1959 Starcraft 16' Super Constellation - Winner 2016 Starmada SOTY Award

[dozerII]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Really nice looking little tinny, great job on the restore.

 

[m casey stock]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Looks great, thanks for posting them. I agree, that is the correct style trailer for the time era and was probably original to the Starcraft. It does look nice under the McKenzie. Here is a picture of my son's


It's a little older than yours, but as you can see, the trailer is very similar.

 

[glnbnz]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

I would like to follow along

 

[Watermann]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Wow what a cute little tinny you have there! It's great to see these vintage tin boats restored to better than their former glory.

 

[ssdale]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

m casey stock, do you know what year your son's McKenzie and is? The hull is all that is similar to mine. Did you get a title or how did you figure out what it is? I had a heck of a time figuring out what mine was as it was abandoned.

Thanks again to everyone for the compliments. I will try to get some more progress photos of the Starcraft tomorrow. Stay warm

 

[m casey stock]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

No title, no nothing it had been painted inside and out, so no decals, it was full of water and the tires (still holding air) were sunk in the ground due to the weight looking as if flat. It was all I could do to lift the tongue of the trailer to dump the water out LOL Anyway, I did the same thing with it as the Duracraft, I searched and searched and......until I found pictures of some that were known to be McKenzies. I still don't know an exact year, but the design and style puts it in the late fifties early sixties time era (I feel). He is not as into it as I am so I haven't put the time into research for it as I have the duracraft. It's a very cool boat and we have at least had some fun on the water in it. If he wants me too, then after I move the Duracraft out of the project corner I'm going to spruce his up some.

 

[ssdale]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Before and afters of my 65 Mckenzie Cherokee.It had been sitting in a guys backyard since 1993 flood. I paid him the $100 he wanted. Hope this helps motivate you/your son!:joyous:

I bet yours is a late 50's model, judging by the controls, steering wheel and the fact it has a bare floor, similar to my 1959 Starcraft. Yours is a real beauty! Considering how easy it is to clean these up(given their spartan-like design) it would certainly be worth the effort to clean it up. That steering wheel alone is way cool. If I recall correctly, there is only a small amount of info on the web about McKenzie Manufacturing. I believe they were in Tennessee. Mine has the original Aquabird steering wheel, Nautalloy lights and cleats, all designed by immigrant named Tom Faul. I love his designs and if you google his name you can read his story and see a catalog featuring his designs.

I have only seen one brochure on McKenzie Boats on e-bay. It was from 1966 and I bought it as the boats were very similar to my 1965. Not sure how to add it to this forums brochure list as it is quite large. Gonna have to stop talking about Mkenzies in this Starcraft post:lol:

Too cold to get any work done on the Starcraft today.

 

[ssdale]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Started disassembly in earnest. IGNORE CAMERA DATE AS PUT IN NEW BATTERIES AND FORGOT TO RESET:facepalm: Here is a nice pic of the original anchor. It is stamped D. E. Rice, South Bend Ind. If anyone knows anything about these or the company, please chime in with anything you know or have seen about these. The cable crank has a clever built in brake mechanism that still works perfectly.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Wow, that windlass anchor looks AMAZING! And it still works, GREAT!

Almost art deco, applied for patent in 1946, patent issued in 1951:

Text of patent

Great to have!

 

[ssdale]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Wow! Thanks jbcurt for the great Schematic Drawing!! The accompanying documentation with the patent is also very interesting. It performs exactly as the patent application claims with all of the benefits. The lead ball weight is drawn up into the aluminum housing and stays rock solid still while not in use. Now I know how to re-attach the weight to the cable. Looks like a spring cushioning damper. Mine was attached with the cable simply knotted through a metal washer.

What always amazes me are the number of small manufacturing businesses that were once thriving all over this country. It is part of the reason I feel compelled to try to preserve anything I find that says "made in USA".

I printed off everything and put it in a file I keep when restoring a project that stays with the peice. Thanks again!

The last few days have been warmer, so I have been stripping off layers of paint.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Your welcome. I must confess, I only did 2 or 3 google searches using various info you listed about the anchor system. The last:

D E Rice south bend indiana anchor

Listed the patents he filed first. Copy & paste that info ^^^ into a google search. He filed several. But the bow handle detail of yours was, IMHO, his best.

The other 2 patent filings show more detail about the winch assembly.

Interesting info though, so check it out. You might try to run down some info thru the South Bend, Indiana business listings......

 

[m casey stock]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

You can still buy a similar setup at Wall Mart (at least you could last year) I purchased one for my son. His little boat had one on it but someone down the line had removed the bow part (his was mounted on the side of the bow) and he wanted to put it back in working order. Pretty cool idea. They are great for holding position in currents or wind or even holding you in place if you beach your boat any. The enclosed bow makes it hard to get up there to cast out an anchor and this system solves that. I'm glad to see you are planning to keep it.

 

[ssdale]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration



My plan is to restore as nearly to original as possible. With the help of this forum, I found pictures of this exact boat in the late 50,s Starcraft brochures section. Definitely going to keep the anchor. A PO painted all of the aluminum castings on the boat and anchor with aluminum paint so I had to strip everything. haven't got to buffing out yet but tried a few spots and should look great. I always wonder who did what to these old relics and why. I mostly admire anyone who attempts to keep something in good repair, even if they didn't do it to perfection.

Made a lot of progress in the past few days with the temps in the 50's. Dis-assembly is complete so stripped a lot of paint and sanded the heck:faint2: out of the hull. My son helped me flip her over. Not sure what they used in 1959 but the original gray on the lower part of the hull is super strong yet. I used a small roller and just gave it a nice freshening up with rustoleum Aluminum.

Primed the top portion of the hull with zinc chromate (self etching) primer and shot with Ford Oxford white. Nothing as exciting as fresh paint. It gives me the shot in the arm I need to keep moving forward. Company tomorrow and the low is supposed to be 5 degrees so progress may grind to a halt.

 

[Watermann]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

That's sharp, I like the bare bottom on the ole gal!

 

[ssdale]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

I am going to restore her to original as closely as possible including the original paint scheme. The white is a 1960 ford Oxford. the bow will get a band of Ford Carribean Turquoise around the edge. You see a lot of old Ford pickups with this color scheme and it is my favorite. ( Planning ahead for next acquisition) Will post pics of that tomorrrow if warm enough to paint.

Found some mahogany for the seats and oak for the gunnels. Waiting on both to arrive. A PO had painted ALL of the woodwork with dark blue paint, so I have to now start trying to see how many pieces can be salvaged and how many will have to be reconstructed.

The floor is simply textured paint and in pretty good shape. Will wait until almost complete to roll on some sand paint.
Dale

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Take a minute & look thru the Starcraft forum. There's a few new threads you might be interested in...
[h=2]Starcraft Boats[/h]

 

[ssdale]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Hi Curt. Any thread in particular? I found pictures of this boat in the 1958 brochures and verified the color scheme after sanding. I cannot find anything when I search "Constellation". I did find an excellent 2009 post by wrfalpacas about his 1957 Ski Champ resto. Very inspiring!

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

PM your way

 

[Watermann]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Looking good, gotta love all the work that goes into prepping for the paint. Looking forward to seeing the finished paint job.

 

[m casey stock]

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Re: 1959 Starcraft - About to start restoration

Coming along very nicely!