1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

[lakelover]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Great thread! I just looked through the whole thing, don't know how I missed it before, I guess I don't look in the Mfr's forums enough. You've come a long way!! Glad you could find a better hull after the pitting debacle.

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Great thread! I just looked through the whole thing, don't know how I missed it before, I guess I don't look in the Mfr's forums enough. You've come a long way!! Glad you could find a better hull after the pitting debacle.

LL - Thanks man! Yah, I debated on moving it to the restore section, but it just seamed right to leave it in the Starcraft section. It's coming little by little. Gotta splash before July 1st!!!

EZ - Thanks man!

One last thing... got my templates for cutting the oval SS pieces for the dash!! Thought that would be a nice touch... gonna try cutting SS with a jigsaw as I am not sure what else to cut and oval with... 20 GA SS. I will have the original SC speedo surrounded by 4 gauges with 4 switches at the bottom of the oval. Then another ss oval piece to the right of the steering wheel with the tach and 1 switch and the horn button. I like the design... should be interesting to execute the design!!

 

[dozerII]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Looks awsome Jim, if you were talking about putting a piece of wood on the outside of the tramsom under the motor, consider going with a piece of 1/4"aluminum, that way it will never rot.
Glen

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Looks awsome Jim, if you were talking about putting a piece of wood on the outside of the tramsom under the motor, consider going with az piece of 1/4"aluminum, that way it will never rot.
Glen

Thanks Glen! I was thinking about doing that a while back. Just haven't found a chunk of alum for a reasonable price yet --- thus the "use what I have" idea.. Figured if I sealed her up really good it would be good for a long time. Done right it should last 20 years. My fil's is 35+ and has been exposed to the elements its entire life. That said alum would look great and would last for ever!

 

[rheagler]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Looking real good Jim. Add me to the list of folks liking the curvy wood dash. Looks great!

 

[barato2]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

nother fan of your dash here....nice! what type of wood is it?

on cutting the SS....sandwich it between 2 pieces of scrap plywood (old floors??), clamp together tightly, and draw out your design on the top one. this will give you a nice neat cut even with a jigsaw. or use a plasma cutter if you know anyone who has one.

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Looking real good Jim. Add me to the list of folks liking the curvy wood dash. Looks great!

Thanks RH... managed to get to a final sand last night. Feelin' good about that.

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

nother fan of your dash here....nice! what type of wood is it?

on cutting the SS....sandwich it between 2 pieces of scrap plywood (old floors??), clamp together tightly, and draw out your design on the top one. this will give you a nice neat cut even with a jigsaw. or use a plasma cutter if you know anyone who has one.

Nother fan --- tanks man! Wood type - good old 'select' pine. Select just means a whole lot less knots. By no means the best wood... but its cheap, readily available, sandable to an almost white finish and soaks up spar varnish well. Oak etc was first choice... but $12 vs $104 for the dash...had a hard time justifying on a non woody boat!

Great idea for the metal cutting. Gonna try that. Got a couple of plasma cutters and a couple of lasers.... but their all really busy right now...so it's old school for now.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Thanks Glen! I was thinking about doing that a while back. Just haven't found a chunk of alum for a reasonable price yet --- thus the "use what I have" idea.. Figured if I sealed her up really good it would be good for a long time. Done right it should last 20 years. My fil's is 35+ and has been exposed to the elements its entire life. That said alum would look great and would last for ever!

As many on here know, I'm not a big fan of that exterior piece of wood. I personally feel it serves no purpose (others disagree). Fiberglass boats and no newer boats use it. I've omitted it from both my projects. The problem, is that despite your best sealing efforts, the force of the motor can compress the wood and damage your seal. In my opinion, it only serves as a place to trap water and eventually leak.

 

[marika19]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Nice job on the dash! I may take your lead and follow that design, nicely done!

What thickness of plywood did you use for the floor? My deck is gone and need to make a new one, just not sure how thick.

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

As many on here know, I'm not a big fan of that exterior piece of wood. I personally feel it serves no purpose (others disagree). Fiberglass boats and no newer boats use it. I've omitted it from both my projects. The problem, is that despite your best sealing efforts, the force of the motor can compress the wood and damage your seal. In my opinion, it only serves as a place to trap water and eventually leak.

EZ - Good points. I will look into a piece of alum if nothing else just to cover up the cruddy alum from the PT board that was there all these years.

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Nice job on the dash! I may take your lead and follow that design, nicely done!

What thickness of plywood did you use for the floor? My deck is gone and need to make a new one, just not sure how thick.

M19 - Thanks man. I used a wierd size --- I think it is 11/16 (I think) -- about an 1/8th less then 3/4". You'll see in the next post, that there is a reason for that on the transom side... but really it is just what I got.

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Had some Emerson Waldo time with the boat this morn.... so I wasn't that productive... but I got the doublers cut and the alum transom front piece cut to the transom shape. I had this alum, so I thought I would face it so that no water actually hit the transom wood. I also skinned the inside of the front of the boat transom with another piece of alum so that for the most part the wood piece does not touch the boat metal. The splash well will be 4200'd to the alum so no water gets down below.

Also finish sanded the dash --- curves came out a little smoother and it turned out pretty nice.

Here is a rough shot of the alum gauge cluster layout that I need to cut out...

Have a great day fella's...

 

[lakelover]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

EZ - Good points. I will look into a piece of alum if nothing else just to cover up the cruddy alum from the PT board that was there all these years.

I used a piece of 1/8" alum, if nothing else, just to protect the paint job from getting banged up when I mounted the motor & add a little more stiffness.

If you don't already have some, remember to drill a few drain holes in the bottom of your bracket that supports the transom board. No matter how well it's sealed, some water will find its way in there somehow! I think it's one of Murphy's Laws.

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

I used a piece of 1/8" alum, if nothing else, just to protect the paint job from getting banged up when I mounted the motor & add a little more stiffness.

If you don't already have some, remember to drill a few drain holes in the bottom of your bracket that supports the transom board. No matter how well it's sealed, some water will find its way in there somehow! I think it's one of Murphy's Laws.

Good point... I'll have to remember to do that sooner than later.

 

[dozerII]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Hey Jim stop in at glass shop and grab a roll of 1/8"thick glazing tape to seal your splash well to the transom. It makes for a real easy job and completley seals the screws into the wood as well. I think I paid $8 for a big roll.
Glen

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Hey Jim stop in at glass shop and grab a roll of 1/8"thick glazing tape to seal your splash well to the transom. It makes for a real easy job and completley seals the screws into the wood as well. I think I paid $8 for a big roll.
Glen

Thanks Glen... I was chewing on how I was going to marry the splash well to the alum without making a big mess when sealing them up!

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

This morning I spent more time doing and less time looking... I got the paper design transferred to a piece of scrap ply. Sandwiched the SS between it and another piece of ply and went to work drilling it out. That's where things went down hill.... gonna use Alum... the SS I have is just too hard to work with given the equipment I have.

Basically I just started a small fire... that's about it...

I also got the doublers attached to the floor pieces and PL'd. Good to go..

May not seam like much... but it took some time.

IM

 

[rheagler]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Looks like you're making progress IM. SS can be pretty tough to work with. I've wiped out quite a few drill bits on it myself. Aluminum is soooo much easier to work with.

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter - Rebuild

Thanks RH... SS is tough stuff.

The guys at my work I suppose felt sorry for me and given that I have the whole dash drawn out, the material and all the dimensions, figure that they can program and laser cut the part in about 10 minutes!!! Bonus! So the dash pieces will look nice and work!

Ok... so made a little more progress this morning... I went to the side of my house where I have a pile of metal of many things... and found this nice piece of U channel --- I forgot that I had it made up for J1... I really like the look of it! And man o man did it strengthen the back up... solid as a rock with that piece in there! It's just placed there... so it's not that level... but it'll give some additional strength to the transom.

I also got the positive floatation trimmed so that the floor doublers will fit. At this point the floor is ready for sealing.

So, I listened to what EZ said about the transom board basically serving little purpose and decided this morning that I agree. So, I cut a piece of alum that I had in the same shape and size as the board that was there and will PL it to the transom as a cosmetic cover. The old board was PT and pitted the alum a little and otherwise made it look cruddy. The alum needs a little smoothing... but otherwise will work just fine.

Also got all the transom holes drilled in the wood and the aluminum skins. Interestingly, I wasn’t sure what to drill the larger holes in the aluminum with… so I tried an old spade bit I had. Wouldn’t you know it cut it like a knife through Canadian back bacon!! Didn’t do much for the sharpness of the spade bit… but it worked great.

Little by little... getting there. Dash pad should be planed down for tonight or tomorrow. Few more tasks and then it's sealing time of everything.


Pssss.... Sunday is a go for Jup 3!