1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

[jasoutside]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

She looks great man! I think I see that all/most of the important parts are there, cool! I really like the line on those ol Novas, classic alum ski boat.

 

[boatnut74]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

What a great score gibbles! Those Nova's are few and far between. Like Jason said it's got nice lines.

 

[Bwana Don]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

I like it. Sexy Merc too. What a good looking combo with a ton of potential. Nice score. Starcrafts and January go together like Peanutbutter and jelly! You stole that dude. Put me down for yellow too.

 

[lakelover]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Great find and a real score at that price! And a lot of the work is already done for you! You'll be a busy fellow now.

Those yellow SC's look great.

Can a person have too many boats? I've got more than I need , but as many as I want. But since I share shore space with my bro & sis, I can only keep two at a time on the water, since my bro just got one too. I realize how lucky I am to even have a piece of the shore but this is a thinker!

Lots of potential on the Nova. I'll be following this thread too.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

That spot along the transom outside corner of the starboard rear cap? Is that something that could have a new pc welded in, & maybe finished to a brushed AL look to 'hide' the repair?

Not a bad idea, I sure wish I had the missing piece though.
I will get a close up shot of the damage, only really one part that bugs me, and it's damaged pretty good
(rub rail channel)

But I used that as a big reason why I would not pay him $500 for it, that and the trailer seems to be garbage.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

I made my self proud, usually I suck at negotiation. :redface:

He kept trying to point out the mercury, value of the trailer, boat, ect...
Trying really hard to sound like he knew what he was talking about.

Thanks to everything I learned on this forum I picked apart every word, and pointed out the flaws.

Trailer: twisted, axle might be bent, un even ware on the tire (left), left side mangled, missing fender
Told him I am going to cut it up and throw it out, and I will have to find another trailer.

Engine: Old mercs getting harder to find parts for, and noted if it has power tilt then I'm screwed there. (not really, I got good at finding parts for old mercs )

Boat: I was saying Heck Yes until I saw the damage on the trim channel, has some very serious damage.
Left side has some big, very serious dents, its going to take alot of work.

He came back saying "well I can get $500 easy from scrap so take it or leave it"
I told him that at current prices, and that boat might be about 400lbs, and he might get $125 scrap

He knodded his head and we started working on a price we both could live with

And that worked out great since I did not have $500 to work with lol...

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Great find and a real score at that price! And a lot of the work is already done for you! You'll be a busy fellow now.

Those yellow SC's look great.

Can a person have too many boats? I've got more than I need , but as many as I want. But since I share shore space with my bro & sis, I can only keep two at a time on the water, since my bro just got one too. I realize how lucky I am to even have a piece of the shore but this is a thinker!

Lots of potential on the Nova. I'll be following this thread too.

Yellow could work, also a red could work with the silver sides maybe?

And I'm a big fan of having a choice on what one to take on the water.

The jetstar would work best as my personal little boat, I can launch it by my self easy, and not get wet thanks to the 3 piece windshield.

Raining hard today (should be snowing... ) I'll try and get some pictures of the scrambled parts and damage if possible.

about to head out to the garage to sprea some more epoxy for the jetstar.
Starting to feel my sef wanting to start on the nova.. but I gotta stay focused! lol

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Yellow could work, also a red could work with the silver sides maybe? Yes to both color combos!

about to head out to the garage to spread some more epoxy for the jetstar. Starting to feel my self wanting to start on the nova.. but I gotta stay focused! lol

You need to take a page from Andgott: a 2nd boat project is what to do while the epoxy cures on the Jet!

 

[1973Chieftain]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Sweet looking boat! Color wise, it would look really cool as a glossy black lint TGP's Nassau IMHO. I was glancing through the old catalogs and I don't see much info on the Nova's- how are they different from a Jupiter I wonder?

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Yah, something bright would be cool. Yellow, orange, red all good stuff. Maybe even polished alum?

 

[64osby]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Gibbles, Here are the other pics of the 18" I/O I looked at,



I would say finish one then start the next, I have too many projects started and not enough finished, just ask my wife.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

You need to take a page from Andgott: a 2nd boat project is what to do while the epoxy cures on the Jet!

Man I gotta build that 2nd garage/shop in the back yard
It's on the list of things to do.

Wife is getting upset at me because I stopped working on the house and started working on the boat.

And I have 5 mercury outboards now, 4 run great.

I took a quick look at the 80hp today, does not look bad, needs new sparkplug wires, and everything needs to be greased, but looks clean.

There is a weld on the lower unit, looks like it was rebuilt at one point and they broke the case trying to get it apart, weld is large but looks decent, and looks to of stuck well.

lower feels smooth, seal looks newish.

I have more pictures, I will upload soon.

I had a big issue with my garage today, all of the rain was flooding the area by the door, so I spent half of the day driving to lowes, choosing a seal, installing the seal, seeing why I'm getting water pushed to my door, and figuring a way to keep it away...

so far the garage is no longer getting puddles of water, but this summer I will need to lay some cement to fix the whole issue (I bought the house this summer).

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Gibbles, Here are the other pics of the 18" I/O I looked at,

View attachment 129641View attachment 129642View attachment 129640

I would say finish one then start the next, I have too many projects started and not enough finished, just as my wife.

Thanks for the pictures!

And yeah, two boats in the garage right now would not work at all.

and the propane heater is costing me a fortune, I can not justify keeping it running 24hrs working on a second boat (curing epoxy).

I also have a car I bought to take miles off of my tow vehicle, and to save me gas money, I gotta start work on that soon.
My other great deal $120 1997 Pontiac grandam, so far I have it running, but it needs some work before I get it street legal.

I pretty much stole that too, it was headed to the junkyard.. so I doubled the junkyards offer.



how ever...

watch and see, I won't be able to resist working on the Nova... :facepalm:

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Sweet looking boat! Color wise, it would look really cool as a glossy black lint TGP's Nassau IMHO. I was glancing through the old catalogs and I don't see much info on the Nova's- how are they different from a Jupiter I wonder?

I love that Nassau, he did a great job on it.

So far all that I can see is the Nova has a bit more of a point to it, windsheild being more sloped, overall sporty look to the boat.
I first thought the boat was a Jupiter, but almost looked like a jet from his picture

Yah, something bright would be cool. Yellow, orange, red all good stuff. Maybe even polished alum?

Today I watched a movie that had some old tin planes, and they all had dents like crazy!
white did well at hiding the dents, as did red.
darker colors did show the dents more though...

I'm leaning more twards just polishing it, and hitting it with sharkhide or something close...
sharkhide is a bit $$ though...

 

[lakelover]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Yah, something bright would be cool. Yellow, orange, red all good stuff. Maybe even polished alum?

When I was a teenager, I used to see an orange boat on the lake, thought it was the coolest thing! Not if you want to be at all stealthy though! (That was in the 70's when orange muscle cars were more common. :redface

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

When I was a teenager, I used to see an orange boat on the lake, thought it was the coolest thing! Not if you want to be at all stealthy though! (That was in the 70's when orange muscle cars were more common. :redface

But Orange Crush & DreamSicle make good mid-70's boat names & you can have a theme song:

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

Here are some pictures of the worst damage on the boat...

Some dock rash

And the damage on the rub rail

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

And my mystery pieces

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

I'm guessing the strips are to go under the floor, but I'm not sure on the others...

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Nova 15' rebuild

You're right on the joiner strips for under the floor, Gib. The largest piece is a foot rest that goes on the floor under the dash, I think. And I believe the final two parts go under the transom on either side, from the floor to under the gunnel/transom at the ends of the side storage trays.