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

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Ok thanks. Didn't know if you had other "calculations" but 1400 pounds sounds good for that boat.
...There's a lot of empty space in my Holiday as I pull it apart. It won't be empty as it goes back together! IN the event of a surprise or other accident, I'd much rather dry out the boat than cash an insurance check. Flotation expense is a lot more appealing to me than an insurance check.

 

[BWR1953]

Beautiful weather here today! The sun came out, the clouds left, humidity dropped to 33% and temps were in the mid-to-upper 80s. Spectacular for working on the boat! So I got a lot done, right?

NOT!

I had THREE doc appointments today at the VA down in the big city. Two in the morning and one in the afternoon. So I was supposed to be gone all day. The good news was that the afternoon appointment was able to be changed to noon so I got out of there early.

Did I go home? Nope! But I DID go to Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World! NICE... my wife, stepson and I all really enjoyed the experience. We were in there over 2 hours and I reckon we only saw about 1/2 the place. Definitely warrants a return trip!

While at BPS I purchased a couple of dock lines for the Kingfisher and a new spinning reel for 1/3 off normal price! Score!

Tomorrow... the boat!

 

[BWR1953]

The weather was great again today and I worked on the boat all day! Made serious progress, yet didn't get as far as I'd hoped.

The front "V" foam is now cut and in place. All of the foam is now in place under the deck. :rockon:

The sternmost deck and next forward deck pieces are now laid in place and screwed down tight. The front "V" deck is screwed down at the bow but not at the aft end of that piece.

All because the "middle child" piece of decking is warped. And some of the screw locations require fatter and longer screws as well. So I'll have to buy some larger sizes to make that fit. I thought about wetting the backside of the piece and trying to warp it back but am dubious about success with that method. I do remember when we removed that piece that it made a large POP sound as it came up.

I'd really hoped to put the console and seating back in today but that's not gonna happen now. But there's always tomorrow!

Flotation flotation flotation!


So nice to finally see the deck in there!

 

[BWR1953]

Got an early start this morning and discovered that the warped deck piece wasn't as bad as I'd thought. Turned out that some of my foam blocks were too tall and preventing it from seating firmly. Good news, that!

Trimmed blocks and made sure that the deck seated properly. Then my old nemesis rain showed up unexpectedly. Am sitting here now watching the big fat raindrops but I know that those will stop fairly quickly and I'll be able to get back out there to finish screwing that deck into place. Gonna scarf down a couple blueberry pancakes while waiting.

 

[Watermann]

Looking good! Once the decking goes in things really start going fast forward. We had some rain here about 6 weeks ago.

 

[BWR1953]

Looking good! Once the decking goes in things really start going fast forward. We had some rain here about 6 weeks ago.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting the console and seating bolted in so that I can mount the fuel tank and battery and then test the motor. Then go fishing!

Went back out after breakfast in bright sunshine and by the time we got the cover off another cloud rolled in and it started raining again. The Weather Channel local radar and forecast isn't working here right now. Went online and checked the radar and it looks like it's going to be the on-again-off-again rain type for today. The sun came out just a couple minutes after I came back inside. Sunny even now. But I know more rain is coming. Hopefully it'll clear out enough so that I can get things done out there.

BTW - I've been reading your Chieftain restoration thread. Am more than half way through. Nice job on that big beastie!

And right now it's pouring rain again. :yell:

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

?...that those will stop fairly quickly and I'll be able to get back out there to finish screwing that deck into place. Gonna scarf down a couple blueberry pancakes while waiting.

Curious why screws and not rivets? Not beating you down, just trying to learn me sumpin.

 

[BWR1953]

Curious why screws and not rivets? Not beating you down, just trying to learn me sumpin.

Just personal choice on my part. I will be doing more work on the boat a little later on and I wanted to be able to quickly remove the deck panels with a drill driver. And my 9 y.o. stepson can use a drill driver at the same time as well. Plus I can reuse the screws afterwards.

And finally, even the 1 5/8 length screws I have now aren't long enough to reach in some places. I'll be getting some 2" and maybe some 2 1/8" length screws in order to reach. Dunno if there are rivets long enough to go that deep. And I don't even own a rivet gun yet! :lol:

After the rain quit, we went back out and I let my stepson mount the rear pedestal seat. The boy was thrilled with being able to do that!

Heading out to Harbor Freight and Home Depot to pick up a few things a little later. Rain stopped but more is on the way so I figured I might as well make productive time out of cloudbursts.

 

[BWR1953]

No boat work today. Rain, rain, rain!

Started last night about 10 o'clock and has been continuous ever since. It'll stop for a short while, followed by torrential downpours.

This is the 3rd time this morning that we've scooped water out of the boat. It was completely empty prior to this and the amount shown in the pic is from a single rain event. It had stopped raining when I started typing but it is raining again now.

 

[djpeters]

Just read your whole thread. Very nice work. It was funny to read in that the "quick spruce up" turned into a full restore pretty much. My planned "one year resto" is going on 5 years now......

 

[BWR1953]

Just read your whole thread. Very nice work. It was funny to read in that the "quick spruce up" turned into a full restore pretty much. My planned "one year resto" is going on 5 years now......

Nooo... no no no.... no way my frugal functional fixup is anywhere near close to being a restoration! I'm not qualified for such.

Now Watermann... HE knows how to do a restoration! :lol:

All I did was to repair a leaking hull, replace and improve the flotation foam, junked the non-working antique motor and replaced it with something that does work and put it all back together so that the boat can be used for fishing. But stay tuned for more...

 

[BWR1953]

Sunshine today.

First lunch in the boat! Took a break from work and fed our faces.


Reassembly nearly completed!


Still a few more things to button up and tighten down.


Bought a battery box and fuel tank hold down kit this evening but the rains came again so no more work tonight.


Could be a great day tomorrow. :fish2: Maybe?
And it'll be our 3rd wedding anniversary as well!

 

[Decker83]

Good looking grew you have.. Must be nice to be so close to a Splash..

 

[classiccat]

Nice job BW! Lots of smiles from the family!!!

(apologies in advance if I'm pointing out something that you already know!) One thing that I noticed was the missing paint in the bow area...approximately where a bench would normally go.

I feel that this serves as a structural component that ties the hull-sides together since there's very little bow-skin & console support.

Here's another '76 kingfisher build where he replaced the bench with a raised deck...pretty nice feature.

 

[BWR1953]

Good looking grew you have.. Must be nice to be so close to a Splash..

Thanks! My wife and the boy really love fishing. We're gonna have a blast on the water when we splash.

Nice job BW! Lots of smiles from the family!!!

(apologies in advance if I'm pointing out something that you already know!) One thing that I noticed was the missing paint in the bow area...approximately where a bench would normally go.

I feel that this serves as a structural component that ties the hull-sides together since there's very little bow-skin & console support.

Here's another '76 kingfisher build where he replaced the bench with a raised deck...pretty nice feature.

Yahh... I mentioned that missing bench in my very first post. It's the same at the stern where the rear bench had been. But everything's all back together now so I won't be making any changes for the time being. Will address that issue a bit later on.

 

[BWR1953]

So close yet so far... everything is bolted down as appropriate now.

Battery box is installed as well. However, I learned that my battery charger that I've had for years has died. Can't charge the deep cycle battery for the trolling motor! My neighbor says he has one to loan me till I replace the defective unit.

Fired up the Johnson this afternoon in a drum of water. One pull starting! (After I remembered to undo the kill switch after the third attempt. Duh. :hopelessness: Dang near pulled my bad shoulder out when I set the switch correctly because the engine fired before the starting rope had come 3 inches out of the housing and my shoulder had no resistance to the effort. Ouch!) :facepalm:

The engine runs very well. I added some SeaFoam to the tank and let it idle for a good half hour. Revved it up every once in awhile and I could tell that the SeaFoam was doing good stuff in there. The "miss" was diminishing. But I could also hear a pseudo-random "tick tickety tick tick" sound coming from under the hood. Sounded much like the sound of a spark plug hood being partly off. The hood latch is either broken or not stock and is held down with a turnbuckle jerry-rig. I didn't do anything with it because it was too late in the day and I was hot and tired and had enough.

Also, I found that the starting pull rope is starting to unravel. Another thing I've not had to deal with before. My 73 y.o. buddy might be able to help me with that tomorrow.

Had hoped to splash today but just couldn't make it happen. Tomorrow is iffy because of the battery and starter rope issues. And the day after that is out because I have to go down the road for another doc appointment.

But we'll get there!

Thanks to all for your inspiration, encouragement, compliments and support as I struggle forward. Onward, always onward! :lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqXaFNei1PU&feature=youtu.be

 

[Watermann]

Sounds to me like he little smoker purrs as it should. Just about there with a few more small hurdles. :thumb:

 

[BWR1953]

Got the trolling motor battery charged with a borrowed charger. Still researching replacement chargers to buy.

And a friend came over this morning to help with the starter rope replacement and we ran into a problem. I started this thread over in the Johnson outboard section hollering for help. I'm stuck again!

 

[BWR1953]

Sounds to me like he little smoker purrs as it should. Just about there with a few more small hurdles. :thumb:

Yup, I think it'll be fine once I get the rope replaced! While messing with that this morning I found that indeed, the bottom cylinder spark plug hood wasn't fully in place. I'm thinking that the "tick tickety tick tick" sound will go away once I fire it up again.

 

[BWR1953]

FIXED! Another buddy came over to show me something he hit with his bush hog next door to my place... pic below.

While here I told him of my travails with the starter and he said "let's just go do this" and we went out and 15 minutes later it was a done deal. Ready to splash! Won't happen for 2 more days at the earliest though. Dangit.

That bad boy in the pic is 5 feet long! I know that if I see one of those I am gonna be so outta the area! :bolt: