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

[BWR1953]

I would use 1/2 in ply rather than flimsy 1/4 in, I don't think they even make an exterior rated 1/4 do they? You'll have lots of room still with the screws, they pull out like 2 inches.

Ah. The plate that I removed is only 1/4" thick but it may not be original. I should have leftover 1/2" from the decking.

 

[Watermann]

Run the screws out and take a quick measurement just to be sure it will fit the transom and the 1/2 ply thickness. I know mine go out more then enough but yours could be different.

 

[BWR1953]

Run the screws out and take a quick measurement just to be sure it will fit the transom and the 1/2 ply thickness. I know mine go out more then enough but yours could be different.

Thanks for that tip! I measured them out to 2.5" so I should be good to go with a 1/2" ply plate.

 

[BWR1953]

T minus 15 days and counting.

Well, I was supposed to be all done working on this boat as of today! Yeah, right! :lol:

But we're still moving forward.

First thing this morning was to go to HF and buy a couple new palm sanders. Got the 20% discount and freebie with each of them.



When we got back home we worked on getting that pressure washer working. And failed. I have no idea what's going on with the thing but after spending 30 minutes working on it, I gave up.

And came up with an operational workaround to a hardware limitation!

Took the KF up to the local car wash and used their high pressure equipment to clean the boat, along with the soapy brush extension. The boy liked using that wand even though it knocked him down a couple times! :laugh:




When we finished we brought the KF home and let it sit outside and dry for about 4 1/2 hours.

While it was drying, "we" cleaned up the garage/shop. It had been a complete mess after the work we'd done over the last few days. And it literally took us 2+ hours get it cleared and cleaned. But it was definitely worth it in the end.




While the boy was doing a yeoman's work on cleaning the garage, I trimmed the foam leftovers from all 4 pieces of the old deck. Took me well over an hour to get that done.

And then I temporarily installed the transom... and drilled two holes into that well sealed board! Then we temporarily installed the transom eye bolts to use to pull the boat from the trailer. Then I tied a line from the boat eye bolts to the garage door frame. I wrapped the line in a couple rags to prevent chafing during the pull. Worked fine.

Next step was to actually get the boat off the trailer. We used some HF moving blankets to cushion the hull. Getting the boat off there was easy peasy. I carefully explained to the boy what was going to happen and he did a great job of monitoring. The little KF slid off there with no issues at all. And I didn't bend my new steel building either! :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

T minus 14 days and counting.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I absolutely, positively SUCK at this wood working carp! :rant: :blue:

I sure wish I could get one of you master craftsman to come over and cut this wood for me. :grumpy:

It's 93 degrees out there. We worked for hours and all I have to show for it is two pieces of cut wood. One ill-fitting and the other a complete loss. :mad-new:

So I'm gonna get clean and then take a nap. :sleeping:


We traced around the existing deck sections.




The forward bow piece. It's off and I'll have to use foam again to fill in the gaps. At least it matched the PO's curved lines.




The second section doesn't match. I can't even get a straight line with my new circular saw. My buddy says it's junk and that I should get a better one. He's right too. But I can't do it now. :facepalm:




What a miserable fit.

 

[BWR1953]

One other bit of news; my wife now knows the entire plan. She suspected something was up last night when she saw the KF on its belly in the garage and the empty trailer in the backyard.

So the boy and I brought her up to date this afternoon over lunch.

 

[Patfromny]

One other bit of news; my wife now knows the entire plan. She suspected something was up last night when she saw the KF on its belly in the garage and the empty trailer in the backyard.

So the boy and I brought her up to date this afternoon over lunch.

DOH!!!!! Maybe that's why you couldn't cut a straight line. It's awful tough using power tools with a frying pan lump on your head. Lol. Seriously, Sorry to hear about the bad fit. I think the key to wood working is measure measure measure. I had crazy diagrams of every part of my boat and then I cut the boards larger than my measurements said to make sure I was right. Test fit, then final cut to size. Alot of work in 95 plus heat but I am OCD so it had to be done that way. I find that you have to approach things you aren't comfortable with as slowly and patiently as you can. I would rather spend an extra hour cutting than spending that hour driving to and from Depot to get another board. Maybe you should stop at an appliance store and see if they have some fridge boxes you could use as templates. Easier to cut and you can make the template fit perfect before cutting any expensive wood. Another suggestion for you is to use a jigsaw instead of the circular. It might be a bit slower but much more maneuverable and easier to follow your pencil lines on the four foot lengths. Good luck to you. You got this. Tomorrow will be a better day....after the swelling goes down and you can see out of your right eye again. Lol

 

[Patfromny]

That board might not be junk. I would bet you could shave a bit off the right side. A tiny bit and it might just slip right up to the front piece. You for sure are close. It is hard to tell from the pic but if the two boards aren't meeting flush, the board is too wide. Remember that once you cut some off and the board moves forward the back width will be smaller to accommodate the hull. It looks like if you cut somewhere from the front to the middle right a tiny bit, the back might snug right up to the hull once pulled forward into position as the hull narrows as it goes forward. I might not be seeing the same thing you are but that board looks awful close to me. Pull the board forward so the ends butt up against each other the way they should and look at the rest of the board.make sure the board is as level and centered as you can make it. If the board is higher than the front piece you are in a good place. Look for the areas that are holding the wood out of the track and trim accordingly. Good luck bud.

 

[BWR1953]

DOH!!!!! Maybe that's why you couldn't cut a straight line. It's awful tough using power tools with a frying pan lump on your head. Lol. Seriously, Sorry to hear about the bad fit. I think the key to wood working is measure measure measure. I had crazy diagrams of every part of my boat and then I cut the boards larger than my measurements said to make sure I was right. Test fit, then final cut to size. Alot of work in 95 plus heat but I am OCD so it had to be done that way. I find that you have to approach things you aren't comfortable with as slowly and patiently as you can. I would rather spend an extra hour cutting than spending that hour driving to and from Depot to get another board. Maybe you should stop at an appliance store and see if they have some fridge boxes you could use as templates. Easier to cut and you can make the template fit perfect before cutting any expensive wood. Another suggestion for you is to use a jigsaw instead of the circular. It might be a bit slower but much more maneuverable and easier to follow your pencil lines on the four foot lengths. Good luck to you. You got this. Tomorrow will be a better day....after the swelling goes down and you can see out of your right eye again. Lol

That board might not be junk. I would bet you could shave a bit off the right side. A tiny bit and it might just slip right up to the front piece. You for sure are close. It is hard to tell from the pic but if the two boards aren't meeting flush, the board is too wide. Remember that once you cut some off and the board moves forward the back width will be smaller to accommodate the hull. It looks like if you cut somewhere from the front to the middle right a tiny bit, the back might snug right up to the hull once pulled forward into position as the hull narrows as it goes forward. I might not be seeing the same thing you are but that board looks awful close to me. Pull the board forward so the ends butt up against each other the way they should and look at the rest of the board.make sure the board is as level and centered as you can make it. If the board is higher than the front piece you are in a good place. Look for the areas that are holding the wood out of the track and trim accordingly. Good luck bud.

Thanks for the words of encouragement and tips, Pat! They really did help.

 

[BWR1953]

T minus 13 days and counting.

I can learn!

Bought another sheet of plywood this morning. Rented a Makita circular saw and bought a plywood blade for it as well. Made progress!

This is my B&D circular saw that I was given for my birthday last month. The base plate is wobbly and cannot be tightened, the same goes for the other plastic parts of the saw. Sadly, it's too late for me to return the thing so I'm stuck with it for awhile. The saw wiggles while cutting and that general purpose blade didn't help either.





This is the Makita saw that I rented. Definitely heavy duty and solid! I bought a 140 tooth plywood blade for it and that worked out very well.




So I did some research and learned about using a temporary guide to help get straight lines with a circular saw. I used some lightweight AL L-stock for a guide and that worked well too. All the lines that were supposed to come out straight, clean and smooth, did! :joyous:

 

[jbcurt00]

Yep, nice work.

I love my worm drive saw, hogs right thru anything I push it across :becky:

 

[BWR1953]

We remeasured the bow piece this morning and made some adjustments. Made it wider and longer, then used the jigsaw to start trimming it down. Made good progress but I want to finish it up with a sanding drum tomorrow. That jigsaw blade really left a rough edge.

Am planning on getting the deck dry fit tomorrow, then use the OTF to seal it up. While it dries, we can start paint prepping.

We started removing stickers and decals yesterday and will continue that effort tomorrow as well. And I still have those three holes on the starboard side to fill. Plenty to do!

 

[BWR1953]

T minus 12 days and counting.

I had a horrendous health day today. Started in the middle of the night. I never left the house all day. My wife says that I've been pushing too hard and overdoing the effort. Could be.

Finally this evening I went out to the garage with the boy and we laid the new deck pieces in the boat. They look good! All joints line up nicely. :joyous:

Still have some trimming to do on the bow piece but overall I'm happy... other than the fact that I'm so far behind schedule. And I have a doc appointment this week that's gonna impact me again.

I'm starting to feel like I won't get it done in time. :blue:


The deck pieces obviously aren't secured. They do butt together nicely though.



We made the bow piece wider and longer in order to fill the gaps. Worked fine. Now I just need to trim it down a bit on the sides so that it can slide forward more.




Looks better than the old deck.

 

[BWR1953]

Time to talk about rivets. How many should I order?

The boat has 15 ribs. And no cross braces. So I can only install a single rivet at the rib ends and one on the Z-channel in the center. That's just 45 rivets. How many more should I put in between the ribs along the Z-channel? Three or four for each bay?

And I'll have to add some doublers at the 3 butt joints between panels. That's 6 doublers on either side of the Z-channel with rivets on each side of the joint. For the doublers, the grip range needs to be about an inch.

 

[Watermann]

You just order 100 rivets in each length you need which 100 is usually the minimum. Left overs can go towards your next project.

 

[BWR1953]

T minus 11 days... and HOLDING?

Maybe.

Got in touch with my young mechanic buddy this evening. He hasn't had a chance to even look at my shifter controls. And I'm not sure he'll have time anytime soon. No shifter = no motor = no boat on vacation.

I still have a carp ton of work to do, not including the motor rigging and testing. And we're running very short on time.

We had a family meeting this evening to discuss our vacation plans and itinerary. Need to figure fishing options both with and without a boat.

Anyhoo... my wife said again tonight, a couple times, that she'd prefer NOT to take the boat with us. Old news there. Although she did say that she'd go with the flow. So we all agreed that we'll keep working towards getting as much done as we can on the boat and hopefully my buddy will be able to get the shifter done in time.

There are always options... like getting the deck done, painting the inside of the boat (since the deck is out anyway), rigging the motor and rearrange seating. But skipping other stuff like painting the outside of the hull, and not adding Nav lights, trailer fenders, etc. would relieve the pressure a bit.

Today we got the deck fitted correctly No more butt-joint gaps. :joyous: We were going to start the OTF this evening but it was too late. Will do that tomorrow morning.

Again, the deck is not yet secured to the hull, but everything lines up smoothly.




We brought the steering wheel assembly from the donor boat in for a quick mockup. It ended up fitting at just about the same location as the old console. Good news there.

 

[Watermann]

Yeah that was a pretty ambitious timeline you set for yourself, after doing a few of these boats I know how long it takes. I don't see how you could accomplish the task at hand unless you go at it on an all day every day blitz with a buddy.

Time to seal up that decking and get it attached.

 

[BWR1953]

Yeah that was a pretty ambitious timeline you set for yourself, after doing a few of these boats I know how long it takes. I don't see how you could accomplish the task at hand unless you go at it on an all day every day blitz with a buddy.

Time to seal up that decking and get it attached.

Yah, I reached pretty high. Knew it would be tough. The buddy I'm going to go see in PA on vacation would be the perfect guy to help down here working on the boat. Expert wood working guy and mechanic. But he's 1100 miles away. Dagnabit.

I'm still trying to find rivets! I got so used to 2-day prime free shipping that I've become spoiled and hadn't anticipated "usually ships in 3-5 biz days" when ordering.

 

[Patfromny]

Floor looks awesome. Get at it like you've been doing and you'll surprise yourself with how much you can get done. If you don't make it...at least you'll be days away from a completed awesome fishing machine when you get home. I have faith that if it is at all possible, you and the boy will pull it off. We're all pulling for ya BWR.

 

[BWR1953]

Floor looks awesome. Get at it like you've been doing and you'll surprise yourself with how much you can get done. If you don't make it...at least you'll be days away from a completed awesome fishing machine when you get home. I have faith that if it is at all possible, you and the boy will pull it off. We're all pulling for ya BWR.

Thanks Pat! Much appreciated!