1977 Starcraft Restoration project

[pntbtrjllytme]

Im back! Been almost a year now =( Ended up blowing a disc in my lower back. MRI showed my spine is "too straight" so a lot of the bending and lifting is putting pressure on ONE disc. So that was bulging and is degenerated. At 32 I wasnt expecting it. BUT! After a long recovery Im back at it and I feel great! Im a little weak yet from doing hardly anything for 7 months.. but every day I feel better and better. I plan on going out fishing for coho this Sunday in my boat for the 1st time since last year.

For anyone who doesnt know, and Im sure most of you wont remember, I was rushing to finish my boat up. I was working crazy hard to get my boat in the water to bring someone out who was battling cancer and was about to go through chemo. He actually ended up passing shortly after so very glad we got out. That day the weather was against us.. we were in 3-4 foot waves in Saginaw the entire day with constant rain.. But on that trip I quickly found flaws in the design. I ended up moving my consoles up even further, cut the consoles now so they are straight up and down. Hard to explain but the consoles bolt in at an angle. I was loosing height on my windows. Also the boat is a little heavy in the back with the new tank so I just recently installed trim tabs to fix this. On my trip (granted I had 3 guys in the back roughly 700lbs of weight) I had to have my buddy sit up front. I couldnt get the boat to plane out very well. Havent tested the trim tabs yet but if that doesnt solve it Ill get a 4 blade prop as well. I also installed a pump to pull the water from the livewell. It took about half an hour to drain the livewell completely. When we went out the boat was strictly fishable far from done. Ive only started working on it a couple of weeks but here are some final pics. Still have some work to do but getting very very close.These pics are from the last 2 weeks. ALSO! I now have a barn and a full garage to work out of!! Boat is still a little messy but not half as bad as it used to be lol. Only thing kicking my butt now is the Michigan Winter =(

 

[classiccat]

I'm very sorry for your loss; it's really neat that you were able to get him out fishing even though conditions weren't ideal.


And tough news on your back... however seeing the rate that you pound, I'm not surprised! You blazed through this build! Once we're in our "advanced years", we have to downshift to Beastmode-lite! :lol:


If the trim tabs don't cut the mustard, there's no replacement for displacement...More HP :madgrin:!

edit: I just realized that this is a 16'... hard to beat a 3cyl since you're near the max HP already.

 

[No-AH]

Hey PBJ glad to see you back in finer form. I swear you tore a page right out of my bio book! I also had similar diagnosis this time last year and happy to say that finally i'm on the mend. I think the biggest moral booster will be getting back to the things you love to do. Keep us posted on your progress, as i'm looking forward to them.... i'm not too far behind you in my re-do.

 

[Watermann]

Welcome back to the fold, and I know the feeling of the back pain, I had 3 disks pop on me years ago. Sounds like you have the boat mods figured out.

 

[MD28]

I’m no stranger to back pain either at 30. So I sympathize with you there. The weather here has been awful for April. I’m glad to see you back at it and look forward to seeing more. Good look coho fishing, what port you go out of?

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

classiccat ya I get tired walking to the mailbox now :lol: Ill have to keep that in mind. Im trying to do this smart now. I can lift and walk around fine now but bending straight over to work on things is a bad idea for the time being. Ive looked for motors lighter/more HP and the one I have has the best ratio as far as ive read. Trying to not add more weight if I can help it.

No-AH It def feels great to get back at it. Ill be honest I teared up a little when I got back in the boat and was feeling good again. Sucks sitting on my butt all day. When I 1st hurt my back I couldnt even walk it hurt so bad so Ive come a long ways. Saw dr today he just cleared me for work but said this type of injury takes an average of like 16 months... So me being good at I think whats been 6 months now I couldnt be happier. Ill have to check your build out again to check your progress!

Watermann when I hurt my back it sucked obviously but I was also trying to stay positive about it b/c it could have been much worse. As my dr said "the good news is its just one disc and not the rest of your back". I couldnt imagine 3 discs.. That had to have been awful. And the mods Im still working on a couple things I decided to try to improve. The consoles Im not satisfied with for example. I also ran out of vinyl so I have to order some. Me being off work for so long has hit the pocket and we just had to pay 1500$ for our dog to go to the vet.. So prob have to hold off on purchasing a few things til I get back to work or the Admiral will not be happy :blue:

MD28 The weather is def bad/odd. Just had a mild blizzard this morning.. Sun is shining now lol. But for coho I launch out of South Haven out of the Black River. Go up a mile next to shore 10-15FOW run about 2.2mph trolling hot and tots close to bottom or even let them bounce of the bottom for coho. Thats all the salmon fishing I do. They move in when the water is this cold. When it warms up they go deep. Easy pickins right now. After I go out for salmon a few times I go walleye fishing rest of year. Ill try to get back into tourny walleye fishing this year.


Thanks for the warm welcome back guys. Hoping I can get her finished here soon. Today Im redoing my console dashboards, repainting my SW, (old paint came right off after I spilled some gas on it lol got new paint today thats gas and oil resistant..) and hopefully get to windows.. again.. I never did get them mounted the way I wanted. A lot of the things I did already were rushed so Im having to take apart a lot of things and redo them the right way.

 

[nrf414]

Ill post some pics later. But I wont be able to get out tomorrow. I guess working 20 hours a day for a week has gotten to me. I got the vinyl down and didnt want to get it all dirty so I took one of my shoes off.. I dunno what happened but I have the worst charlie horse in my leg and I cant really move it. Too painful to continue on tonight..

And classicat I hope I never have to see the insides of that control box again. I wired in an ignition wire awhile back so my fuel gauge and light would only turn on with the key turned. Theres a ball and spring under the throttle lever and it took me a good part of 45min to an hour to get it back in there.

Just catching up. I rebuilt a power pilot last summer, what a nightmare. Spring had ball and grease slinging everywhere. Til I figured out a technique.


looking good PBJ

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Ya Im not a fan of it but I will probably have to take it apart here soon. I have a few good ideas I havent seen on here yet but not sure if I have the know how to pull it off. The control box on these are huge and jut way out. Id really like to find a way to conceal it a little more.

I got on here to ask.. has anyone redone their consoles? The more I work on getting these windows to fit right the more annoyed I get b/c I havent found that perfect look. Im thinking about trying to make the top of the console wood and screw the AL side to it. After that just seal it and paint it and see how it looks.. Im still having a bear of a time getting these windows to fit on the console and look nice over the gunnel where they sit over. Ive dont a lot of metal work and tried to fabricate something but again, just not satisfied with what I have. I think if I just made the top wood it would be much easier to work with.

 

[classiccat]

Ya Im not a fan of it but I will probably have to take it apart here soon. I have a few good ideas I havent seen on here yet but not sure if I have the know how to pull it off. The control box on these are huge and jut way out. Id really like to find a way to conceal it a little more.

I got on here to ask.. has anyone redone their consoles? The more I work on getting these windows to fit right the more annoyed I get b/c I havent found that perfect look. Im thinking about trying to make the top of the console wood and screw the AL side to it. After that just seal it and paint it and see how it looks.. Im still having a bear of a time getting these windows to fit on the console and look nice over the gunnel where they sit over. Ive dont a lot of metal work and tried to fabricate something but again, just not satisfied with what I have. I think if I just made the top wood it would be much easier to work with.

I recall at least two SC restorers raising their windshields. ...I believe budsky was one of them. (sorry, my battery is dead, otherwise i'd try to track down those builds for ya)

 

[Watermann]

Not sure with what you have going on there with your consoles that anyone will have advice derived from experience. I know the console/windshield alignment is tough and will never be perfect on any of these boats, especially if you put the front panels on the consoles before the WS..

Looking at this pic I can see you made the tops flat, they should have an angle to them, so how much you shim the outside you'll also have to shim the inside..

 

[Watermann]

You can see the angle of my consoles.

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

classiccat thanks man Ill check into those. And no worries I can find them pretty easy with the info you provided =)

Watermann The windows line up great actually its just finding the best way to extend the top of the console over the gunnel is the part Im not happy with. 1. theres the trim I have to get over and 2. making something that looks like its part of the boat is difficult. Also.. I just noticed how much I like your dash on your driver side.. is that a part you purchased or stock? Can I get one lol. Im talking about the black piece. I was originally planning on making something to put gauges in on top but that looks easier and I do like the look of it. Oh, and the block of wood there is just to hold the window up a little better. Theres a bit of weight to that side with that extra window it kept falling forward and didnt want to put a bunch of stress on the screws.

Also, I found it was extremely easy to mount the consoles in place first, lay my windows down with someone helping hold the windows in place and after I got them lined up I drilled the new holes and screwed them down in place. Had perfect window alignment.

Im going to try to make the top of the console wood today and see how it turns out. I tried to fabricate something out of thicker sheet metal and wasnt happy with that.

Thanks again guys! As always, I really appreciate the help!

 

[Watermann]

That is the plastic V5 dash panel, chances of finding one are slim and none. budski has a way of making a gauge cluster that is perfect for the standard SS dash. I'm sure he'll swing by with the help.

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Ok thanks for that WM. Maybe Ill try to hunt one down, if I cant find one Ill just build my own gauge cluster. And I did check Budski's thread. Ill have to make a post on there in a bit but he doesnt have the trim like I do on my boat (half of my problem) I was thinking about cutting the lip off right where my windows would sit but have been worried I would regret it. Not like I can just go out and buy new trim. Well, Im sure I could but rather not have extra costs from a mistake if I can help it. I do like his design so I may go ahead and do it seeing it worked great on his.

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Watermann is this one? https://www.ebay.com/itm/1980-s-STA...ash=item3b0534901c:g:AfsAAOSwG0taospy&vxp=mtr Looks a little rough.. but I could take the center pieces out and replace.

 

[Watermann]

No but it looks similar, I see it's from an SC deck boat, not sure of the dimensions of that one.

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Ok not sure what route Im taking with the gauges just yet. But tried the wood top console today and Im really liking how its looking. I have a few directions I could go. Wrap the top in vinyl, have the Admiral stitch something up kind of like Budski's OR I was even thinking about changing the wood I have now for a custom wood burned walleye and putting some plexiglass over it. I think that would look pretty sweet and I know of a few guys that do that sort of thing and sell their work for about 60$. Not completely done with mounting the top to the gunnel you can see it sag just a bit but I have good reasoning for that. Once I get that mounted Ill post some more pics. Until then, this is what I have =) Windows are mounted! Again! And pardon the mess as well lol. EDIT: ALSO! Wanted to mention the other day my cordless drill battery charger fried one of my batteries.. Thought it was the battery that was bad.. So I walked out today to find it had fried my 2nd battery... Had the drill for a while now and found the batteries are like 80$, on top of a charger youre looking at 150$. I found the drill used on ebay for 10$ lol so ended up buying a new drill. :frusty:

 

[No-AH]

Alignment looks perfect according to the gap at the center pane. The rise of the WS on both gunnels could somehow be dressed with 2 runs of light gauge AL angle facing each other and ends, riveted [from the inside]to the gunnels so you wouldn't see the rivets, then top dress with an AL u channel [that would be riveted to the angles from the sides] to make a finished base finished in the material covering the gunnels or painted. Just a suggestion.

 

[Watermann]

Hey I forgot to add something and the windshield alignment comment sparked it again. You should have some wiggle room between the port folder window pane and the starboard. At least 1/4" for flexing of the boat otherwise you could end up breaking the glass when you get in some big waves. Having the panes but up tight could be an issue later on.

 

[pntbtrjllytme]