'79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Here's the new gear. Garmin GPS that my dad had thrown in with a 9.9 Yamaha kicker that he bought last week.

It is an exact match for the Garmin sonar that I have so they will look like a set.

Both are black and white screens too, so not too much drain on the battery if I'm out trolling all day long.

Penn manual 4' downrigger. I will need one more of these for the port side.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

HA - I've seen those paint pits on a lot of old painted aluminum. On boats and old aluminum siding. That is a good question, but I have no idea as to the cause.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

OOOoooooo, gear, nice!

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

If I recall from earlier in the thread, one of your favorite spots to fish requires you to launch amongst the lily-pads which may cause problems if you have bunks. Then again on 16ft boat you may be small enough to never see issues with really shallow boat ramps.

Funny that you mentioned this...last night myself and a buddy took my AeroCraft out fishing there and the DNR had a new ramp poured.

I have mixed feelings about this, since already there was a pontoon out tooling around this tiny lake.

My secluded fishing hole might be jeopardized.

We had a blast though, and hauled in about 20 nice crappie trolling with tiny rapalas.

 

[rcw003]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Bummer!

Guess you could always bring along some extra lilys and place them so it looks like the ramp doesn't get used at all. =P

 

[yooperangler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Bummer!

Guess you could always bring along some extra lilys and place them so it looks like the ramp doesn't get used at all. =P

Yes the ol fake lillypad trick maybe throw in a couple fake rocks and some plastic logs and you'll have the place to yourself
Nice progress man and good to see the wife and kids aren't doing all the work

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

It's slow going...but you can see a bit more bare metal now

I'm gonna switch back to the spray from the gel. Roslynn likes the gel but I can't get it to coat evenly.

It dries up too quickly at high noon so I'm gonna get to it now that the sun is behind the big maple tree in the front yard.

I sprayed the trailer thoroughly with the garden hose and it took old paint off like a pressure washer

Can't wait to get some primer and rustoleum on there, I'm sick of looking at this ugly thing.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Some progress on uncovering the rest of the metal.

It's taking longer than I'd like. I think I need a bigger brush.

This is after using the spray Citristrip after I got frustrated with the gel.

The bow is starting to get the Big Hoss type of mirror look going already.

I like this.

 

[boatguy94]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Sure wish my paint stripping went like that :facepalm:. Things are lookin' good!

Soon enough you will be ready to put some paint on, or maybe polish?

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

I figured I might as well post some photos of the actual process in case anyone is curious.

Here's what it looks like after it's been sprayed and left to sit for 10-15 minutes.

Then I take a brush that's like an oversized toothbrush and scrub all the paint and hopefully most of the zinc chromate off.

Then I suck up the mess with the shop vac. It's a pretty simple procedure and the fumed aren't too bad.

They claim you can use this product indoors but I'm not sure I would do that.

I'm hoping to finish the starboard side of the keel later tonight.

We are stripping this area first so we can see what the boat looks like in case we want to leave that bare metal.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Here's where we left off for the night. I will get the other side stripped in the morning before it gets too hot.

Here are a couple upside-down shots to see what she would look like on the water..

 

[ezmobee]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

I think we can all agree that the bare aluminum will look awesome

 

[jasoutside]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Oh man, that is coming out great! Ok, I should seriously think about going this route. You are making it look easy Mike! Nice work man!

 

[yooperangler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Great progress looks really sharp like that how much if any of the bare aluminum would show in the water? Would definitely look good on the trailer.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

I think we can all agree that the bare aluminum will look awesome

Thanks EZ, the metal does look nice. I just wish it wasn't all pitted on the bottom. Oh well.

Oh man, that is coming out great! Ok, I should seriously think about going this route. You are making it look easy Mike! Nice work man!

Thanks Jason, it's going pretty smoothly. I'd recommend this method

Great progress looks really sharp like that how much if any of the bare aluminum would show in the water? Would definitely look good on the trailer.

Thanks Yoop, we are just doing this section for now but I think we are gonna take all the paint off this thing.

The pitting is only on the bottom below the waterline, so the sides should look much better once we are done.

Once it's all gone we might repaint the yellow stripe to give it a bit of color.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Since we have family stuff to do later today we decided to go all out and coat the whole starboard side all at once this morning.

Using the rest of the gel and 1.1 cans of the spray we covered the whole area barely.

The greenish ZC is remaining to finish with a light coat.

The cans are $8 and the gel is $11 so we have only spent about $27 so far. Not bad at all in my opinion.

BTW if you are wondering why we made such quick progress this morning...it's because yesterday I was working by myself all day. Roslynn helped out a bit today.

We are now off to Mongolian BBQ for a birthday lunch, yum!

 

[MichaelP]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Lookin great Mike. Thats not taking you long at all.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Lookin great Mike. Thats not taking you long at all.

Thanks MP, it's a smaller boat than yours too so that helps a bunch


I got some stuff done right after work today. The winch stand is totally removed, rusty bolts on the outside but clean thread underneath made it easier than I would've guessed.

The safety chains are off too so I can get this thing painted up soon.

I really don't want to have the boat ready to get flipped back onto the trailer and not have it ready so I'm trying to budget my time.

I think I'm gonna keep the existing fenders since my cash is gonna be spent on a 70hp and paint.

No pics...our camera may have gotten left near Grass Lake last night.

About an hours drive away.:facepalm:

I'm off to remove more paint now, possibly more fun that wrenching on those bolts.

 

[Broadcast]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

Major progress Mike. Look'in good!

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: '79 Starcraft SS 16 restoration

We rustled up a camera to use temporarily