1967 Starcraft 15' Jet Star Restoration

[odyssey350kc]

Yeah I tried gluing a couple of rivets today, problem was there was still some residual water in the hull so it wasn't sticking where the water would seep out. I tried on a rivet that I was able to get dry and it worked good. Its not going to look pretty, but as long as it doesn't leak and its on the bottom of the boat its ok with me.

The rivets are definetly a huge culprit of the leak. There are at least 20 leaky rivets in the bottom of the boat. Hopefully i can get it to dry out tomorrow.

I do also have a large hole near the back my keel. I remember looking it up and seeing that it was supposed to be there to let the water drain out, but i think i'll seal it up if gluing the rivets doesn't stop the leaking

 

[lakelover]

You might also want to check on the seam where the rivets fasten the sides of the hull to the bottom plate. You might need to run a small bead along that too, but it shouldn't be visible if you do.

 

[odyssey350kc]

Ok, I think 20 leaking rivets was an understatement.



I know this is a terrible fix, but its gonna have to do for the rest of the summer. I have a feeling this winter the floor is going to have to come up again :facepalm: and new rivets installed. If the boat didn't have sentimental value I would sat the hull is trash. Almost every rivet on the port side was loose as you can see by the picture.

Oddly though the starboard side there were only 8 or 10 total loose rivets.

Oh well, It's gonna hit the water on saturday, so we'll see how the 5200 holds.

 

[Watermann]

Is that the quick dry 5200 formula? Otherwise it has a 7 day cure time.

 

[lakelover]

Kinda looks like my hull. I think you'll be OK, or at least "shows improvement". Prpbably a lot of it.

 

[classiccat]

Ok, I think 20 leaking rivets was an understatement.



I know this is a terrible fix, but its gonna have to do for the rest of the summer. I have a feeling this winter the floor is going to have to come up again :facepalm: and new rivets installed. If the boat didn't have sentimental value I would sat the hull is trash. Almost every rivet on the port side was loose as you can see by the picture.

Oddly though the starboard side there were only 8 or 10 total loose rivets.

Oh well, It's gonna hit the water on saturday, so we'll see how the 5200 holds.

Don't fret those loose rivets...if you do pull the floor, they can be replaced in a weekend and you'll be good as new.

Did you leak-check after you rebucked them -or- after the gluvit?

It's possible that the rebucking wasn't complete & the internally-applied gluvit was a band-aid.

I think the triple-threat for those of us with leak-phobia would be rebucking (or replacing) bad rivets, internally-applied gluvit and externally-applied g-flex (or gluvit).

 

[natemeins]

Hey Odyssey, I gotta ask. What is the outboard you're using? I'd love to be able to break 30mph on my 15ft Starcraft Sprint and just haven't figured out if the boat is carrying too much weight (it's getting restored this winter, I have a feeling all the old foam is carrying a lot of dead weight), I'm underpowered, or I have the wrong prop. I've been reading your project with great interest since it seems we have very similar boats. Was just curious. I've got a 50hp Evinrude currently, FWIW.
And of course it goes without saying, your resto job is absolutely fantastic!! Outstanding little tinny!

 

[odyssey350kc]

Sorry I missed all the replies. After my 5200 fix of the leaky rivets failed horribly, I got a little bummed out, and put the boat away for the winter. So it looks like I will be reriveting the hull.

The other place it seems to be leaking is along the keel, has anyone ever sealed the keel, or reriveted that many rivets before. Any advise?

In response to Natemeins I am using an older yamaha 50hp 2 stroke, like 1989 I think. so a new 50hp 2 stroke would do ya good.

 

[jbcurt00]

I dont recall where you live, but you dont want to seal the keel. You want water to get out. Thats what the 2 small holes fore and aft in it are for.

Post some pix of where it's leaking.

 

[MNhunter1]

Nice to see this one brought back to life again!

 

[Watermann]

Sorry I missed all the replies. After my 5200 fix of the leaky rivets failed horribly, I got a little bummed out, and put the boat away for the winter. So it looks like I will be reriveting the hull.

The other place it seems to be leaking is along the keel, has anyone ever sealed the keel, or reriveted that many rivets before. Any advise?

In response to Natemeins I am using an older yamaha 50hp 2 stroke, like 1989 I think. so a new 50hp 2 stroke would do ya good.

5200 wouldn't be the right product to seal the keel seams up. Gluvit works very well when applied on the inside of the boat over the rivet bucktails and it gets into the seams real well too. That is unless there's visable damage, that would need to be repaired first depending on how bad it is, some pics of the keel would help. Just think about how much abuse that keel gets over the years from beaching and landing all the time.

 

[odyssey350kc]

5200 wouldn't be the right product to seal the keel seams up. Gluvit works very well when applied on the inside of the boat over the rivet bucktails and it gets into the seams real well too. That is unless there's visable damage, that would need to be repaired first depending on how bad it is, some pics of the keel would help. Just think about how much abuse that keel gets over the years from beaching and landing all the time.

I will get some pics when i get it in the garage, and pull up the floor.

 

[natemeins]

Sorry I missed all the replies. After my 5200 fix of the leaky rivets failed horribly, I got a little bummed out, and put the boat away for the winter. So it looks like I will be reriveting the hull.

The other place it seems to be leaking is along the keel, has anyone ever sealed the keel, or reriveted that many rivets before. Any advise?

In response to Natemeins I am using an older yamaha 50hp 2 stroke, like 1989 I think. so a new 50hp 2 stroke would do ya good.

Good to know about your motor. It gives me hope. . What prop are you spinning, BTW? I've finished my restoration and splashed it a couple weeks ago. Long story short, after finding a huge buildup of carbon in the exhaust manifold, installing a new ported 13 3/4 x 17 aluminum prop, and adding a CMC tilt n trim bracket, I've seen 30mph via GPS with two grown men and a bag of tools onboard. Better than before, but I still think she has more to wring out. The fact I can set trim JUST before porpoising and the tach is indicating 6000 rpm tells me I might be able to prop up a little more.
Good luck with your leaks, I'm sure some good sealer on the dry side of your keel rivets will do the trick. Just sucks you gotta pull it all up. Will be anxious to see how it goes.

 

[odyssey350kc]

Hello to all. Every time I log into this forum and update my thread i realize how time flies. I haven't posted in over 2 years! the site is totally different, Crazy.

So here is an update for anyone interested in my boat.

After sealing most of my leaking rivets with 5200 I took the boat out a few times. The glue might have helped a little but the thing still leaked so bad the bilge pump ran more than it was off. One day as I was messing around on the lake after an hour or so of towing kneeboard i went to start up my motor aaaand....nothing. I thought I had seized my motor. Turns out one of the copper stator coils had broken off and wedged itself in the flywheel, locking it up and giving me the impression of a seized motor. Of course the part i needed was nearly impossible to find so i said screw it and parked her under the porch for almost 2 years. :cold:

I finally decided enough was enough and put in the time to find the parts and fixed the motor, with a little help from my buddy JB weld.

But of course as soon as i put her back in the water I realized the hull still leaks like a sieve. So i decided to do the right thing and take out the floor and fix it the right way. But noooo, it cant be easy. I put carpet on top of the rivets holding the floor down, so now i have to rip all the carpeting off just to get the floor panels off. I finally get down to the hull only to find, almost every one of my structural supports have cracked in half in at least 1 place. Yup, that's my luck. So now its over to the welders to see if we can do anything.

 

[odyssey350kc]

[No message]

 

[Watermann]

Oh man all the ribs are cracked? So were the side panels not in place? Your SC may be a candidate for hull stiffeners like I added to my Chief.

Oh yeah welcome back to the fray.

 

[odyssey350kc]

Oh man all the ribs are cracked? So were the side panels not in place? Your SC may be a candidate for hull stiffeners like I added to my Chief.

Not exactly sure what you mean by side panels. I don't have anything i would call side panels. I checked out your thread though. Awesome restoration. Not sure if hull stiffeners would help or not.

 

[jbcurt00]

Side panels run deck (floor) to gunwale, splashwell to consoles/dash.

If the ribs are cracked better check for chine cracks too.

Rib and chine crack prevention is the reason for the hull stiffeners Starcraft started adding under the rib ends at the chine.

 

[Watermann]

The hull stiffeners will keep the spray rail chine from splitting out and transfer load from the bottom to the sides of hull even if they are not under the rib ends as the factory placed them.

 

[Blababa]

This is tragic. 3 years no update? You put so much work into this thing. I have a 65, just started working on it. Previous owner put in a pressure treated plywood floor so my hull ribs have a few extra holes and a little corrosion, not too bad I thought until I read this thread. Got me wondering if it's even worth the time. Post an updated you're out there op, that boat was beautiful until the ribs cracked. Hope you welded it up and it's running today.