1977 15' StarCraft Holiday Restomod

[coostv]

About 7 years ago I sold my 73 14' StarCraft with a 40hp Johnson on it. The boat was fairly rough considering it had been in some sort of accident, that made it perfect for beating on and fishing from.

Last week I picked this up, complete with a shoddy deck over deck arrangement, seats from a car, and 50 hp Evinrude!

Over the course of the week I managed to remove the automotive seats and today I started ripping out the deck to see what lurked below. I took the first layer out to reveal this.

And after that came the water logged factory foam.

And after a few hours work I was left with this.

That is as far as I made it today. I hope to get the rear part of the deck out tomorrow. I can then start cutting new pieces, treat them, rivet them in, and glue new carpet in.

Plans for the future include a complete repaint and other modifications to make her mine, but that will have to wait until the cold comes upon us.

Chris

 

[coostv]

I forgot to mention in my first post just how much I like these old StarCraft's. I searched for the last couple months for what I found here. I found a few that would have filled the bill, but they were sold by the time I was free to look at them. This one was way overpriced in the ad, but the accepted price was much lower. I didn't think he would take my offer and had me wishing I would have went lower...

If there was just one benefit to playing with a tin boat, it would have to be the ease of deconstruction! I spent about 15 minutes tonight pulling out the remaining section of deck and waterlogged Styrofoam. Well on the way to using this thing for fishing this season before it comes apart again this winter for transom, paint and other additions.

My major moral dilemma will come later when I want to add holes to the bow for my trolling motor... I have been back and forth on cutting the bow open, I just don't think it would look right, nor do I want to lose the look of the closed bow. That is a dilemma in itself.

 

[64osby]

Nice Starcraft. Great boats to work on.

The bow mounted trolling motor is not a big issue IMO. Drilling 4 or 6 holes to mount one is what you do, no dilemma. The dilemma is whether you have a manual one and use the split glass to access it to raise and lower or spend the long $$$ for a one the has auto deploy and retrieve.

Make sure it doesn't leak. Stick some flotation foam in it. New floor with non PT wood. Floor covering of your choice and go have fun.

 

[coostv]

Hey everyone, I started this thread in the repairs and restoration forum and asked to have it moved here as I didn't realize there was a spot for Starcraft's only until I noticed while doing searches on Google they were bringing me here...

Anywho, once the rain lets up later I am going to drag this thing out of the shop so I can power wash the inside of the hull then fill it with some water to do a leak check.

64osby, my dilemma is just not wanting to put holes in the bow for my I-Pilot I kept from the glasser I sold to my brother in law. Somehow in the last 38 or so years, this boat has managed to stay "extra" hole free for the large part. I have only counted four extra holes in the gunnel's from where they copped out replacing the dash wood. I will probably get over it once I take it out fishing and find myself missing the use of the motors features!

 

[Watermann]

:welcome: back to the Starmada!

Your little Holly looks like she's been left out in the cold for a while. Good on ya for bringing her back to the waves :thumb:

If the deck supports/stringers are loose at all, replace the blind rivets holding them on. If the transom wood is rotten, it would be way easier to just replace it now not to mention a safer boat. Are the side panels punky or in good shape?

Fisherman drill holes in their boats with wild abandon, so I'm kind of surprised to find one that thinks before drilling. :lol:

 

[64osby]

I laugh when seats from cars are in a boat. One of my donor boats had a RV / Van seat in it. It was bigger then the console.

 

[coostv]

The side wall wood is in very good shape I could possibly trim the bottom couple inches off and reuse it, but I think it will make for great patterns with new/different vinyl. I will actually be able to get good patterns from the old bow and stern deck wood, the middle was the only super terrible wood in it.

I did manage to fill it with water Sunday and marked all the leaks after a few hours. I will try rebucking the rivets first to see if they seal up, but that will have to be this weekend.

I have passed on other boats in the past because I didn't want to deal with pulling and disposing of the seats. The front buckets in this are actually really nice, someone will find an ad on CL soon and just have to have them for free. Sent many a seat away from project cars that way!

 

[Watermann]

Yeah by the look of those side panels they were replaced and made too high by a few inches. All that does is collect more junk in those pockets down the road. :lol:

 

[coostv]

You really think they were replaced? They seem original to me, complete with the funky wood grained vinyl?!

 

[Watermann]

The wood grained vinyl is what made me think they were replaced, not sure I've ever seen that on an original SC to date anyway but it may very well be original. I guess they are a few inches over the top of the side support shelf from the factory. I only made mine about an inch over the top so I wouldn't pile much of anything in there.

 

[dozerII]

You really think they were replaced? They seem original to me, complete with the funky wood grained vinyl?!

I have seen that wood grained vinyl on side panels before, now I remember it was in the little V5 Holiday I took in trade.

 

[coostv]

Didn't get to do anything with the old Holiday this weekend. The old adage "if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all" came in full swing this weekend. We decided to sell our camper and a buddy wanted to buy it, but while clearing our stuff out of it I found a substantial rotton spot in the floor. So, the purchase was put on hold while I contemplate the repair and locate the leak.

Next a guy stopped out to look at a snowmoblie I want to sell, will not start... No spark, so it went from being driven into the trailer in March to no spark in August.

I will probably be taking an extended break from the boat while I fix other stuff. Snow will likely be on the ground here in Michigan before I pick this project back up again, at least at that point I will be doing all of the fun stuff I want to do!

 

[coostv]

Well, I had planned on not doing anything until I got my wood cut and other projects done, but I snuck away from work today and decided to take advantage of it. All of the ply for the deck has been cut and rough fit into the the boat. I can now start varnishing the wood and move on. Not sure if I am going to bother trying to use the boat this year or not. I only have one more fishing trip planned for the end of this month and I might just use my 12' for that trip.

Enough babbling, here are some pics.

There we have it for this installment of this old boat.

 

[jbcurt00]

Looks like nice plywood. Great work

 

[coostv]

Looks like nice plywood. Great work

Thanks!! I used ACX 5/8" ply, a little overkill, but for about 15-20# added weight I figured why not. I think I will be following Waterman's lead and making the side panels closer to the deck of the boat. I might just make them a 1/2" or so of the deck, possibly less. I like the idea of no room for crap to collect under there. My old glasser always had junk collecting there.

Aside from my next move of treating the wood I plan to get the other side panel pulled, build an engine stand and yank the motor off, and before I attach the deck for good I need to seal up the leaking rivets I found for good, and finally flip the hull and get her ready to paint.

I have many plans, stay tuned for the unfolding developments. I tend to go a little "overboard" on projects I really like, hence the reason am on year three of a 6 month Mustang rebuild...

 

[coostv]

Aside from putting a clutch in my plow truck, working a lot and sneaking time in on my Mustang project I have managed to get somewhere on the Holiday as well.

I built a stand from the plans found on this forum and got the 50 off the boat,

Here is the boat on the "work" side of the shop, currently sitting on my 4 post lift.

Pulling stuff apart.

I threw the rear deck piece in to lay on to get the screws out for the splash well. Once the splash well was out I snapped a quick pic.

Transom is now out. I just need to drive the truck to work some day soon and pick up a sheet of 3/4 ply.

I actually accomplished all of this today with the exception of building the stand, that was done last week. Hopefully this will prompt some more progress on the old girl!!

 

[Watermann]

I sure do like your little Holly, she's a real cutie. :thumb:

 

[dozerII]

Good to see some progress, keep at it:thumb:

 

[coostv]

Thanks guys, I like this little boat a lot and I am rather excited to get it to this point. I will probably get the windshield off of it today and remove the dash panel and then assess what is to come next.

I am still trying to come up with colors I want to use. I keep gravitating towards blues and silvers, but not sure what I want to do yet.

 

[coostv]

Been slowly picking away at this thing. Updates should come a little faster now. The plan is to flip the boat next weekend for stripping. I want to get the major ortion of the hull painted in the next few weeks.

Transom pieces are now cut and glued.

Sans windshield!

Dash is in pretty sad shape! Will be getting new wood/vinyl in the next month or so.

My target to float this boat is now May. Have a long way to go and a short time to get there. I would like to take it up north for Walleye at the end of May.

I plan to be order a bunch of parts I need in the next month or so. New switch panel, bilge pump, fish finder, and other misc parts. Looking forward to open water and warm weather. The lack of snow this winter has me really motivated to get this thing done.

Usually snowmobiling has a hold on me this time of year! Been able to only get about 150 miles in so far this season, sled is older, but so is everything else I own!!