coalminerswife
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2010
- Messages
- 92
My husband came home a few days ago with a sad looking Starcraft boat that we hope to restore. I'm not sure what model it is exactly, as the title only identifies it as a Starcraft. It's 19' long, and was originally a cuddy cabin boat. The cabin has been removed, and we don't plan to put it back on, since it'll be used primarily for fishing. It arrived at my house gutted, filthy, and full of trash. I immediately started calling it the "SS Minner" (that's how folks pronounce "minnow" around these parts), because I couldn't imagine it being good for much of anything except leaving us stranded. I didn't have much hope for it, or any hope for it to be honest, but then I found this forum with all these great photos of restored Starcrafts. I guess it's safe to say this is now our favorite website. We look at it every night and discuss what we can do to make our boat look as good as the ones we see here.
Our first step was to clean the thing out. We scooped about seven bags of trash, a few moldy life jackets, some rusty tools, a wet boot, and a few years worth of dead leaves out of it. Then, my husband got stung by a wasp, and that's when we discovered the fourteen wasp nests that had to be eradicated. Then, I spent two evenings with a shop vac getting the rest of the gunk- mud, rotten wood, insulation_ out of the inside, and tonight the vacuuming was followed up by a good hosing out with water.
The boat literally is gutted. It needs a floor, carpet, seats, consoles, a new transom, and, of course, a motor. We have a 1975 model Johnson motor, 70 hp, that we'll be taking off our other old, leaky boat and putting on this one. We also have blue back-to-back type seats in that boat that we just bought this year, so those will be going in the Starcraft as well. We are hoping that the windshield off that boat may work also. We've decided to go with gray carpet, and paint the exterior white and gray. I've suggested a blue stripe as well, but my husband is not yet convinced.
I've been taking pictures, and as soon as I learn how to post them, I'll put some up.
Our first step was to clean the thing out. We scooped about seven bags of trash, a few moldy life jackets, some rusty tools, a wet boot, and a few years worth of dead leaves out of it. Then, my husband got stung by a wasp, and that's when we discovered the fourteen wasp nests that had to be eradicated. Then, I spent two evenings with a shop vac getting the rest of the gunk- mud, rotten wood, insulation_ out of the inside, and tonight the vacuuming was followed up by a good hosing out with water.
The boat literally is gutted. It needs a floor, carpet, seats, consoles, a new transom, and, of course, a motor. We have a 1975 model Johnson motor, 70 hp, that we'll be taking off our other old, leaky boat and putting on this one. We also have blue back-to-back type seats in that boat that we just bought this year, so those will be going in the Starcraft as well. We are hoping that the windshield off that boat may work also. We've decided to go with gray carpet, and paint the exterior white and gray. I've suggested a blue stripe as well, but my husband is not yet convinced.
I've been taking pictures, and as soon as I learn how to post them, I'll put some up.
