1969 Super Sport 16 Single Console Conversion

[TomR13]

Hi all,

I purchased this ~1969 StarCraft Super Sport 16 from my neighbor who had recently purchased it last fall. He got a good deal on it, but decided it didn't make sense for his uses. The primary use for this boat is bass fishing. I don't care about tubing/skiing/cruising with other people. I have two graphs(Elite Ti2-12 and Echomap 93sv) and a MotorGuide Xi5 trolling motor hooked up to it. Either way, I have taken it out three times now, and I have some gripes with it that I want to correct.

The good:

• hull/paint is in great condition
• new transom
• 1984 70hp Evinrude runs great
• Newer trailer with new tires
• Nice travel cover
• Nice stainless steel prop
• Heavy duty seat pedestals and 4 seats
• Goes 32mph right now - I bet I can hit 35+ doing this conversion and changing props

The bad:

• Carpet is old and likely not meant for a boat
• Casting deck is aged and flexes; likely not marine plywood nor thick enough
• Floor has multiple soft spots. particularly under the driver seat (bolts coming up and very wiggly)
• Steering wheel is low and driver seat is too close to console/gunwale. I have to sweep my knees under the wheel and can't just sit down
• Steering wheel is also kind of loose in general and the stock? Starcraft wheel feels flimsy and a little too big.
• Previous owners' wiring was AWFUL but that has been corrected at this point.
• Rod holders don't hold many rods and are old/rods barely fit between the gunwale and passenger seat just stacking them.
• My 12" graph has to go right in the walkthrough and it's a huge pain to jump over

My proposal:

• Remove passenger console
• Remove factory windshield; add single console aftermarket one for the driver
• Patch the wood around the driver seat and move it back/over.
• Replace steering wheel with aftermarket one and tighten it up somehow
• Add a rod locker that extends to the casting deck so I can fit 10+ rods.

This guy did pretty much exactly what I am looking to do.

I anticipate the entire floor will need to be replaced eventually, but it is beginning to warm up and I would like to explore that later.

My question(s):

• How do I go about removing the passenger console and windshield?
  • I am having a hard time finding any pictures/videos of the actual process of removing the console and windshield.
• Is this windshield worth anything to people trying to restore their super sports?

I would love to see additional threads of people doing a similar project/conversion. Can provide more pictures if you'd like. Thanks in advance!

 

[Scott Danforth]

the soft spots in the floor mean the floor is rotten.

to replace the floor, everything needs to come out of the boat (large project). and all the flotation foam needs to be pulled and replaced.

your proposal should be:

• pull seats
• pull consoles and windshields
• pull the hacked up casting deck (was originally seats)
• pull steering and controls
• pull wiring
• remove floor
• remove water logged foam

then start the rebuild process.

 

[Moserkr]

Welcome Tom!

Glad the boat is in relatively good condition. Replacing the floor and foam would be great first steps. If you have the tools and material ahead of time, doing that part of the project could go fairly quickly. Not having to remove the motor or do any paint work saves a ton of time compared to a complete top to bottom resto. To answer some of your questions, which may repeat what Scott said above…

The good: ALL GOOD THINGS!

• hull/paint is in great condition
• new transom
• 1984 70hp Evinrude runs great
• Newer trailer with new tires
• Nice travel cover
• Nice stainless steel prop
• Heavy duty seat pedestals and 4 seats
• Goes 32mph right now - I bet I can hit 35+ doing this conversion and changing props

The bad:

• Carpet is old and likely not meant for a boat. Shark nautolex is a popular non-carpet replacement for fishing. Hydroturf is another alternative.
• Casting deck is aged and flexes; likely not marine plywood nor thick enough - replace with 5/8 or 3/4
• Floor has multiple soft spots. particularly under the driver seat (bolts coming up and very wiggly) easy fix when you replace floors
• Steering wheel is low and driver seat is too close to console/gunwale. I have to sweep my knees under the wheel and can't just sit down build new console face, raise steering wheel.
• Steering wheel is also kind of loose in general and the stock? Starcraft wheel feels flimsy and a little too big. Replace and/or tighten
• Previous owners' wiring was AWFUL but that has been corrected at this point.
• Rod holders don't hold many rods and are old/rods barely fit between the gunwale and passenger seat just stacking them.
• My 12" graph has to go right in the walkthrough and it's a huge pain to jump over

My proposal:

• Remove passenger console
• Remove factory windshield; add single console aftermarket one for the driver windshield does not look factory, sell that, they arent cheap normally
• Patch the wood around the driver seat and move it back/over. Easy when replacing floors, add backing under floor
• Replace steering wheel with aftermarket one and tighten it up somehow
• Add a rod locker that extends to the casting deck so I can fit 10+ rods.

This guy did pretty much exactly what I am looking to do.

I anticipate the entire floor will need to be replaced eventually, but it is beginning to warm up and I would like to explore that later.

My question(s):

• How do I go about removing the passenger console and windshield?
  • I am having a hard time finding any pictures/videos of the actual process of removing the console and windshield. Console is easy, just riveted in. The windshield will be bolted in from the bottom of its frame. Crawl under the consoles, look under the gunnels. Bolts are hiding.
• Is this windshield worth anything to people trying to restore their super sports? Yes, I think it looks cool compared to the normal ones but its obviously not right for your purposes.

Good looking setup! Keep us posted on your progress and share more pics!!

 

[TomR13]

Welcome Tom!

Glad the boat is in relatively good condition. Replacing the floor and foam would be great first steps. If you have the tools and material ahead of time, doing that part of the project could go fairly quickly. Not having to remove the motor or do any paint work saves a ton of time compared to a complete top to bottom resto. To answer some of your questions, which may repeat what Scott said above…

The good: ALL GOOD THINGS!

• hull/paint is in great condition
• new transom
• 1984 70hp Evinrude runs great
• Newer trailer with new tires
• Nice travel cover
• Nice stainless steel prop
• Heavy duty seat pedestals and 4 seats
• Goes 32mph right now - I bet I can hit 35+ doing this conversion and changing props

The bad:

• Carpet is old and likely not meant for a boat. Shark nautolex is a popular non-carpet replacement for fishing. Hydroturf is another alternative.
• Casting deck is aged and flexes; likely not marine plywood nor thick enough - replace with 5/8 or 3/4
• Floor has multiple soft spots. particularly under the driver seat (bolts coming up and very wiggly) easy fix when you replace floors
• Steering wheel is low and driver seat is too close to console/gunwale. I have to sweep my knees under the wheel and can't just sit down build new console face, raise steering wheel.
• Steering wheel is also kind of loose in general and the stock? Starcraft wheel feels flimsy and a little too big. Replace and/or tighten
• Previous owners' wiring was AWFUL but that has been corrected at this point.
• Rod holders don't hold many rods and are old/rods barely fit between the gunwale and passenger seat just stacking them.
• My 12" graph has to go right in the walkthrough and it's a huge pain to jump over

My proposal:

• Remove passenger console
• Remove factory windshield; add single console aftermarket one for the driver windshield does not look factory, sell that, they arent cheap normally
• Patch the wood around the driver seat and move it back/over. Easy when replacing floors, add backing under floor
• Replace steering wheel with aftermarket one and tighten it up somehow
• Add a rod locker that extends to the casting deck so I can fit 10+ rods.

This guy did pretty much exactly what I am looking to do.

I anticipate the entire floor will need to be replaced eventually, but it is beginning to warm up and I would like to explore that later.

My question(s):

• How do I go about removing the passenger console and windshield?
  • I am having a hard time finding any pictures/videos of the actual process of removing the console and windshield. Console is easy, just riveted in. The windshield will be bolted in from the bottom of its frame. Crawl under the consoles, look under the gunnels. Bolts are hiding.
• Is this windshield worth anything to people trying to restore their super sports? Yes, I think it looks cool compared to the normal ones but its obviously not right for your purposes.

Good looking setup! Keep us posted on your progress and share more pics!!

Thank you so much for the detailed response, especially regarding the console/windshield hardware.

 

[Moserkr]

No problem. These boats are not hard to work on and worth the trouble. Once you have them set up, they will last you many years! Mine is 44 years old and is like new now. I have a casting deck like yours but use mine as a fish/ski with the fam. Best part is they are easy to customize.

You have a lot of good and not a whole lot of bad. The floors and foam could be done in a weekend if you work hard on them. Soft floors are not good though because they add to the boats structure. Last thing you want to do is run it hard and pop rivets, making extra work down the road.

Heres some more reading material for you. @Rasdiir updated the list nicely.

Update sticky?

Hey all, I've spent tons of hours reading through all the restoration threads on this forum, and one of the things I noticed is that many of the links in the main sticky thread are broken or just haven't been updated in a while. I wanted to start going through all the links and updating the ones...

forums.iboats.com

 

[TomR13]

Little update if anybody was curious. I renforced the driver seat and moved it back a couple inches, so I can fit better. Used a bunch of fasteners and it feels incredibly solid. We'll see how long it lasts but I'm quite happy with it for whipping it up in a hour or two with some leftover wood.

As for the passenger console demolition, we learned that it was not in fact factory lol. One of the panels was made out of a speed limit sign (pic attached). It was tough getting the windshield side pieces off using a little hacksaw/sawzall because of the lips on both sides of the gunnel. It wasn't hard to get the sealant off but there were about 10 rivets to muscle through. Ripped out the console and windshield. We were even able to stable down the excess carpet from the deck around the support. I am incredibly pleased with how it turned out. Much more space for rods and now my 12" graph isn't in the way.

Thanks again @Moserkr for the insight.

Gonna run it like this for a while, but I will be removing the driver windshield eventually and replacing with a taller more modern bolt-on windshield. Need to change the passenger seat from a fixed pedestal to a quick connect one, too. She looks like an old aluminum fish machine now!

 

[Moserkr]

Nice work! It does look like an old fishing machine, with lots of years left to go. A previous owner (PO) definitely did some custom hack work to your boat but thats alright. The road sign is actually good aluminum for boat building, worth saving. When you replace the floors down the line, theres a good way to bolt in the seats once you know exactly where you want em. Just have to set it up before the floors go back in. Enjoy your time fishing before the next round of projects!

 

[Sharpie223]

It looks like the dash was jewelled? How badly does it glare in the sun?

I'm trying to come up with a nice dash design, one of my thoughts is to do a jewelling job, I'm afraid of the glare in summer sunlight though. Thinking maybe I could minimize it with a few coats of black candy or similar, while retaining the look.