Rainbow hunter
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- May 3, 2012
- Messages
- 84
I'm a real amature at posting in this type of forum. I just spent a couple of hours preparing a post and then went to another view trying to find out how to resize my photos and lost everything I wrote so I'm starting over. This time I'll keep a copy in word or something.
OK here goes. This is my first post to this Forum, but I've been reading its threads for the past year and half or so. I find it to be one of the most active, usefull, informative Forum sites I've ever visited. I hope I can make a worthy contribution.
In the past few months I've come into possession of two Starcraft hulls, both of which need total restorations. I'm going to tackle the big one first, which may seem to be a backward approach, but I'll explain as I go along here.
First a few words of background so you know where I'm coming from. The wife and I are retired and we spend about half of the year (winter) in San Felipe, Mexico, located at the northern tip of the Gulf of California (otherwise known as the Sea of Cortez), where I do a lot of fishing and golfing. The other half of the year we spend in Northern California where all our family is otherwise located. During the summer months I spend a lot of time fishing in the Sierras and golfing and lately rebuilding "tinnies" as some of you call them.
I came into this Starcraft SS 18 by way of family connections. The parents of our daughter and son-in-law also own a place close to us in Mexico and we do many things together. We know them very well and are pretty close. It so happens that about 10 or so years ago they gave their Starcraft 18 to a daughter and her hubbie while they took a sail boat and cruised the Mexican west cost for several years. Eventually the boat suffered from some mechanical and electrical issues (more on them later) and it wound up parked in the back yard and left to suffer the ravages of the elements for about seven years. Unfortunately, this son-in-law suffered from some health issues and he passed away last summer. His wife decided to sell their home and move and she was going to junk out this Starcraft in an effort to clean up the property. Her parents discovered this and said no way, that's still our boat (they still possess the title). They called on me for an opinion as to wheather the boat was salvageable and suggested we could turn it into a boat we to use down in San Felipe where we have to hire a boat and guide everytime we want to do a little off shore fishing.
I looked the boat over knowing full well I would become the chief project engineer and primary worker if I told them to salvage the boat. The hull is in excellant condition; that is it has no dings or dents, hardware wise everything is there and useable with some minor exceptions, the boat is 97% complete. It has a shallow water launching trailer specially set up for a handicapped person who was the original owner. Don't ask me how this handicapped person managed the boat otherwise; I can't imagine how. Never-the-less, the trailer is nice complement to the whole rig.
On the negative side, I knew the 4 cylinder 140 hp chevy/MerCruiser would be siezed. The out drive and its controls were complete and seemed to be sealed up so that a reconditioning would make it useable, but it will have to come off. The interior and floor, of course, is a total loss and will all have to be replaced. The transom appears to be fine but will need sealing. We'll see after the engine and out drive are removed. My assessment: for around three grand and a lot of work on my part, this would make a great fishing boat, not-withstanding the issues of aluminum in salt water.
This will be a crash project; some of you may think I'm nuts to think I can get this done between now and the end of September when it will be time to make preparations to head back to San Felipe. But remember, I can devote a great deal of time to this effort though it will probably cut into my fishing and golf. Below I'll insert some photos if I can figure out how to get them big enough, that show what the boat looked like when I drug it to my storage yard and what it looks like after getting everything stripped out or and off the hull. I hope to get it to the wash rack today and pressure wash it inside and out and maybe have pics of that by days end.
I have a lot mechanical and fabrication experience, and a fair amount of small craft experience, so it's not as if I head into this unawares. I have built a number of hot rods and restored a couple of Mustangs and a Ranchero in days gone by. Professionally I was a PR flack and journalist and I also ran a small ranch with hugh barn/shop until I retired. I also have considerable computer prowess and am a fast learner, BUT I find I am a total amature when it comes to these forums as this is the first time I've ever participated in one, though I've used many for info. So don't hesitate to tell me what I'm doing wrong or tell me what you think. I'll appreciate it all.
So, after my long winded intro, and a great many thanks to guys like ezmobee and lakelover and several others I have read here, following are some photos of the start of this project. Wish me luck, ok.
Here she is. The Ezup frame is there so I can have some shade from the sun while working. It?s gonna be a long hot summmer. Also, this is a common storage yard in the mobile home park in which we now live.
The other side.
Some of the old upholstry. This stuff is all rotten including the wood.
This rats nest was created by some shade tree mechanic who decided the power cable that runs from the front of the boat to the engine compartment was no good, so he completely rewired the boat, leaving it with lots of electrical issues. Fortunately he left the original cable in place. After I removed the original cable from the boat I tested it with an ohm meter and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and it?s in excellent shape. Lots of money saved there.
Looking forward from the engine area after removal of the seats.
This dash is completely rotted out, but the instruments are relatively new and in decent shape.
OK, I put to many images in this post and had to delete the next two. However, I'll post again later this evening with pics of the fore deck area and the trailer launching system along with pics of the inside of the hull before and after washing which will be done today.
OK here goes. This is my first post to this Forum, but I've been reading its threads for the past year and half or so. I find it to be one of the most active, usefull, informative Forum sites I've ever visited. I hope I can make a worthy contribution.
In the past few months I've come into possession of two Starcraft hulls, both of which need total restorations. I'm going to tackle the big one first, which may seem to be a backward approach, but I'll explain as I go along here.
First a few words of background so you know where I'm coming from. The wife and I are retired and we spend about half of the year (winter) in San Felipe, Mexico, located at the northern tip of the Gulf of California (otherwise known as the Sea of Cortez), where I do a lot of fishing and golfing. The other half of the year we spend in Northern California where all our family is otherwise located. During the summer months I spend a lot of time fishing in the Sierras and golfing and lately rebuilding "tinnies" as some of you call them.
I came into this Starcraft SS 18 by way of family connections. The parents of our daughter and son-in-law also own a place close to us in Mexico and we do many things together. We know them very well and are pretty close. It so happens that about 10 or so years ago they gave their Starcraft 18 to a daughter and her hubbie while they took a sail boat and cruised the Mexican west cost for several years. Eventually the boat suffered from some mechanical and electrical issues (more on them later) and it wound up parked in the back yard and left to suffer the ravages of the elements for about seven years. Unfortunately, this son-in-law suffered from some health issues and he passed away last summer. His wife decided to sell their home and move and she was going to junk out this Starcraft in an effort to clean up the property. Her parents discovered this and said no way, that's still our boat (they still possess the title). They called on me for an opinion as to wheather the boat was salvageable and suggested we could turn it into a boat we to use down in San Felipe where we have to hire a boat and guide everytime we want to do a little off shore fishing.
I looked the boat over knowing full well I would become the chief project engineer and primary worker if I told them to salvage the boat. The hull is in excellant condition; that is it has no dings or dents, hardware wise everything is there and useable with some minor exceptions, the boat is 97% complete. It has a shallow water launching trailer specially set up for a handicapped person who was the original owner. Don't ask me how this handicapped person managed the boat otherwise; I can't imagine how. Never-the-less, the trailer is nice complement to the whole rig.
On the negative side, I knew the 4 cylinder 140 hp chevy/MerCruiser would be siezed. The out drive and its controls were complete and seemed to be sealed up so that a reconditioning would make it useable, but it will have to come off. The interior and floor, of course, is a total loss and will all have to be replaced. The transom appears to be fine but will need sealing. We'll see after the engine and out drive are removed. My assessment: for around three grand and a lot of work on my part, this would make a great fishing boat, not-withstanding the issues of aluminum in salt water.
This will be a crash project; some of you may think I'm nuts to think I can get this done between now and the end of September when it will be time to make preparations to head back to San Felipe. But remember, I can devote a great deal of time to this effort though it will probably cut into my fishing and golf. Below I'll insert some photos if I can figure out how to get them big enough, that show what the boat looked like when I drug it to my storage yard and what it looks like after getting everything stripped out or and off the hull. I hope to get it to the wash rack today and pressure wash it inside and out and maybe have pics of that by days end.
I have a lot mechanical and fabrication experience, and a fair amount of small craft experience, so it's not as if I head into this unawares. I have built a number of hot rods and restored a couple of Mustangs and a Ranchero in days gone by. Professionally I was a PR flack and journalist and I also ran a small ranch with hugh barn/shop until I retired. I also have considerable computer prowess and am a fast learner, BUT I find I am a total amature when it comes to these forums as this is the first time I've ever participated in one, though I've used many for info. So don't hesitate to tell me what I'm doing wrong or tell me what you think. I'll appreciate it all.
So, after my long winded intro, and a great many thanks to guys like ezmobee and lakelover and several others I have read here, following are some photos of the start of this project. Wish me luck, ok.
The other side.
Some of the old upholstry. This stuff is all rotten including the wood.
This rats nest was created by some shade tree mechanic who decided the power cable that runs from the front of the boat to the engine compartment was no good, so he completely rewired the boat, leaving it with lots of electrical issues. Fortunately he left the original cable in place. After I removed the original cable from the boat I tested it with an ohm meter and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and it?s in excellent shape. Lots of money saved there.
Looking forward from the engine area after removal of the seats.
This dash is completely rotted out, but the instruments are relatively new and in decent shape.
OK, I put to many images in this post and had to delete the next two. However, I'll post again later this evening with pics of the fore deck area and the trailer launching system along with pics of the inside of the hull before and after washing which will be done today.
