1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

One more thing if you happen to see one of these little shop vacs on sale and think " that looks like a good deal " my advice would be don't do it. Bought this one a few months ago to replace my old one that died and although it seems to have plenty of power and does well with water the hoses are way to small and constantly plug up with a leaf or those litlle popcorny pieces of foam. I should have made a funniest home video of me sucking stuff up, disconnecting hose and shaking out, repeat 300 times...

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

O.k. got out to the garage tonight and since it was a nice day (40 ish) I decided it was time to pull off the motor. Spent alot of time finding the parts for and assembling my old engine stand and then pushed the boat out of the garage a little to reach engine with my hoist when i went to move it I discovered that it is much lighter in the bow with the floor removed .

Propped it back up on the old rubbermaid tool box hooked up the chain fall and took out the mount bolts top ones were really difficult not tight or corroded but seemed like some kind of locktight product. Came off easily enough after the first few turns though.Bottom bolts were quite loose could have easily removed them with 1/4" drive ratchet.

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Lost some pics when I uploaded to photo bucket but here's the motor on stand next to the abyss of ex parts and tools my garage isn't big enough for

Lots more room in the garage without the motor on. I'll probably tear into the transom soon.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Congratulations on beating the old deck into submission, nice too see what's under there and your boat looks good.

That is a real bonus if your knee brace is in good shape. It looks fine to me so that's one less thing to worry about.

Nice work on the teardown!

 

[Triton II]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Looking good Yooper. Thanks for an interesting and humorous read and the numerous illustrations!

TII

 

[GLG fishing]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Nice job and thanks for the pics
Want to sell that spare fishing gear

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Great job yoop! Excellent creativity on the deck removal buddy!

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Thanks for the support guys I'm hoping to get out there and at least get some more clean up done tonight. Still debating on those gunwale rub rails and the lower ones as well , rubber is in pretty good shape and know if I remove it it won't be. I think I'll wait on that decision for a little while. Now its time for the questions to begin

1. Is there any consensus on a good stripper for paint removal ? Or the best method in general ?

2. Floor thickness? I have read a number of threads where people have gone thicker and others have stuck with original any info on longevity, performance pro's and cons or overall satisfaction would be appreciated.

3.Epoxy products ? I've noticed people seem to use a wide range of different epoxy coatings for decks, transom etc... I have no experience with epoxies ( other than for the occasional quicky repair) and could really use some good basic how to tips and product recommendations also have questions regarding best type of paint to use for decking as I don"t want carpet or vinyl . I also plan on building my own console and will need to protect and paint that as well.

4. Not wanting carpet or vinyl presents another problem with the way the floor is cut around supports as you get closer to the bow. It seems that on the SS side panels may ( or may not ) cover this but on the mariner there aren't any. I could probably fill the gaps with something? But not sure of the best product to use for this either?

5. Paint schemes? Mariner seems to have gotten the bargain basement paint job of the starcrafts with gunwales one color and rest of boat another. Of course I realize I can paint it anyway I want but would like to try to keep it retro looking but avoid the obvious SS look as after all its a MARINER and far superior to its SS cousins Any suggestions would be appreciated as I haven't made any commitment to paint type color or method for that matter.

6.Aside from gluvit and the 3m sealant (5200?? ) used in a lot of the threads are there any other products that I should make sure I have on hand ?

7. Sandpaper? There are a buttload of different types of sandpaper out there any specific type best for working on aluminum boats?

8. Dent removal ? This old girl has seen her share of lumps any suggestions on the best way to deal with them ? I don't think I'll even consider any of the higher dollar painting options if I can't deal with these.

9. Filling holes in gunwales etc..?? J.B. weld seems to be a common choice has anyone tried any of the supposedly low temp brazing alloys or any other product that they found preferable and why or why not ?

10. I'm considering adding a windshield on the bow as being a passenger forward in a C.C. can get a bit ugly on the big lake and my best fishin buddy isn't getting any younger. Any thoughts on options for this and support necessary under bow are welcome.

I guess that's enough for now. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Well I didn't have too much energy tonight but decided to try cleaning up the bilge area a little to get a little better look at the knee brace.

Still didn't find any problems here lots more cleaning to do but knees and back didn't want to stay under splash well any longer so I decided to look at another problem area.

P.O had told me there was a scrape and small hole here said he had patched with JB weld and some silicon but never leaked anyway. No big deal right ??

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

So I started out with a utility knife removing some of the silicone. JB weld was really brittle and had been applied over the paint with little or no cleanup and much of it came off easily.I hit it a little bit with a wire wheel on the drill still haven't cleaned it all up yet but this is what I found.

Pics aren't that clear posted this one bigger to give a better idea. What we are looking at here is a crack approximately 2' long I don't see any evidence of an impact or dent,scrape etc. so far metal seems solid and no corrosion evident. Cleaned off most of the JB weld on inside and looks similar.

I don't see any evidence of corrosion or damage inside either so at this point I am thinking some type of stress crack?? I can see that crack seems to have extended an inch or so on each end under paint past patch job. I'll know more once I get the surrounding area cleaned up better but thinking (remember not my strongest point) I can drill stop holes at ends of crack and try out one of those handy dandy aluminum brazing alloys. I doubt I can get a light enough aluminum wire to push through my MIG welder (possible but not as much fun) and never bought a spool gun for it back when I should have. I guess If I get desperate I can haul it to one of the welding shops and pay someone to TIG it but really rather do it myself. In any case that's how tonight ended Hope yours was better

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Ah man, I am bummed about that crack! She is a biggen! Prime candidate for some tig work maybe?

You have some unanswered questions up there^^^^

I'll take #3 as that is an easy one. I went with US Composites Medium...

http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html

Great price, great pruduct, fast shipping, all in all super stuff! You can check my Islander thread for some of my epoxy happenings. So far, transom done, stringer meat done. I am working on the deck right now actually. Stay tuned on my deck treatment, you may (or may not) find it useful for your sweet Mariner.

Cheers man!

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

1. Is there any consensus on a good stripper for paint removal ? Or the best method in general ?

There are some citrus stripping products that work from what I've heard. Check out fshngho's threads I think he had success.

2. Floor thickness? I have read a number of threads where people have gone thicker and others have stuck with original any info on longevity, performance pro's and cons or overall satisfaction would be appreciated.

I went with 3/4" Aruco ply sealed w/ epoxy and it's rock solid. 1/2" w/ fiberglass mat and epoxy would be good too.

3.Epoxy products ? I've noticed people seem to use a wide range of different epoxy coatings for decks, transom etc... I have no experience with epoxies ( other than for the occasional quicky repair) and could really use some good basic how to tips and product recommendations also have questions regarding best type of paint to use for decking as I don"t want carpet or vinyl . I also plan on building my own console and will need to protect and paint that as well.

I've been happy with clarkcraft.com's epoxy resin.

4. Not wanting carpet or vinyl presents another problem with the way the floor is cut around supports as you get closer to the bow. It seems that on the SS side panels may ( or may not ) cover this but on the mariner there aren't any. I could probably fill the gaps with something? But not sure of the best product to use for this either?

I've had this problem myself.

5. Paint schemes? Mariner seems to have gotten the bargain basement paint job of the starcrafts with gunwales one color and rest of boat another. Of course I realize I can paint it anyway I want but would like to try to keep it retro looking but avoid the obvious SS look as after all its a MARINER and far superior to its SS cousins Any suggestions would be appreciated as I haven't made any commitment to paint type color or method for that matter.

I like the stripes on my boat. Might be hard to repaint but I'm gonna give it a shot. fshngho's rig turned out really nice with his custom paint scheme, and Azlo's is awesome too so have at it.

6.Aside from gluvit and the 3m sealant (5200?? ) used in a lot of the threads are there any other products that I should make sure I have on hand ?

Those are the two main products to use, JB weld is handy too.

Hope that helps

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

I don't too many on here have had any success with any of the brazing rod or other DIY kinda aluminum repair products. I know it sucks, but I'd have it welded.

 

[KellyC]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Agrees with Ez on this, I have some of those brazing rods and am not impressed with them at all. They are ok if you are using a very small piece but if it is attached to a large piece then it takes a lot of heat as the piece acts as a heat since sucking heat away from the place you are working on. It might work ok if you are using an oxy/acct setup but with my map gas torch I cannot seem to get enough heat on a large piece to make it work. I am not a pro at it but that is just how it has worked for me.
Kelly

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Thanks a lot for the replies guys to be honest crack is least of my worries as long as I don't find any signs of metal fatigue more cracks etc I do have oxy/acetylene available and may choose to try one of the DIY products just to see how they work as so far I've read a lot of threads where folks considered using them and didn't but little or no info on folks who did and had troubles. It still seems in theory that they might be used to fill some of those gunwale and transom holes if nothing else. I agree with all of you that this is not the best choice and may not try it (even to satisfy my own curiosity) as it probably isn't even a cost effective solution for anyone (like me ) who has multiple welding shops nearby and knows the owners and most of the folks who work at them. On the other hand I do have plenty of time so we'll see I also have my own MIG welder( lincoln powermig 255)and could probably fork out a few bucks on drive rolls and a teflon liner to push enough wire through to fix this but pushing aluminum wire is like trying to push a chain

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Had a busy weekend getting some stuff done at camp but managed to get out in the garage for a little while today.I decided to get out the random orbit sander and start cleaning up some of the scratches on port side.

I got bored with sanding and decided to take a look at My poor fitting trailer. The rollers on the back on both sides were running right on the chines not a trailer expert but didn't like this.

I moved the boat around a bit until my back said "no more" and I concluded the roller thingys had to move soooo.

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Don't try this at home boys and girls this is done by trained (untrained) professionals (amatuers)

Safety first. Could only find one of my jack stands but figured one was better than none

Moved it out as far as it would go toward edge of trailer but still no good.

Pulled the whole works off tried flipping outside angle around but wouldn't fit as it hit inside one decided to try it with just one for now. Loosened up bolts a bit and slapped some anti seize on pivots so rollers would actually move.

Slapped it back on and repeat for starboard side.

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Seems to fit a lot better now.

I haven't decided if just the one angle will be enough support or not may need to modify the other ones to fit for added support but figure its good enough for now as I'll be removing all the stuff from trailer at some point to paint it.

noticed this a while later front of trailer will need some help as well front roller under keel doesn't even touch.

And winch eye is hitting these rollers..Problems for another day...

 

[yooperangler]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

I decided to remove the lower rub rail rubber I think I may eliminate this entirely as it reminds me of that trim strip on the side of my old chevy Impala. It might look ok with some chrome rims and fender skirts but I'm not really liking it on my boat

Rubber slid out with no problem think I will remove the rest of it at some point.

Have quite a few dents like these guess I'll have to fill them with something or just live with em.

Did a little more sanding and decided to call it quits for today. Also took a look at wood around and under bow cap and decided it has to be replaced so those top rub rails are going to go after all...

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1975 Starcraft Mariner 18'

Great progress yoop, keep it up man!