any seating in the stern. She thought that would look dumb. So I think I'm going to exchange the loungers for 2 bucket seats. They have buckets available in the same pattern and they look to be super nice.

Here's my situation:

I LOVE these jump seats so I'm going to keep them:

Here's one of the pedestal fishing seats:

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Cool pic vegas. That light gray is pretty much what I'm going with. In place of the darker gray I'm going with a bold blue. Planning on using Petit EasyPoxy in "Mist Gray" and "Ocean Blue" see here: http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/images/Multi/Pettit/large/1329s.jpg

I have started removing the deck. Found nice, easy to remove, sheet foam underneath. I've also removed the gas tank and found it had about 5 gallons in it. Guess I'll have to find a way to get rid of that. I'm probably get the rest of the deck and the consoles out tonight. I'll post pics tomorrow.

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

EZ... those jump seats could still be converted to your original idea of a fishing conversion......

Notice "Bassin Mode" is very useful for all sorts of things!

Vegas..........

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Vegas, AWESOME job on the photoshop. That is along the lines of what I was thinking.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Some progress made tonight.....got the whole deck ripped out. Obviously I have the consoles, gas tank, and bow area removed as well. I was pleased to not run into anything unexpected. No poured foam or anything like that. The white styrofoam isn't even that wet. It will still be removed though. Here's the pics:

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

I would imagine the reason for the rot near my stern was probably just from stuff laying on the floor back there and under the splash well. Who knows how long this boat sat out uncovered before I got it. My consoles were very easy to remove because this boat has been redone before. I didn't have to drill out any rivets at all, just removed a bunch of stainless screws. However, there aren't too many points of attachment so you aren't looking at much work there.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Spent about an hour out there tonight. Got all the foam broken up and bagged. I'll be throwing that out for weeks. Ripped the carpet and original vinyl off that was up in the bow and ripped out the carpet that was along the gunwales. I would have started vacuuming out the dirt but I figured I'd let it dry out a bit till tomorrow so it wasn't as much a mess in my shop vac.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Great progress today guys.....my wife and I got the entire floor cut and laid in place. It looks great! It's not permanently installed. Lots of work to be done prior to that happening. Here's the pics:

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Got busy with the powerwasher today in preparation for the Gluvit application. I, of course, paid special attention to the rivets and seams. A 7HP powerwasher is a heck of a tool. No idea why my father-in-law bought one but I'm glad he did.

Before:

After:

It even did a nice job on my teak swim platform. That could probably use some more work:

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Worked on the boat a bunch yesterday. Tim Fives came over and helped me pull the motor and remove the rest of the rigging. I also took off the swim platform, cleats, etc. The only thing left on it now is the bow rail which I will probably remove tonight. Didn't get a chance to start on the Gluvit. Perhaps tonight.

I pulled all this stuff off because I've made the decision to go ahead and flip it to paint it. Paint isn't too expensive unlike all the stuff I need to continue working on the interior. So I figured I would take advantage of it being stripped down and flip it. This way I can continue working on it till some more $$ builds up and I can buy the rest of my materials.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Gluviting occurred last night. I have mixed feelings on how that went. Some thoughts: Gluvit has little odor and mixes up easily. 1 can is technically enough for an 18' boat although just barely. 1.25 cans would be optimal. I got the job done but I wasn't able to hit every singe thing that I would have wanted to. Only mix half the can up at a time. I mixed the whole thing because it was a little cooler in my garage and I figured I'd work fast enough. I was mostly right but the contents did start to gel a bit as I was close to being done. It did run a bit after applying which is good. That means it probably oozed into crevices and sealed better. It takes a long time to dry. It was still quite wet when I went to bed last night and was still tacky this morning after running the space heaters all night keeping the garage around 65 degrees. Here's the fairly useless pics:

This is just a shot of the motor removed and hanging in the back of my garage

The needed supplies. That is supposed to be a thermometer showing it's like 67 degrees but you can't really see it

The Gluvit applied Wow exciting!

This is where I'm kinda bummed out. You can see that my boat has this extra panel inside (on the left) that covers the main seam between the bottom and sides of the boat. That's about a zillion rivets I was unable to access. And on the Jupiter that was one of my trouble areas. So I wasn't real thrilled about that. The good news is this boat didn't leak when we test drove it so this effort can only improve an already good situation. I didn't notice a single lose rivet while I was working.

Saturday she gets flipped!!! I just now ordered my paint from Jamestown Distributors. 2 quarts of Easypoxy Mist Gray and 1 quart Ocean Blue. I'm hoping it arrives very early next week.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Boat is flipped!! I had 4 guys including myself and we were able to lift it off the trailer and onto the grass next to my driveway. We then moved the trailer out of the way and flipped the boat over and onto the driveway on top of 3 furniture dollies. Everyone agreed that Rickairmedic's furniture dolly idea was a great one. I got them for $9.99 a piece from Harbor Freight. After that we just wheeled it back into the garage. I foresee the dollies continuing to be useful for slight maneuvers in the garage.

With all the nightmares I've had with trailers.....this one is in really nice shape. Needs a little work but nothing too major. The axle needs to be moved back to give me some more tongue weight. I think while I have it off to do the adjustment, I'm going to clean it up and paint it, and take it my trailer guys and have them redo the bearings. They are very much shot.

Paint was ordered on Friday morning. I think it's coming from RI so it should be here early in the week. Can't wait to get started on that.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Actually the axle thing won't be bad. No welding or anything involved. The whole assembly is mounted on brackets that are easily adjustable. Like 4-6 bolts. The other holes are even pre-drilled. A guy I went to high school with his whole family runs an RV and trailer shop. I'm going to just take the axle to them while it's off and have the bearings done. I don't mess with that kind of stuff. I don't THINK the spindles are shot. I'll clean it up and paint it also while it's off.

My paint will be on my porch when I get home today. I hope to get the chance to stop at Home Depot and get some sanding stuff and some foam rollers and brushes.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 18' Starcraft SuperSport restoration

Sanding completed tonight. Tomorrow.....PAINT!