Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

[westworld]

Before I start tearing this baby apart I thought I might ask a few stupid questions. I just traded out some work for a 94 Starcraft 1810ss. It is in beautiful condition with low hours but there is one thing that needs to be fixed. The bow grabrail inside the bow seating area is pulling out and I can see that if it is left this way it will continue to deteriorate until it falls off. It appears to be screwed on from inside the hull. How they managed that is a mystery to me. I assume that it was put on prior to the seat backs being installed. It appears that I have two choices. 1: try to bond the rail to the fiberglass with some sort of adhesive and hope that it holds. This might also involve trying to force epoxy into the screw holes. This appears to have been done before. Or 2: Somehow yank off the seat backs without destroying them to see if I can access the screws. How are the seat backs mounted on anyway? Any thoughts would be welcome.
Thanks
AW

 

[Mark42]

Re: Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

Its common for those rails to be attached before the upholstry being installed.

Bonding with epoxy or the like will just break free and make a mess.

Sometimes the upholstry is added before the top is bonded to the hull. That makes it impossable to get to anything without cutting something.

Try prying the seat back enough to see or probe with something like a hacksaw blade or wire hanger straigntened out. Give you a better idea of what is holding the seat back on . Could be bolts, staples, adhesive or something else.

On my boat, I have had to get my 6 year old daughter to fit her tiny arm into a tight spot to hold a wrench on the head of a bolt. Makes me wonder if my boat wasn't assembled by 6 year olds.

There are untold joys to experience working on boats. 8)

 

[westworld]

Re: Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, the seat backs seam to be glued on to the hull making it impossible to even probe behind them. I hope they never need to be replaced. I did have one more thought about how to re attach the grab rail. I might be able to drill a hole in the rail and then into the hull to attach it from the outside. Then I would just have to find a metal or plastic plug to clip into the exterior hole. Attaching the rail to the fiberglass might be an issue unless I use some kind of an expansion anchor like a molly. Or I could just ignore the problem till it falls completely off and then install a clip onto the rail mount plates and press them into the holes. This would be similar to how they mount all the plastic crap on my trucks body.
I do agree with you about the 6 year old contractors. We had a 37' Dufour sailboat for a while and fixing it required a small greased up double jointed chinese acrobat. They are a rare breed and difficult to find here in MT.

 

[dvan1901]

Re: Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

I think seat backs on bows are generally put on with what they call Christmas tree plugs. They are ribbed plugs that press into place. If you are careful, you SHOULD be able to pry them out. Can you slip a putty knife or something behind them and locate the plugs? If you can, then you could slip something else up to the plug and get force on it directly. If it is glued on, then the factory didn't do it. You may be able to get a flush cut saw in there and cut the clue out or use a piano wire.

I think a lot of handrails like this are put on before the top of the boat is put on. You MAY, be able to carefully take the rub rail off and lift the top of the boat off. I know that if I had to do mine I might have to do that.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

Is this an Aluminm Starcraft,... Or a Fiberglass Starcraft,..??..??...

 

[westworld]

Re: Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

Sorry not to be more specific.
It is fiberglass. I appreciate the help here. I am a little intimidated by the idea of tearing the top of the boat off to get at two screws. Seems a bit much considering the consequences if I screw up. Just to give you an idea of where I am coming from I am an architect with 26 years of experience building high end custom homes in resort areas. But when it comes to the unknown (like boats and plumbing) I usually rely on people who have experience in these matters.
AW

 

[OhioLowell]

Re: Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

westworld,

here's what you do. Drill 2, 3/8" holes into the hull near the rail. Next, fish you a good foot long peice of concrete tie wire through both holes and twisty tie it around the rail! VIOLA!! You'll proabably want to paint the tie wire with some fingernail polish or something to keep it from rusting.

Sorry, I couldn;t help my self. I don't really have an answer to your delima but I wish you luck. If there's anyone who can help you figure it out the folks here sure can!

Lowell

 

[Mark42]

Re: Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

You could try removing the screws holding that base piece down. If it means drilling them out, or using hack saw then do so. Then there should be enough give/flex to the rail to move the base just off of its mounting location.

Enlarge the bolt holes enough to fit a butterfly nut through the hole. I don't know if butterfly nuts are available in stainless, but if not a good coating of cold spray galvanize paint will do. Then coat the butterfly nut with epoxy (just use cheap 5 minute stuff for this), push through hole (while attached to a bolt) and let it open, pull up and let it set in the epoxy. Do this for all screws. Then remove the screws, put the rail base back in place, and attach with stainless screws into the butterfly nuts.

You will probably need to drill a 1/2" hole to fit a decient sized butterfly nut in there.

 

[Saskatoon2005]

Re: Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

Separate the boat top from bottom and then fix it. Not that hard, you'll have it done in a day. Problem over.

 

[westworld]

Re: Some advice for my Starcraft 1810ss

Wow, you guys are full of great ideas. One problem with the base plate idea though. There isn't one. What I need to do here is to take a picture of the problem and see where we go from there.
There is enough room between the rail and the hull (1/2") to get a hack saw in to cut off the exposed screws. I'm not sure what to do after that. If I get it off I could permanently attach some christmas tree type plugs as mentioned earlier directly to the handle and then push it into the new oversized holes (maybe with some 5 min. epoxy as well)
Is seperating the boat top from the bottom really as easy as pulling off the rub strake? Can it just be removed around the affected area and pried up far enough to access the screws? What I am I getting into here? I hate the thought of spending 8 hours of my time to fix a $20 part.
Ahhh....... the joys of boat ownership you say.


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Murphy