1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

[Yeonik]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Iono if mine was a different design, or maybe I commited a cardinal sin without knowing, but there was a cotter pin on the back side of the steering wheel shaft (under the dash) that I pulled and my steering wheel came right out...

 

[piperjoe]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Yeonik, mine has single pin (wire) through the end of the post (doesn't look like a cotter pin, just a piece of wire) and I attempted to pull the pin from the post yesterday and it wouldn't even budge. Even tried the "mighty pliers"...I'm wondering if someone removed a cotter pin and then jambed a piece of wire to hold the post in place.

Safe boating,

Joe

 

[piperjoe]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

This afternoon I tried dozerII's technique for getting the steering wheel off the steering unit post and it worked! One good smack with the hammer and the wheel came right off...and the steering unit just missed my toes as it hit the decking. Success! Coupled the steering cable housing to the steering unit via the large nut that the even larger nut had removed earlier without thinking...and after removing the steering unit from what was left of the dash, I pulled the steering cable through from under the starboard gunwale and set the entire unit aside in the boat. Took a couple of screws out from the helm sheetmetal and then removed the inner gunwale aluminum trim strip, as the rivets were previously drilled out. I then removed the starboard window unit. Next I removed the two screws holding the helm sheetmetal to the decking and followed that with removing the helm bow-side backrest plywood unit. Carried these items to the garage and then used the Shop-Vac to clean up the rotted plywood debris from the work area inside the boat. A good day with no DNA spill to report...that's always a good thing. Photos included.

Safe boating,

Joe

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Bit by removed bit, great progress..

 

[piperjoe]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Thanks, jb. I'm finding that I look forward each day to spending time with the boat.

Safe boating,

Joe

 

[dozerII]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Glad it worked for you Joe, it is usually easier to do while still mounted on the dash though. Your making good progress.

 

[piperjoe]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Thanks, dozerII. Hope my work looks half as good as your craftsmanship.

Safe boating,

Joe

 

[dozerII]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Thanks Joe, I'm sure your SS will look awesome.

 

[InMotion]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Nice work Joe! Glad to see you were able to make some good, "no injury"!! progress!

So... haven't see a de-construction hot list of what's left to tear apart yet... it's a pre-requisite ya know!! Us boat restorers need lists to function... without them we are lost!

Great job so far....

J.

 

[piperjoe]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Thanks again, mates! As for a list of things to do: finish boat, finish boat and...finish the boat. LOL Actually, I need to remove the bow seats/plywood, remove bow seat sheetmetal, take up the two bow area deck sheets, vacuum the debris from inside the bow area, removes some more trim and misc. items, powerwash the boat inside and out, go over all the rivets that are inside the hull with Gluvit, cut out the replacement plywood decking, cut the transom plywood and assemble into one piece, cut the two dash pieces from oak or similiar wood,.................................................and probably a few more items I have missed or need to consider. Ya know...there is a LOT more to this restoration thing than first meets the eye.

Safe boating,

Joe

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Ah - A couple hours of work ^^^^ Look at Jason's 3 hour topside paint job. Only took 7.

I'm surprised the wheel was hard to get off. The shaft looks remarkably rust free.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Ya know...there is a LOT more to this restoration thing than first meets the eye.

True, so true!

Yah GA, that late night followed up by the early morning was pretty gross too! I can't pull off late nights like I used to in my younger days, I think I'm getting old and crabby:embarassed:

 

[piperjoe]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

I was surprised at how clean the wheel shaft was, too, GA. I'm just going to think of it as along the same line as trying to open the new jar of hot peppers at the table and not succeeding...along comes the Admiral, looks at me and then at the jar, picks up the jar and...off comes the jar lid with one little twist. Never quite figured that one out yet...how DOES she do that?

Well, heading outside with Ellie (my canine pal) and see what I can get done on the Joyride.

Safe boating,

Joe

 

[barato2]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

glad to hear you're making progress. what you said on wood? just imagine restoring a glasser, where the frame members have wood cores

 

[piperjoe]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Beautiful September afternoon today so I worked on the boat and enjoyed the sunshine. Removed all three vinyl covered plywood bow seats. Then I removed the bow seat sheetmetal unit from the boat. Tore out the old vinyl "wallpaper" and vacuumed the front area except directly under the still attached front decking. Took a deep breath and then drilled out the rivets from the front decking piece and removed the plywood; it's good for a pattern. Cleaned out the packed collection of leaves and debris from the bow. Next, I drilled out the rivets that were holding the helm area decking piece. The port side was near gone and useless for a pattern, however, the starboard side was useable if I could get it out in one piece. I drew a center line on top of the decking so I could make a pattern from the starboard side, flip the pattern and then draw the port side on the new plywood decking. Using a small flat prybar, the decking was successfully lifted, vacuumed and let over the side unto the grass. It was good to finally have the old decking out of the boat. Next, I removed all the the remaining old floatation foam and put it into a large construction bag. Then the dustpan was used the scoop up the huge amount of debris and deposit same into the bag. Finally, the Shop-Vac was fired up and the remaining debris on the inside of the hull was removed. A major milestone on the restoration journey has been reached. Photos taken of the progress.

Safe boating,

Joe

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Gettin' to an empty hull, Joe. Did you have the Admiral try to yank the wheel pickle jar? LOL

If the flooring is chewed up pretty good (parts are I see), you can use flotation foam, I mean the insulation sheets we use for flotation, to make templates. Same size as ply, easy to cut and can be used for flotation after they serve as templates. Sometimes these tinnies aren't always perfectly symmetrical from side to side. At least mine isn't.

 

[piperjoe]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

GA, I'm thinking the Admiral and I just might be creating a big rowboat here...especially if we lose our "how-to-put-it-back-together" photos. When I mentioned we could now hang some oarlocks on the boat, throw in a couple of milk crates for seats and head to the lake for some fishing time she gave me the familiar stink-eye. Not a good thing...

Your idea of using the foam sheets for making up decking templates is great. It would allow some fine-tuning around the edges and, as you mentioned, serve as floatation afterwards. Thanks for the heads up on the idea.

One thing I'd like to say. It's not too hard to take the boat apart, even for a snuffy like me. Putting everything back correctly and making good decisions as to restoring or replacing items will be interesting. Please do not hesitate to offer comments and ideas to me as we go along on this restoration/rebuild adventure. Frankly, I'm not one who is afraid of constructive discussion and will welcome all the help offered with regards to putting this boat in nice shape. We have had some fun along the way and we are a group of friends so if you see me doing something, and have thoughts as to a better method of completion or materials, please feel free to offer your advise.

Safe boating,

Joe

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

I've got 3 tips for you to aid in the put back:
1) When taking pix (can't take too many) include a tape measure & dimensions w/ an area specific group:

2) Upload your pix to a photo site, I use photobucket, and I can access those pix from any computer. I just have to make sure to upload them out of the camera ASAP so they'll be online when I want to reference them. :facepalm:

3) ---{really not a #3, more of a 2B}--- Using an online photo site, I also have the pix & info saved someplace other then 'just' on my computer at home. More then 1 iboat resto has been hampered by a home computer crash & burn. At least 1 was a total loss of all of the digital records, as is often the case w/ a crash.

My power supply failed, and fortunately didn't fry the motherboard or my hard drive. All I had to do was open the case, pull the drive & copy all my files off of it to a new computer. Although the drive still 'works', I didn't want to have to depend on that always being the case.

I got lucky, I don't think GT1000000 was so lucky.

Bow clean out looks great! Nearly done w/ the tear down aren't ya?

 

[barato2]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

now THAT'S some progress. comgrats on the foamectomy, and on all the nice mulch.

GA is right on, you can't assume the boat is completely symmetrical. quality control on these is better than on Lone Stars, but on my 16' LS tinnie, there's about a 4 inch difference between the 2 hull sides. part of the good news is that the original floorboards were cut freehand with a jigsaw set at an angle and the person(s) who cut em weren't all that expert, so you can easily make floorboards as accurate as the originals, and likely better since it won't be mass production.

great advice on the compufun, JB. we get so busy thinking about the boat itself that we forget about the all important documentation.....even if you don't need the pix for the rebuild, if you ever want to sell it, you will get more of your investment back (say 22% vs 17%) if people can see what all went into it.

 

[classiccat]

Re: 1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

Great progress Joe!

Is the plan to next perform a leak check? (before Gluv-it)