1986 Starcraft Mariner 160

[Hand Crafted Angling]

Hello everyone! I saw a bunch of posts hear seems like alot of people have quite a bit of knowlage about working on old boats. I just purchased my very first non plastic boat! Really looking forward to doing som fishing off this thing but she needs some love. This is a 1986 starcraft mariner 160 powered by a 1993 murcury 60hp 2 stroke. Came with a spot lock trolling moter fish finder and trailer all for 2500 bucks. Im working on doing a semi restoration project. At hart its a fishing boat so it doenst need to sparkle but I want to fix it right. The trailer im working on needs new bearings and a rewire. It didnt run when i got it. Cleaned the carbs out and recoverd one of the batteries and got it running well. Theres some issues with the water pump I pulled the lower unit. 2 of the seals for the water pump were no good and i just ordered replacments. With the moter and trailer im thinking im good but I could use some guidance on the hull. So the wood for the deck is deffinitly solid. The transom seems fine but thats not my area of expertise. Im learning as I go along with this. I think my biggest issue is going to be the hull. There are a few pin holes and a few larger holes probably about a quater inch. I was thinking either jb weld or total boat makes this epoxy filler designed for hull submersion. One of my buddys who is more familier with boats reccomended painting the hull for an extera layer of waterproofing/ protection. I was going to go with the epoxy barrier coat underneath. It is already painted but it was a crappy rattlecan job. You can see where the pain dried as it was dripping of the rivits. Does anyone have a good way of stripping the paint. I was worried a grinder would burn through the hull.
Thanks, John

 

[Hand Crafted Angling]

Heres the pictures I have. I can take more but I have it stored at my buddys house.

 

[briangcc]

I'll admit I am not an expert but that certainly looks like a lot more investigation is needed.

IF it were mine, I'd be stripping all that "gook" off the bottom of the boat to see what I was truly dealing with. My spidey sense tells me there's more lurking under that stuff...wouldn't be Flex Seal would it? Same for the stuff on the transom. That bubbling around the thru hulls tells me something is going on there too.

Anywho...the patch you see hiding under that "gook" would be the way I would approach it. Slather on a good helping of 5200 and then rivet it with solid rivets in place. This is not a place for pop rivets.

 

[Hand Crafted Angling]

I appreciate the reponse. I have no idea if its flex seal or not. Im tring to figure out the best way to remove it. I also dont know much about rivets. Are the rivits you are refering to the ones that you only need acsess from one side? Im not sure if i can acsess it without pulling the deck.

 

[briangcc]

Yep. Solid rivets that need to be bucked. Special tool to do so and 2 person operation.

 

[airshot]

I would be very skeptical of those rough areas, gonna take some serious work to make it safe. Was she a salt water boat ??

 

[Hand Crafted Angling]

I dont really have to much history on the hull. It seems like the patch is fiberglass though.

 

[roscoe]

thats some serious nasty corrosion.