I have returned... with a Starcraft this time!

[BWR1953]

I dunno man, paint looks a bit 'cloudy' to me. :lol:

Bwaaahaaahaaa!! :rofl:

 

[BWR1953]

Time for another update. Been very busy and making more progress.

I'll need to do a bit of touch-up once everything is done.

Wiring under the bow has been routed.


Mounted, tested and works great! :encouragement:

 

[classiccat]

Lookin' good there BW!

Pool noddle wire loom...that's slick! :thumb: (...and if someone falls overboard, you always have a PFD within arms reach! :lol:)

"The Young Man" is getting some great life lessons & memories with this build! I used to help my father with residential wiring in the 70's when (I was in elementary school.)

 

[Watermann]

Oh yeah and you have the latest iboats resto smash hit the hidden horn :thumb:

Piece of advice on your new starter, pull that nut off there, put some red locktite on it and get as tight as you can.

 

[classiccat]

Oh yeah and you have the latest iboats resto smash hit the hidden horn :thumb:

Piece of advice on your new starter, pull that nut off there, put some red locktite on it and get as tight as you can.

I've been undecided on which Horn to get ... I like those little retro round gunnel-mount ones (with the 70's wood sticker) or hidden (aka the "ticker-test" for anyone lounging on the bow deck! :lol

 

[BWR1953]

Lookin' good there BW!

Pool noddle wire loom...that's slick! :thumb: (...and if someone falls overboard, you always have a PFD within arms reach! :lol:)

"The Young Man" is getting some great life lessons & memories with this build! I used to help my father with residential wiring in the 70's when (I was in elementary school.)

Yeahhh... the boy learned a tough lesson yesterday.

He really wanted to complete the installation of the switch panel by himself. He did but rushed the job and got frustrated. Yanked on wires, bent connectors, etc. When I got out to the garage after dinner, 3 out of 4 circuits didn't work. We spent 90 minutes trying to get it corrected but ran out of time last night.

Got it all fixed up today though!

 

[BWR1953]

Oh yeah and you have the latest iboats resto smash hit the hidden horn :thumb:

Piece of advice on your new starter, pull that nut off there, put some red locktite on it and get as tight as you can.

Do I just hold the starter gear with vice grips in order to remove the nut?

 

[BWR1953]

I've been undecided on which Horn to get ... I like those little retro round gunnel-mount ones (with the 70's wood sticker) or hidden (aka the "ticker-test" for anyone lounging on the bow deck! :lol

I tell ya, that horn is LOUD! Louder than my new car. Louder than my truck! It'll really work well out on the water. :encouragement:

 

[BWR1953]

I also got my wife to do something today as well.

Came up with this idea a couple years ago and she brought it to fruition with her steady hands today!

The HIN plate is painted contrasting color to the hull (black) and then she painted the letters the same white as the hull. :joyous:

 

[Watermann]

Do I just hold the starter gear with vice grips in order to remove the nut?

How ever you can jam it or clamp, it s easiest once their mounted. Most times they come off real easy. I've had 2 new starters on 2 different motors have issues, 1 lost the drive gear under the cowl and the other I caught it just before.

 

[BWR1953]

Time for a little update. Been making progress but I don't take nearly as many pix as I used to.


Got started priming the 50 Merc but missed a couple spots (painting at night) so I'm still waiting for more primer to arrive.



Fishing rod holders installed.



First coat of white on the trailer letters and one of the KF birdies. I still have to cut the other bird plus the KF letters.



The fat orange pool noodles fit very tightly under the gunnels. The skinnier green ones CAN slip out when jostled.




"Now where do the wires go?" :lol:




I really like the Mercury Phantom Black paint! Four coats seems to really pop. I also finished painting the white letters.



Yesterday I touched up the deck/hullsides intersection. I did the best I could but it's not as good as what my wife could do. She's doing in-home isolation and unable to get out there. :facepalm:

 

[Watermann]

Looking great, not long now!

 

[BWR1953]

Looking great, not long now!

Thanks! Been a long road but we can see the end ahead.

Quite frankly, I could have splashed it over a month ago. It was completely functional. But timing was in my favor to just go ahead and finish it completely so that I wouldn't have to go back to work on it after having already used it successfully. That'd be tough.

BTW - I still haven't messed with the starter because it's covered up. But it's on my list.

One thing that I "have" to do is something that I flat out "don't want" to do. I don't need or want it, but it's gonna happen.

Install a bimini top. I already have it and it's sitting in the garage. I got it because of my wife. She abhors sun on her. So I MUST install the thing! :lol:

 

[Decker83]

You and your crew have really gotten the KF looking fantastic.. All you're planning and hard work is showing up now..
Hope the wife is doing well with the

in-home isolation.. ​

 

[BWR1953]

You and your crew have really gotten the KF looking fantastic.. All you're planning and hard work is showing up now..
Hope the wife is doing well with the

in-home isolation.. ​

Thanks! :encouragement:

I keep poking along but we're getting closer and closer to the end of the project. And using that term, the KF stopped looking like a "project" about a month ago and really started looking like a boat. Gave all of us a big psychological boost!

 

[BWR1953]

It was a beautiful day yesterday and I spent about 9 hours in the garage working on the boat. The boy was there for awhile too. We made a correction on the horn button and then messed with the trailer wiring a little, then gave up.

I got the majority of the Kingfisher letters cut. A "K" and an "i" had been cut previously but we couldn't find them so I'll have to print them out again so that I can cut replacements. I also cut the remaining KF bird as well.

We'd temporarily installed the horn button and I didn't check it carefully. Turned out that the leads were nearly butting against the button interior and console. And the boy hadn't tightened down the locking nut. The horn would sound when the steering wheel or console were bumped. Whoops!




We pulled the button and I trimmed the leads, then covered with heat shrink. I personally tightened the lock nut. Everything's solid now.



Man, I don't "get" the trailer wire routing. It's weird. :blue:



Initial cuts made. Took me about 7 hours to do everything. Much grinding, filing and sanding to follow.




New templates glued into place, ready for cutting.

 

[BWR1953]

And the iboats forum software deleted a big chunk of what I just wrote. :blue:

 

[BWR1953]

I'm gonna try this again.


The two Kingfisher birds side by side. The white, nearly finished one and the new rough cut one with the template still in place.



My wife said that it would make her job of detail painting the birds a lot easier if they had a black base coat instead of white. So I tried to paint the white one and had a spray can failure. The nozzle stuck down and it started leaking, creating a big mess. I'll have to strip the black bird and start over.

 

[BWR1953]

More progress...

4 Apr 20

We needed to replace the trailer chains and jack plus deal with hitch issues. The new chains are too long and my current drawbar isn't a good a good fit. As it is, it was too low. Flipped over and it's too high. My neighbor friend has a straight one that he will swap for mine. He also has a chain breaker.

 

[BWR1953]

5 Apr 20

We managed to route the trailer light wiring back into the tubes again. What a PITB. :facepalm: