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

[Watermann]

We're back, baby!




From vacation, that is. Trip went well, details later.

But right now I have to get outside and harvest the wheat... uhh, cut the grass! :lol:

Glad you made it! :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

Well, those poltergeists or gremlins or whatever decided to show up in my Gravely ZT1540 mower. I'd only been cutting for a few minutes when the right side steering lever stopped working. It moved freely but the mower wouldn't turn. All it would do was spin in circles. :mad2:

Getting pretty tired of beat up old machines. :frusty:

Troubleshooting now.

And my backup mower has the deck removed and needs new blades. :rant:

 

[jbcurt00]

Get a goat.....

Welcome back

 

[BWR1953]

Hi all!

On our vacation we took two days up and two days back with nine days in between those travel times.

Stopped for a couple hours in Front Royal, VA on the way up and visited a 97 acre farm where I lived for a couple years as a teenager. The one-acre underground stream-fed pond and 2 creeks are still there. The front field was already harvested. I remember riding horses there. Wish I owned that place! M'lady really liked it too and was duly impressed.





After visiting the old homestead we went down to the Shenandoah River where the boy and his mom walked around a bit.





Then it was on to Johnstown, PA to visit my buddy. Stayed a couple nights and did some local stuff, then he and the rest of us went up to Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA. Went on a little tour boat ride in Lake Erie, then spent the night.

My wife, the boy and my buddy getting ready to board.





The next morning we went fishing in Presque Isle park, the first time I'd fished Lake Erie in 40-odd years. (Dang, I'm old!) My wife and the boy caught a few fish including a Rock Bass and a Freshwater Drum. Appropriately, a classic cruiser idled by as well.






Spotted this old Starcraft for sale in Erie. Cool stuff!






Then we hit the road and went up to Niagara Falls! Very cool. Then back to Johnstown for another night.





The following morning we drove down to Baltimore, MD to visit with my daughter. Stayed 5 days and 4 nights and saw the sights. On the 4th day we went into Washington DC and did the tourist bit there too. But boy, was it ever hot! We visited several indoor museums then headed outside. Got up to 98-99 degrees while we were walking out on "The National Mall" and it was sweltering. So we cut it a little short and did some "drive by" sight seeing. We'd pick a place, my wife and the boy would jump out for a quick pic, then we'd move on. :lol:





Did I mention the food? Yeah, there was food! Haven't done the tally yet but I suspect that we spent more on food than on gas and lodging combined!




The day after DC we headed towards home again. Stopped overnight at South of the Border, one of America's favorite tourist traps!

 

[Watermann]

Wow what an awesome vacation trip you guys had! I'd love to take my admiral on an east coast sight seeing trip. We've done pretty much it all here on the west coast from BC to CA and Mid West. Glacier, Yellowstone and Mt Rushmore were fun but talk about huge distances.

 

[BWR1953]

Kingfisher stuff - I remembered that somehow the trailer bow stop got broken before I left for vacation. One "ear" is gone. I have no idea how or where it went. But I ordered a replacement this morning.




And while I was gone on vacation I got to thinking about the spar varnish on the deck. I know I asked it before but I'm still on the fence about whether to add it or not. Sure, it'll be another layer of protection which may add years of life to the deck. But this boat will be sold in the next year and I don't need the deck to outlive me! :lol:

So... IF I decide to skip the spar varnish, thereby saving about $100 in costs, are there any special things that I need to do to the OTF sealed deck prior to painting it with the porch & deck paint that I have on hand?

 

[Pusher]

I'm not sure about your questions. If I was buying a boat and the floors were "new", I'd be looking with a critical eye at what was actually used. A $100 saved on the floor wouldn't speak much to the rest of the work.... Not to bash what you've done... That's just how I think.

Good looking family. Looks like a lot of fun. I was a little jealous when I saw an actual "pile" of crab

 

[Watermann]

The paint should give the deck a good layer of protection and it will last a very long time if the boat isn't left to the elements that is.

 

[Decker83]

Thanks for sharing all the great pics.. I was in Baltimore many years back and the sea food was the best I have ever eaten.. The pic of the crabs made my mouth water.. Glad to see you and your family had such a great time..

 

[Candutch]

Thanks for taking us along on your vacation. Looked like you all had a blast and X2 on that delicious "pile" of crab, very jealous.

 

[BWR1953]

I'm not sure about your questions. If I was buying a boat and the floors were "new", I'd be looking with a critical eye at what was actually used. A $100 saved on the floor wouldn't speak much to the rest of the work.... Not to bash what you've done... That's just how I think.

Good looking family. Looks like a lot of fun. I was a little jealous when I saw an actual "pile" of crab

A hundred bucks for me is a lot, so I'll save where I can.

Thanks for the reply.

The paint should give the deck a good layer of protection and it will last a very long time if the boat isn't left to the elements that is.

Thanks WM. Much appreciated.

Thanks for sharing all the great pics.. I was in Baltimore many years back and the sea food was the best I have ever eaten.. The pic of the crabs made my mouth water.. Glad to see you and your family had such a great time..

I've now seen more of Baltimore than I ever want to see again! My daughter wore us out doing the tourist thing. :lol:

Thanks for taking us along on your vacation. Looked like you all had a blast and X2 on that delicious "pile" of crab, very jealous.

Yeah, those crabs were awesome! Just looking at those pix again made my stomach growl! I'm ready for some more! :hungry:

 

[BWR1953]

Well, I've been back over a week and the grass still isn't done.
Mechanical problems with 2 machines. Frustrating. :doh:

And several doc appointments to interfere with my time.

Grass still looks like this.




Since the Gravely ZTR was out of action, I installed new blades on my Craftsman tractor's mower deck and had my buddy reinstall the deck onto the tractor. He also looked at the ZTR and said he needed to take it back to his shop to work on. Said it looks like the axle retaining clip is "gone" and the axle started slipping out. Great.

I started cutting with the tractor and all was going well until I got about 1/2 done. Then the engine started acting up. I figured the carb was gummed up from contaminated fuel (long story) so I pulled the carb and got to work cleaning. Got in there and not only was the carb dirty, but the float was also flopping around loosely. Got it all cleaned up and the float leveled and tightened and reinstalled on the tractor. Took me pretty much all day.

Once the carb was installed, I fired the tractor up and it ran fine... for about 5 minutes! Then it started having the same symptoms that it had prior to the carb cleaning. :mad-new: Gave up for the day.

Went back out this morning and tested the fuel system and all seemed good. Pulled the carb again and the float bowl was pretty much dry. Texted my buddy and he said to leave it and he'll go through it himself. Okay then.

 

[Pusher]

Those unexpented projects sure can be frustrating. Each one you knock out though is another one you won't have to do when the boat is ready to play on!

 

[BWR1953]

Since I couldn't get the grass cut today, there was only one thing left to do.

Work on the boat!

Got the first coat of paint on the tops of the deck pieces. The boy did the edges with a brush while I rolled on the paint with a 9" roller.

Annnnnddd.... it's glossy paint, not the satin/semi-gloss that I wanted. Another long story. My bad.

Anyway, according to the instructions on the can, the "primer" for the paint is... the same paint! Excellent! So two coats it will be. The second coat will have the "sand" added for traction.

We prepped each of the deck pieces by hitting them with 320 grit sandpaper if necessary, then wiping down with a tack cloth



Yep, that's gray paint drying all right.


Ready for paint.


The roller really speeds things along.


The boy edging with a small brush.



This is the dried paint. Yep, it's glossy!

 

[BWR1953]

Let's talk about doublers. Or joiners. Or whatever you want to call them. I call 'em doublers. :joyous:

They're the parts that join the separate deck sections. As seen in the pix below.

I'd originally been thinking of just using plywood but am now considering using strips of 3 or 4 inch wide 0.100" aluminum running over top of the associated ribs at the joints. Sounds more complicated than it is but I do think that having the transverse strips would at least add some strength compared to the plywood option. That's because the strips would attach to the rib ends as well as the vertical z-brace in the center.

So, the strips would be riveted to the ends of the ribs, the z-brace and the plywood deck panels.

My only concern is that the strips would raise the deck by 0.100" at the joints. Dunno if that would be a real issue or not.

Thoughts?




This is a pic of the plywood option as seen in another project on the forum. I think it was from lakelover's Jetstar build but I can't be sure since Photobucket derailed all the pictures. :blue:


The thing with the plywood option is that while it joins the plywood deck pieces to each other, it doesn't tie anything to the hull structure.



The aluminum strip option on the other hand, not only joins the plywood pieces together, but joins to the ribs and center stringer as well, which adds structural strength.

This pic is from yet another build but I don't know which one. Sorry.


Concept:

 

[jbcurt00]

You'll rivet the deck to the stringers at the plywood seam, so i dont think theres a much of a gain in choosing aluminum strip over plywood doublers simply because you can rivet it to the stringer.

You can use the aluminum strip to align the stringers, and get them set evenly before you start laying down the deck. But again, as the deck goes down in 4ft wide sections, every 4ft you can align the stringer....

Since you've already cut, fitted and bagged the flotation foam, did you leave room for doublers?

If you have 4in wide 0.10 AL strips, I'd use them, because it'd be a few less pieces of wood to seal or put in the boat.

Most guys dont have them or they're riddled w holes, so they pretty much have to go doublers. Which are made from scrap plywood leftovers or try to find and buy aluminum strips. Cheaper, easier and quicker to use doublers.....

 

[BWR1953]

You'll rivet the deck to the stringers at the plywood seam, so i dont think theres a much of a gain in choosing aluminum strip over plywood doublers simply because you can rivet it to the stringer.

You can use the aluminum strip to align the stringers, and get them set evenly before you start laying down the deck. But again, as the deck goes down in 4ft wide sections, every 4ft you can align the stringer....

Since you've already cut, fitted and bagged the flotation foam, did you leave room for doublers?

If you have 4in wide 0.10 AL strips, I'd use them, because it'd be a few less pieces of wood to seal or put in the boat.

Most guys dont have them or they're riddled w holes, so they pretty much have to go doublers. Which are made from scrap plywood leftovers or try to find and buy aluminum strips. Cheaper, easier and quicker to use doublers.....

I was thinking that by having the aluminum strips riveted to the stringer and the rib ends that it will provide more strength than the plywood version which would only be attached to the deck sections in between the stringer and the rib ends.

Nope, didn't leave room for plywood doublers in the foam, so would have to cut some relief notches.

There's an aluminum supply house close by me. I'll check prices with them for the aluminum strips and make a decision after that.

 

[BWR1953]

Today we got the undersides of the deck sections painted. They'll need plenty of time to dry because it's raining here. Gonna be like that all day and much of tomorrow too. I'm only putting a single coat on the undersides. With the paint on top of the OTF, it should be fine.

Tomorrow I plan on adding this traction material to the deck paint and will put the second coat on the top sides. Then the deck sections will be ready for installation.

 

[BWR1953]

Got the topsides of all the deck sections painted this morning with the traction sand added. Definitely gritty looking.

The 9" roller made it easy peasy. Overall, we have 2 coats on the top, the final coat has the traction sand, and just one coat on the undersides of the deck sections.

(BTW - the pic was taken while the boy was still painting and that glob on the edge was re-rolled and isn't there anymore.)

 

[BWR1953]

Oh yeah... I finally finished cutting the grass yesterday, 10 days after starting!

The Craftsman tractor problem turned out to be a small air leak at the new fuel filter. Closed it up and the tractor is back to being "old reliable" again.

The Gravely, on the other hand, has a broken axle!

I'm researching for a replacement now and once the mower is repaired, it's getting sold! That little ZTR just wasn't "enough" for this place. And I've had "enough" of it too! :mad-new: