1973 Starcraft SuperSport 16ft. restoration questions

[piperjoe]

The Admiral and I did a bit of shopping for boat items today. Purchased a new dolly jack for the trailer tongue, a bottle jack, and then spent some time looking for aluminum pop rivets that have a long enough grip to attach the new marine plywood to the aluminum structure. The local fastener businesses around here have a minimum $50 retail purchase in effect for walk in customers but it didn’t matter because all they had was 1/2” grip rivets in stock and didn’t know how long it would take to get an order in. So we kept looking and finally found the 3/16 diameter x 5/8” grip aluminum rivets that we were seeking…at a small hardware store I had almost forgotten about. Purchased three packs of the rivets and headed for home. I checked out the new rivet length using a piece of the marine plywood, same thickness as the new flooring, and found it to be a good fit. In one of the photos you can see the pencil mark made underneath the flooring aluminum and the extra length that can allow a good rivet draw. And onward we go!

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

Today I decided to address a couple of things that the former “helpers”, who had the boat when I was out of the picture for awhile, and then gave back to me, did to the trailer. And don’t even ask about the whole story….

First, the boat was now sitting on the trailer with the boat bunked too far aft; stuck out too far past the trailer…and doesn’t even have the motor attached yet. Second, the front trailer jack was also now sitting too far aft from the front of the trailer.

I replaced the front trailer jack because the lower wheel shaft was bent; I think someone may have backed up the trailer without raising the wheel off the surface it was resting on. This worked out good because I relocated the new jack forward where I wanted it. Next I relocated the front geared tie down assembly forwards on the trailer tongue and the Admiral and I relocated the hull on the trailer so it now rides with full hull width contact on the trailer bunkers and is centered just above the rearmost roller. The front of the hull now rests firmly in the centers of the two front rollers. Both the jack handle and rope gear handle received a double check to be sure they cleared each other when rotating.

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

This evening while putting some tools away and tarping the boat before the rain gets here, I noticed there were quite a few exposed bolt threads at the front of the trailer. A potential trailer snag that I would surely run into over time. Thought about this for awhile and remembered I had a piece of large diameter silicone tubing (used to cover the metal contact areas on my guitar stand). Retrieved the tubing and placed a piece of silicone tubing onto the bolt ends, cutting the tubing to size using a sharp wire cutter. One of the uncovered threaded bolt heads was in contact with the front tie down rope at the assembly and is now covered with the tubing which will help to avoid rope fray at that point due to the exposed and sharp bolt threads. Just a little something I thought I would share with those folks who might be interested.

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

Question: does anyone following along here have experience, thoughts/comments, regarding the use of PVC Vinyl Tiles, over epoxy coated/sealed marine plywood flooring, as the “walk on” surface?

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[MNhunter1]

Question: does anyone following along here have experience, thoughts/comments, regarding the use of PVC Vinyl Tiles, over epoxy coated/sealed marine plywood flooring, as the “walk on” surface?

Safe boating,
Joe

No experience, I always use Nautolex, but don't see why it wouldn't work. Not sure how slippery it might be when wet? I see many using a hydroturf or seadeck type material these days too. As long as you have your decking sealed up good, which it looks like you do, I'd think it would be fine as it shouldn't hold any water like carpet would. Also not sure if the cost or ease of install provides any benefit over the other options.

 

[piperjoe]

Thanks for the reply MNhunter1. Forgot about Nautolex so I’ll go back and give that option another look. Definitely don’t want carpet on the new flooring.

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

Today we took a good look at getting the floatation foam into the boat. I have three 4’ x 8’ sheets of 2” thick XPS. Took a bit of time to figure out how I want the floatation to lay in the hull and I realized that we needed to purchase some additional foam sheets to do the job. Went to the Lowes store and purchased three 1” x 4’ x 8’ sheets and one 1/2” x 4’ x 8’ sheet, all XPS foam. Now I can fill in the voids without having to split the thickness dimension all the time. One thing that became apparent immediately is that a knife blade or saw blade was not going to work for me with regards to cutting this XPS foam to size. Took the sharp edge off of a new snap blade in the first three passes, and my thin blade Japanese saw only managed to crumble the foam while making a first pass. So, while the Admiral and I were in town we took time to look for a hot wire tool or a hot blade tool. After a number of stops to look for the tool, which no one stocked, I finally drove over to the Harbor Freight store and they had a hot knife tool. Purchased that and headed for the house. Took the Admiral out for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, came home and tarped the boat and called it a day. But, what the heck…I did get ONE piece of floatation foam into the boat and that’s a good start.

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[shinytopgeezer]

Today we took a good look at getting the floatation foam into the boat. I have three 4’ x 8’ sheets of 2” thick XPS. Took a bit of time to figure out how I want the floatation to lay in the hull and I realized that we needed to purchase some additional foam sheets to do the job. Went to the Lowes store and purchased three 1” x 4’ x 8’ sheets and one 1/2” x 4’ x 8’ sheet, all XPS foam. Now I can fill in the voids without having to split the thickness dimension all the time. One thing that became apparent immediately is that a knife blade or saw blade was not going to work for me with regards to cutting this XPS foam to size. Took the sharp edge off of a new snap blade in the first three passes, and my thin blade Japanese saw only managed to crumble the foam while making a first pass. So, while the Admiral and I were in town we took time to look for a hot wire tool or a hot blade tool. After a number of stops to look for the tool, which no one stocked, I finally drove over to the Harbor Freight store and they had a hot knife tool. Purchased that and headed for the house. Took the Admiral out for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, came home and tarped the boat and called it a day. But, what the heck…I did get ONE piece of floatation foam into the boat and that’s a good start.

Safe boating,
Joe

Hi Joe. I'm a recent member here and have enjoyed your adventure, thank you. I have a few random thoughts to share with you if I may. You are right, $10K will buy a lot of gas for the Johnson! And from the pictures of it, its not had a hard life. Yes I'm biased, but I've used a bunch of it over the last 40+years. There is

 

[shinytopgeezer]

Shows how good I am at this. To continue on, there is NO profit margin for a retailer to tie his money stocking the stuff, so you need to buy it on line. I've used various Amsoil products, the 2 & 4 cycle gas and diesel engine oil and filters, (including my over the road tractor) gear lubes and greases and they always performed as described. When I used the 100:1 outboard oil in my 3 cyl Johnson, it was always consistent starting and smooth running. as with all 2 stroke fuels be SURE to mix it THOROUGHLY! So I hope you stick with the portable tanks so it can be properly mixed. Very low smoke and no fouled plugs (Original surface gap plugs). The only down side I can think of to your 50th Anniversary Johnson is the inconvenience of the fuel mix----and its thirst. That's why their nickname was "Fat Four". Anyway, play nice, stay clean, have fun. Thanks for taking us on the adventure.

 

[piperjoe]

Hi shinytopgeezer! Welcome aboard and thank you for your thoughts regarding the Johnson motor. At my age, 73, and the manner in which I will be operating the boat with the Admiral aboard, it probably makes more sense to keep the motor with the boat for old times sake. We’ll see what happens. Glad you are enjoying the thread and be sure to join the conversation anytime you feel like it.

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

The “looks like it will rain” weather finally cleared enough late this afternoon that the Admiral and I decided to try out the new hot knife tool on the XPS foam. Started with the rearmost starboard area…mainly because I can reach the hull bottom without a ladder. Looking at the area, I thought it best to make a pattern first from a piece of white 1/4” artists board leftover from my R/C model airplane days. Once the pattern was cut out and checked for fitting correctly I placed the pattern on the 2” foam sheet and traced around it with an ink pen. Then it was time to use the hot knife…something I had no experience with. Let me just say that the Harbor Freight hot knife will do the job and leave it at that. It will take a few more uses for me to work out the nuances and get smoother passes on the foam surface. Much better than using a knife or saw blade though!

I cut out foam pieces from the 2” thick and 1” thick foam sheets and placed them in the designated area on their sides rather than laying them flat, filling the area between the hull rib and the transom. A piece of 1/2” marine plywood was set on top of the starboard flooring rail and rested on the hull rib end. It all lays flat and tight at this point so I am happy. The plan is to install the remaining floatation foam across the hull from side to side starting at the transom and going forward towards the bow. This will allow me to lay/secure the new marine plywood into place as I move forward towards the bow…and finally give me something solid to stand on when I am in the boat. In the meantime, it looks like I am going to get a lot of experience using the hot knife as I think this floatation foam addition to the boat is going to take me awhile. And onward we go!

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[MNhunter1]

For straight cuts on the foam, a table saw or circular saw makes easy work of it as well. Not the best for the blades and leaves a bunch of pink(or green in your case) fairy dust all over the place, but they rip right through it. Pretty easy to just score it and snap it clean if you don't cut all the way through as well. The hot knife will likely work better for the angled cuts like you are doing however. Looks great!

 

[piperjoe]

Put some more floatation foam into the hull at the port side transom area. And then the oncoming rain and what we thought was distant thunder made us retarp the boat and come into the house. I did get better cuts with the hot knife so that is good. The bottom hull curvature changes as one goes forward toward the bow so I will need to make some additional patterns in order to cut the foam correctly for a tight fit between the ribs. Looked around for a 20” curvature gauge to lay in the rib bays but haven’t found one to purchase locally and the one I have is only 8” long. As I was typing this the thought occurred to me that I could use a compass and pencil and draw the curvature on the artist board that I have. Need to take a look at my drafting tools that I have kept for many moons.

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

The Admiral and I spent a good part of the day looking for a long contour gauge, 20” length, for use when making up the floatation foam patterns. Found one on Amazon but we didn’t find it anywhere around here. One of our good friends is going to order the contour gauge for me from Amazon this afternoon and it should be here in the next few days. Yet another boat restoration tool will be joining the hoard I have managed to purchase since starting this project. And the Admiral didn’t even complain!

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

Well, you know how it is with regards to the plan for the day….just found out that the contour gauge won’t arrive as soon as I thought it would. So, I’ll see about getting the floatation foam down the middle between the rails and perhaps saw some more marine plywood to shape for the flooring. Should keep the Admiral and me busy for a few days.

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

This afternoon while looking at the boat I decided that I didn’t quite like the way the new floatation foam rested against the area where the boat side and hull bottom join. Lots of rivets and the marine plywood didn’t lay against the bottom ribs without pressing the wood down a bit. Nothing earth shattering and it would work out alright in the long run…however, I just didn’t like to leave it that way. So, I used a metal triangle with a flat surface on one side and a large snap off bladed knife to cut off the floatation foam so that the foam ends are now even with the ends of the bottom ribs. Now the flooring will lay nicely against the rib top without any pressure to hold it down. Can make a nice channel for water runoff, too, where the flooring will be close to the side and bottom of the boat. Just a little detail and it looks neater, too.

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

Can you say OUCH! Yesterday the Admiral and I started working on the boat. I kept looking at the long grass in the yard that needed cutting and finally got the lawnmower out and gassed up. Was thinking I would get the grass cut and then get back to the boat work. Didn’t happen. I was making the first trim cut alongside the walkway and down by the stacked fireplace wood. Next thing I knew, as I was mowing next to the stacked wood, a swarm of hornets came at me and they were not a welcoming party! Got five stings to the forehead and neck before I could get away. Quite painful and I ended up getting a doozy of a headache that lasted about 12 hours. I can still feel the effects of those stings yet this morning. Needless to say we didn’t get any further on the restoration work other than tarping the boat for the night. We’ll see what kind of drama I can create for today when I go outside!
Seriously though, be careful when outdoors because the bee, hornet and wasp groups are starting to make their winter accommodations and, as I found out, do NOT like to be disturbed!

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[Moserkr]

Could have been worse! Too bad it ruined work plans but glad you're alright.

 

[piperjoe]

Could have been worse! Too bad it ruined work plans but glad you're alright.

Thanks for the kind words with regards to being alright. Still have a residual headache, swelling in the sting areas and am putting up with the itch at each sting location. Glad they didn’t sting me near the eyes! Have not been working on the boat since the drama started but plan on getting the tarp off the old gal today so I can continue on with the restoration.

Safe boating,
Joe

 

[piperjoe]

The BigHorn 20” contour gauge arrived a day early and I found it waiting for me on the front porch this afternoon. Now if the rain leaves this neck of the woods the Admiral and I will put it to use tomorrow when making the new floatation foam patterns.

Safe boating,
Joe