1974 Starcraft SS16 Restortation

[knezzer]

Ya man progress !! I found furniture stripper at wally world that just turned the old paint to bubbles and it fell off. It wasn't costly but my 14 foot boat didn't need much anyway

 

[FIGMO]

Hey guys thanks for the encouragement! Stripping paint has to be the worst part of the restoration so far, but I am close to finishing this stage of the job.

I noticed that I had a rather large hole in the bow of the boat, so I filled it with JB Weld Marine. In the process I also noticed that some of the rivets were really worn, and I was debating drilling and replacing them. I just picked up 100 rivets and a bit to replace the knee brace and Z bracket. So I am thinking I might just do it. The rivets I bought have a slightly larger head on them so they should have a little more grip than the smaller ones.

Lastly some photos of the bottom of the hull mostly stripped of paint.

 

[FIGMO]

Good day Gents!

Well the boat is finally stripped and ready for the next step! I will be replacing the transom brace and Z brace shortly. After that a couple of minor holes to fill, and then off to the water leak test (could not get the images to upload, will try later).

In the meantime, I am trying to sort out paint for the boat. There is only one company in Winnipeg that deals in marine paint and they do not carry paint rated for below waterline. All they carry is anti-fouling paint, which apparently is only good for about 4 years. The paint they have is Interlux, and I noticed that IBoats deals in it as well. This may be the curse of Canada and all things environmentally friendly.

Looking for suggestions on below the waterline paint. Maybe a fellow Canadian has encountered this problem, and has a solution???

 

[Watermann]

If you trailer the boat and don't leave it moored in the water all the time then that paint will work just fine. Or you could just do like I did and not worry about painting the bottom.

 

[FIGMO]

Hi Watermann,

I thought about not painting the bottom, but its pretty rough, so I think I will go with painting the bottom. The only problem is that the anti-fouling paint only comes in four colours and none are the colour that I wanted for the bottom of the boat. I had wanted to paint the bottom grey and the sides a royal marine blue. Maybe I will just go with white for the bottom.

I used the self etching primer on the transom brace and the Z brace. How heavy of a coat do you need to do the self etching primer? In the pictures you can see how heavy of a paint job I did.





and the Z Brace


before and after




And the boat finally fully stripped

 

[Watermann]

Yeah I know you're thinking that will drive you crazy to see the imperfections especially the keel plate repairs. Thing is unless you crawl under the boat on a trailer the rough parts will never show. I know the shape of the bow is different on our boats with the V5 having a sharper angle.

Also I've seen where guys paint only that center keel plate and it actually looks great.

 

[g0nef1sshn]

Nice work FIGMO! Just read through your pages and build and it gave me dejavu back to my tear down and paint strip days.

 

[FIGMO]

Thanks guys!

That is a beautiful looking boat! Did you paint the black stripes on that yourself?

It definitely gives me something to think about, however I believe my OCD will win out in the end. Now I am thinking that the white might not look too bad with the royal blue.....

What about the self-etching primer? Does it look like I put too heavy of a coat on the two braces?

 

[Watermann]

Thanks, yeah I did all the painting on my boats with an HVLP gun and used hardener in the paint.

I lay on SE primer in one nice thick coat, then a layer of regular primer and shoot 2 top coats of paint. I'm a chemical bond guy, on smalls I speed up the process some SE primer, wait half hour, regular primer, wait one hour shoot first top coat, wait one hour shoot 2nd top coat. On the boat hull that time frame is doubled.

All the coats will sort of melt into each creating adhesion doing this so there is no cured primer or paint and no mechanical type bond where sanding is required if you let the paint cure.

 

[budski]

Looking great Ron, nice progress

 

[Candutch]

Looks great, not too bad for having been in the wrong regiment. Obviously I'm with Watermann when it comes to leaving the bottom naked. Paint gets beat up on the rocks and such if you tend to beach lots and it won't take long to look like crap.

I would have though your paint scheme would incorporate maroon and sky blue:bounce:

Actually, a maroon top stripe with the Pegasus at the back would be pretty cool.

 

[FIGMO]

Hey Budski,

Thanks for the support, I will have to come and see you and your son in another couple of weeks as work progresses on the boat. Looking for the pedestal mounts for the seats.

Hello Candutch,

Welcome back! I was hoping you would be on here to share your expertise after winning splash of 2017. That was an amazing bit of work BTW. Maroon and blue would be interesting, but then again I could go blue, black and gold!

Seriously though, the bottom of this boat is pretty beat up. I like the idea of going bare aluminum, but I can't bring myself to do it.

I have some pictures in the sun light now that the boat is upright again.


The areas that still have the old paint will not be seen once the raised deck go in, so I didn't bother striping that area. Call me lazy.


And she is upright on the cradle again. I have decided to paint the inside first, and then flip the boat again to paint the hull and sides.


The close up!


If you closely you can see that the surface isn't exactly smooth, however I am using the interior of the transom to experiment with my sanding and painting as it will not be highly visible once everything is back together. That coat of paint is the self-etching primer.


you can see in the upper right of the photo that my sanding was not the smoothest. I will be going over this again to smooth it out better as this will be visible. Its funny what dragging the boat out into the sun can do to shed some light on bad sanding.

Next up, I will post some photos of my drain replacement, which worked out well. I should have them out tomorrow. After that I will be replacing the Z and Knee Brace, and doing the leak test prior to painting

 

[Watermann]

Now that's some thorough work you're doing right there, WTG! :thumb:

 

[BWR1953]

Super clean strip job and nice work on the paint! You're rolling right along! :nod:

 

[Candutch]

Glad to be back and thanks for the kind words. The boat is looking nice and clean. It's almost a shame that you are going to paint it but since you are why not something in the color scheme below. :lol:​​

 

[FIGMO]

Hey Gents,

Thanks again for the support, it is always good to get feedback on the progress.

Candutch,

I think these colours are more appropriate.


Size is everything!!!!

 

[FIGMO]

On a serious note, some progress in changing the location of the transom drain:


Like most I didn't like the location of the drain way as it trapped a lot of water in the back of the boat around the knee brace.


Centered and marked the location for the new drain way, keeping in mind that the hole had to be one inch for the drain tube


The center point on the line is the mark I am aiming for.


I got it pretty much on the mark. There is something unnerving about drilling holes in the hull of the boat.


Dry fitting the new tube, good fit!


Just in case anyone uses this kit a image of the washer arrangement and you will note that the "O" ring goes to the inside of the hull.


The inner ring is clearly distinguished by the recessed area for the "O" ring


A little sanding on the inside and outside of the hole to smooth out the edges.


I put a coat of 5200 on the drain tube before tightening up the inner and outer rings. In the end it worked out pretty good.

Now I can rivet the two braces back in place and leak test the boat.

Question; after cutting off the old drain tube, can I use that hole to mount a pump for a live well? I looks like the pump might fit too tight to the hull of the boat.... For now I am leaving the old drain tube in place so I can leak test the boat.

 

[g0nef1sshn]

I thought about putting the drain hole where you did but im used to accessing the plug from the inside. will the knee brace be on the other side of it now? or do you use a different plug? Maybe I missed it earlier

You are making me seriously want to find another one to tear into!! I have a fiberglass layout boat project needing done but tin is alota fun!

 

[Candutch]

Looks great Figmo. I was going to move my drain to the same spot but just got lazy. I wish I would have done it now. I install my plug from the outside so there would be no issues with the knee brace for me.
BTW, nice BIG flag!

 

[Watermann]

Was it not possible to put the extender ring on the inside where is should be?

I had the phobia at first about drilling holes in boats until I bored a hole in the water jacket of my Johnson to add a tell tale, that cured me drilling into a powerhead, it really takes some stones :lol: