1974 Starcraft SS16 Restortation

[DirtyHarry83]

So about that boat motor, I forgot that I took a fair amount of weight out of the front of the boat and when I walked to the rear the front went up. Naturally I was concerned about the bottom end of the motor, but it only moved a bit. No harm no foul, however I did put a jack under the stern until we pull the motor on Sat. My plan will be to leave the boat attached to the trailer hitch until we have the motor safely on the engine hoist. That should prevent any unwanted wheelies.

I remember when this happened to me. I laughed so hard when the boat started to go bow up. I was thinking to myself. "DUH!"

The jack on the stern is a good idea, better support. I ended up using rope tied from the bow eye to the trailer.

 

[Watermann]

Yeap I think we've all had that teeter totter feeling at least once. :lol:

Nice progress, a little help goes a long ways.

 

[FIGMO]

Yes indeed the "tippy canoe" caught me totally by surprise!

Hey Watermann, I have no idea how I managed to double post that last one. Is there any way one of those repetitive posts can be removed?

Onward to the motor!

As it turns out, we were able to pull the motor off the boat today vice tomorrow, and everything went smoothly with Gordy's help, and hoist. The four main connections we had to pull before removing the motor were the steering linkage, power trim cable, throttle cable and motor power cable (that is probably not the correct terminology, but it should work).

The motor stand, blueprints found here, works perfectly. It is very stable and the casters make moving the motor around in the garage a dream.

I put some notes on the following images. They are as much for me as anyone reading this, I plan on coming back to this and re-engineering the assembly of the motor and boat.



Sweet motor stand!





Gordy's awesome hoist!!!


















Okay so that is it for today. While we were doing this Gordy came up with a brilliant way to get the boat onto the cradle from the trailer, so we will be giving that a shot tomorrow (lots of pics to follow). I have to remember to get the carpet on the bunks in the morning before he comes over.

Its great to have great neighbours!!!

 

[BWR1953]

Excellent work! That note-taking method is awesome. Wish I'd done that.

 

[Watermann]

Newer Rude using the old style steering set up that's screwed to the transom. Using the motors tilt tube you would have to get a steering arm for the cable ram to attach to the motor. If you're planning on upgrading the helm and steering using the tilt tube is the way to go.

 

[Prarie Guy]

Nice progress I'm doing an 18 ft SS down to the hull now and about ready to flip and paint still not sure if I'll strip or just sand and paint over.

G

 

[FIGMO]

Hey BWR,

Thanks for that. I will try to include notes if there are specific areas that I want to emphasis.

Mr. Watermann, The steering on this boat is pretty tight, and there is almost zero play in it. I will likely stick with the steering assembly that came with the boat.

 

[FIGMO]

Hello PG,

I will not be able to strip and paint until next spring it is already too cold, and my garage is not heated. From everything I have read on other posts, the best way to go seems to be with some form of chemical stripping. When I get closer to that stage I will go back and look to see what was the most successful way to get the paint off the boat.

 

[FIGMO]

Gordy and I were able to get the boat off of the trailer and on to the cradle with very little effort. With the casters on the cradle I can move the boat around in the garage on my own. Those casters are rated for 250 Lbs each, so the cradle should be able to handle up to 1,500 Lbs.



Before we got the boat onto the cradle, we pushed it up to the back of the trailer and measured the angle of the bunks to the angle of the hull. At that time there were only carriage bolts holding the bunks in place, allowing us to swivel the bunks up and down. Once we had the angle right, we put lag bolts in to hold it steady.



Originally we were going to use the "come along" to pull the boat onto the cradle, but that was completely unnecessary as we were able to simply pull the boat back onto the cradle. It was incredibly easy.



You can see in this photo that the bunks are matched up to the hull angle, and the boat is rock solid on the cradle. I made the bunks 8 ft long and put some left over carpet on them. Approximately 1.5 to 2 ft of the boat hangs over the stern, creating a very stable platform to work from.

When it comes time to strip and and paint the bottom of the boat, we will pull the cradle onto the yard and flip the hull upside down. I will then pull the lag bolts out and fold the bunks into the center so I can "turtle" the boat on the cradle. I made it wide enough so that the boat will rest on the gunwales. It will be important to mark the position of the bunk supports on the frame, so that I can re-position them when the boat is turned upright again.

 

[Watermann]

Nice set up and low to ground means less work just getting in and out of the boat. On my SS I used the splashwell cut out for my entry into the boat using a 3 step ladder. On your set up you could fabricate a set of stairs on the side making it even easier.

 

[Watermann]

Mr. Watermann, The steering on this boat is pretty tight, and there is almost zero play in it. I will likely stick with the steering assembly that came with the boat.

Yeah I hear that, spending on something you don't have to isn't always top on guys list.

In my case the SS had a rack and pinion helm that would've worked all the same but I decided to update the helm and cable from the 1970's to the new Sea Star rotary NFB 4.2 system. Unbelievable how nice this helm is, responsive, fast and the helm accepts No Feed Back from the motor end of the cable. This upgrade was worth every penny.

 

[Decker83]

That cradle looks great. Wish I could get mine in the garage.

 

[FIGMO]

Hello Watermann,

Question for you. How do you do the text capture from someone's post and respond to it so that it is in the new post (grey)? I told you that I am a neophyte!

The cradle has proven to be very sturdy. I was in it today striping more of the interior out and I had no problems getting in and out of the boat. Plus it does not move around when I am moving around in the boat, and I weight 230 Lbs so....

I also have a nice three step ladder that matches up perfectly to the side of the boat. Makes life very easy.

Mr. Decker,

Indeed it is! The time and effort spent on the cradle is proving to be a good investment.

 

[FIGMO]

Today I did some more tear down. I had to remove the wiring to the throttle harness, light, horn, and fish finder. I discovered that the wiring to the navigational (nav) lights were not connected to anything, so they went in the garbage. Plus the wiring was in really poor condition. I will need new wiring for the nav lights as well as for a couple of other electrical items. I think I might try for those nav lights that can be plugged in and removed and stored when not in use. The speedometer and RPM gauge are shot. I will look to replace those as well.

The one thing I had a problem with was the steering cable. Not quite sure how to get that out without damaging something. I am open to advice on that one. The same for the steering wheel. Its funny because the stupid thing popped off the first time I took it to the lake. We replaced the nut and never had anymore issues. However, now I have the nut and washer off, and the steering wheel refuses to come free. I must be missing something.

In addition to the wiring, I removed the side panels and the bow portion of the decking. It does not look good down there. I looks like mice were living in there. When it comes time to pull up all the deck boards, I will be wearing my mask. Worried about inhaling mice feces. I will definitely need the shop vacuum for that particular task.

Before I pull the remainder of the deck boards, I will have to focus on the splash well. I think it will be a lot easier to get the splash well out while I have deck boards to lay on.

Here are some pics of what I was doing today.




The dashboard is really rotted out. I don't think I can even use it as a template. Will probably have to use the other side as a template for both.

 

[Decker83]

Leaving the floor in to work on the splash well is a good ideal.. On the steering wheel, it's on a tapered shaft. When you put on the new nut it probably tighten it down good to make it hard to get off. Some guys put the nut back on so it is even with the shaft and tap it with a hammer. If you do this make sure you do not mess up the threads on the shaft.

 

[Watermann]

Hello Watermann,

Question for you. How do you do the text capture from someone's post and respond to it so that it is in the new post (grey)? I told you that I am a neophyte!

Quote at the bottom right of the post box. Or by using the advanced editor the A in the upper right corner.

Steering wheel. What Decker said, back the nut off but leave it on a few threads, grab the wheel and pull while someone raps the nut with a hammer. After the wheel is off you can remove the helm from the console and pull it along with the cable out of the boat.

 

[FIGMO]

Mr Decker and Watermann,

Thank you for that, I was able to get the steering wheel with your help.

Quote at the bottom right of the post box. Or by using the advanced editor the A in the upper right corner.

Hopefully I got the quote bit right

 

[FIGMO]

Hopefully I got the quote bit right

Yup I got that right!!

 

[FIGMO]

Hello again,

I have successfully removed the splash well and transom. I have been taking a lot of pictures because right now things that appear to be obvious may not be so obvious in six months from now when I am trying to put it together. A classic example of that would be all the holes in the transom. I ended up taking a photo and labeling all the holes, same with screws/bolts and nuts in weird places. I have some examples of my anal activity below.

My splash well is in pretty rough shape, same for that keel knee. The aluminum looks pretty thin for welding. I am thinking of going to a machine shop and have a new one fabricated. Open to suggestions on that topic.

I thought about drilling out the keel knee brace, but then I thought I would simply reinforce it. Pictures below:



I have a couple of Tupperware containers full of screws, nuts and bolts etc. I am using this system to help me remember where they all go when it comes time to put things back together. I only shared one with you, there are more (many many more).



Pretty sure this is one of two bolts along the bottom that holds the external brace to the back of the transom.



The old fuse box was located here. I am thinking that I want to replace the fuse box with something newer. I would also re-position it, I did not like all the wires hanging down around the fuel tank.



External back brace: terms that I come up with when I don't know the proper nomenclature!



Okay this worked really well! Once again Gordy came over with another brilliant idea. We reinforced the deck boards with some scrap lumber, anything should work. We put a bottle jack on top of that, and then we screwed a piece of 2x6 into the the face of the transom. Note that the bottle jack is on an angle. We did this to both sides, jacking one side until it started to loosen, and switching to the other side. Once it "broke its seal" we just lifted it out. Worked like a charm!



You can see just how messed up the knee brace is. Potential solution is two down.





I was thinking that I could fabricate a right angle brace for both sides of the knee. Drill the holes out and rivet the brace to the sides of the knee. I could then drill out holes that would match up with the holes in the transom to accept the bolts and nuts.

Thoughts?



Again this is for my memory. There are holes in this transom that do not need to be there, so I will fill and sand those at a later date.

Does anyone know of a good aluminum cleaner? There is a little rust and corrosion on the inside of the transom that I would like to clean up.

Next step will be to remove the deck boards and the foam.

 

[Watermann]

Nice work and documentation :thumb:

I use a fine wire wheel on my drill (with a side handle) to clean the corrosion and gunk off the inner transom skin. I also put some Heinz cleaning vinegar in a spray bottle and soak the skin working it into the pitting to get that stuff off. Once cleaned and rinsed off, you can see where you'll need to fill pitting in the skin. I know guys don't like to take apart anything they think they don't need too BUT the channel where the bottom of the transom wood sit are super nasty with corrosion between the skin and the channel (most of us call it a Z brace). I would remove the Z brace to clean and then prime/paint.

This attention to detail will not be overkill. Below is what I found lurking behind the Z brace in my Chief, nasty white corrosion. (My SS was designed without the brace)