Hey everybody.
Been lurking around in the shadows here, and have read a lot of the threads, especially the Lone Star and Star Craft restorations.
I have been shopping for a 16 footer from either of those manufacturers, and finally found what I was looking for. After some comparison, I decided on the Lone Star. It seems like they were a bit more generous with their dimensions. This thing is noticeably larger than the Star Craft of the same type and length.
Picked it up and brought it home this AM.
The boat belonged to an absolute enthusiast, who, sadly, passed away. In any case, his love for the old bolts meant that this one had been well cared for, and recently used, so it wasn't the total wreck of some I had looked at. Remarkably, it was the least expensive of the ones I had recently looked at.
In any case, she is structurally sound, reasonably clean, and seaworthy as she sits now.
For this year, I am just going to pull the floor, and do a leak test, clean out what little debris I have found, and re-epoxy the wood, replace the carpet, and install a few nice seats.
She has a Force 70 mounted to the transom, but I was told it was trashed. Sure enough, did a compression test, and the top cylinder was 30 PSI. The other two were a solid 135. Pulled the head hoping to find a blown head gasket(I knew I wasn't going to be that lucky, but had to hope). Piston shows severe overheating damage, but the bore looks reasonably good. There is a raised streak in it, which turned out to be part of the piston which had welded itself to it weakly. Was able to scrape some of it off with my fingernail. Not sure if I want to mess with it, but it's only a hundred or so for a piston. May just bore it and toss 3 new weisco slugs in it.
Long term goals is a matched pair of vintage 40's or 50's. That Force 70 might push the boat fine, but it just doesn't fit. Just looks tiny hanging on that transom.
In any case, thanks for the inspiration and the knowledge base.
Been lurking around in the shadows here, and have read a lot of the threads, especially the Lone Star and Star Craft restorations.
I have been shopping for a 16 footer from either of those manufacturers, and finally found what I was looking for. After some comparison, I decided on the Lone Star. It seems like they were a bit more generous with their dimensions. This thing is noticeably larger than the Star Craft of the same type and length.
Picked it up and brought it home this AM.
The boat belonged to an absolute enthusiast, who, sadly, passed away. In any case, his love for the old bolts meant that this one had been well cared for, and recently used, so it wasn't the total wreck of some I had looked at. Remarkably, it was the least expensive of the ones I had recently looked at.
In any case, she is structurally sound, reasonably clean, and seaworthy as she sits now.
For this year, I am just going to pull the floor, and do a leak test, clean out what little debris I have found, and re-epoxy the wood, replace the carpet, and install a few nice seats.
She has a Force 70 mounted to the transom, but I was told it was trashed. Sure enough, did a compression test, and the top cylinder was 30 PSI. The other two were a solid 135. Pulled the head hoping to find a blown head gasket(I knew I wasn't going to be that lucky, but had to hope). Piston shows severe overheating damage, but the bore looks reasonably good. There is a raised streak in it, which turned out to be part of the piston which had welded itself to it weakly. Was able to scrape some of it off with my fingernail. Not sure if I want to mess with it, but it's only a hundred or so for a piston. May just bore it and toss 3 new weisco slugs in it.
Long term goals is a matched pair of vintage 40's or 50's. That Force 70 might push the boat fine, but it just doesn't fit. Just looks tiny hanging on that transom.
In any case, thanks for the inspiration and the knowledge base.
