1977 Starcraft Restoration project

[Candutch]

Looking good and coming along quite nicely. Good job pbandj!

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Looking good and coming along quite nicely. Good job pbandj!

Thank you! Ive been dieing to get to work on my splashwell after seeing your post on your mods you did to yours. Love your boat looks amazing man! I may steal your idea you had for the storage for your lure boxes as well I have quite a few.. would be nice not to have to stack them knee high every time I go out!

 

[MNhunter1]

Nice work on the Nautolex gunnel tops! I plan to do the same with my SS when I get around to that one. What did you end up using for adhesive and any issues with fitment under the trim? I used 3M 80 for the Nautolex on the floor, but it didn't seem to bond that well with aluminum when I used it for laying Nautolex in my dash tray.

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Thank you! I just used the nautolex 88 adhesive I bought a gallon of it I think it was 100$ for that. So far no probs...yet. As far as fitting under the trim it was fairly easy I just pushed down on the gunnel and lifted up on the trim and slid it over the vinyl. Theres 4 spots up front that have a bump from rivets that was a bit of a bear for me. But all I did was bend the trim with the back of a hammer then slide the vinyl under it and then flattened the trim down with a rubber mallet. Seemed to work nicely. With putting it under the trim it gave me a lot of room for error with my cutting. If you plan on doing this I def recommend making sure you have plenty of glue on the outside of the vinly.. couple of spots i guess i missed and the vinyl would catch on the trim and id have to flatten it back down again.

 

[Candutch]

Thank you! Ive been dieing to get to work on my splashwell after seeing your post on your mods you did to yours. Love your boat looks amazing man! I may steal your idea you had for the storage for your lure boxes as well I have quite a few.. would be nice not to have to stack them knee high every time I go out!

Thanks for the kind words. Use any ideas you want, that's why I post them on here. Hopefully someone sees something they like and use it on their boat. I've taken a few ideas I've seen on other builds as well like Watermann's built in cooler. I was originally going to install it where the lure box tray was but didn't pre-plan that so I couldn't find a cooler to fit the space so the cooler moved to the floor, the lure box trays went from the bow storage to where it is now and the bow will be just a closed storage space. I think I like them better in back since that's where I'll be trolling and fishing from anyway.

 

[Pusher]

Nice work thus far. I subscribed if you don't mind. I plan to do a tin rebuild in a few years and I'm liking where youre going with the transom idea for fishing deck.

Nice salmon a couple pages back btw. I didn't realize you got such large chrome salmon in the lakes. They don't travel up through the locks from the salt water do they?

If you're buddies grandpa makes it on a fishing trip you might want to plan ahead and install some kind of an outlet and get him a heated snowmobile suit. Seems like the chemo Zaps your heating abilities along with everything else.

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Thanks guys! Pusher, I'm not sure about any salt water? Maybe Im misunderstanding your question. I appreciate the tip about the snowmobile suit. I didnt think of that myself but now that you men​tion it I do know that the chemo can make you cold. One of my old bosses had to go through all of that and he was always in a big coat or something during the middle of the day. Definitely something to look into.

As far as the transom, at this point Im not 100% sure what Im going to do just yet. I troll 99% of the time theres very little casting when I fish unless its with my wife or son and theres no need for a casting deck in the back since ill be up front casting. I do however want as much room for storage and walking around space in the back so with the little bit of planning Ive done Im thinking I will basically do what Candutch did with his splashwell but no deck. Im really only looking to basically cut my transom maybe in half horizontally then mount it to the transom and then build a much more rigid support seeing my last SW cracked 2 different times. Since Im lifting it up I can use that space for storage for life jackets or something. Also may put a holder for my net and some mounts for rods to run lines straight out the back. One of the pics is of my brother in laws boat. He has a 1999 Tracker I believe. But where the red line is, thats about as far out as Id like my SW to sit out, and the layout Id like would be the same with vinyl on top.

Also looking at putting something in to hold my 2 batteries for my trolling motor right in between my consoles along with my onboard charger.

Havent made any progress really since my last posts. Weather has been a little rough in my city and have been going out to Detroit for some very nice walleye fishing! Got a 3 man limit in 1.5 hrs earlier this week! The bridge you see in one of the pics is the bridge that connects Canada to Michigan.

 

[Watermann]

Nice catch of eyes you have there and some super eats!

Yeah the gawd awefull huge SW of that era, they did not need to take up near that much boat real estate. Rob did a great job resizing his SW, I kind of lucked out as my V5 has a totally different SW design that's deep but takes up way less room.

 

[Candutch]

I think your idea for the splashwell should work just fine, just make your framing end in front of the splashwell and tie into the gunnels there. The only issue I foresee would be with battery storage. There wont be enough room on the starboard side because of all the control cables and wiring you have to run so your port side would probably have to house the batteries. You will also be short room for flotation. I stuffed flotation in the spaces around and in front of the lure box tray from floor to deck as well on the starboard side in the large section behind the batteries. I don't know if that much flotation is actually required though but it was there under the original splashwell so I tried to add as much back as I could.

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Nice catch of eyes you have there and some super eats!

Yeah the gawd awefull huge SW of that era, they did not need to take up near that much boat real estate. Rob did a great job resizing his SW, I kind of lucked out as my V5 has a totally different SW design that's deep but takes up way less room.

Yeah I was actually just looking at your V5 today for the first time. Not sure how I missed it.. but she looks really nice! If you ever want to sell let me know! :-D

And Candutch I did raise the floor a bit I was just going to sink the main motor battery in the back and let it stick out a little. I will have that whole back side covered up with some doors or something so you wont see it. And the majority of the wiring will be run through the aluminum pipes under the floors.

The other 2 batteries will only have wiring for the trolling motor, not much there for wiring. As far as flotation, not sure about that either.. Im going to bring her down to the lake by my place to see how she sits before I bolt the floors down. Seen a couple boats on here that sat too low in the back due to mods they did. Id rather find out before hand and fix it before I buckle it all down.

 

[Pusher]

Sorry for the confusion. Us west-coasters are used to waiting for salmon to run up the rivers before getting a crack at them inland. We have Kokanee (landlocked salmon) but they don't seem to get that big.

 

[Candutch]

I think your steering and control cables will be what causes the problem with use able space on the starboad side if you are running them under the deck portion. Should be no issue with your 1 battery back there, I'm running 2 so it takes up a big chunk of space and I have the auto oil reservoir and kicker tank to fit in under the center storage area in front of the splashwell so mine is packed full.
Are you just cutting a hole in the floor for the battery or are you going to make a sunken box to contain it?

 

[Old Irving]

I have a over a year on you on our rebuilds and looks like you will finish before me. Good work.

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Got a little bit more done today. Phone died out on me so had to run out and get a new one. Actually kind of glad b/c I actually really like this new one so far. Ill post some pics in a bit. But Pusher we dont have any salt water here so thats what I was confused by I wasnt sure if you were referring to something I hadnt heard of. But yes theres different types of salmon. The chrome ones are lake salmon from my understanding we call them coho. Theres some that enter the rivers and die those are called steelhead. I do a little bit of both but theres no waiting. Theres always coho in the lake they just run out to 2-300 fow after the temps rise. We catch them and brown trout early in the year close to shore in 10-15 fow running hot and tots and stinger spoons.

And Candutch I wasnt planning on running any steering under the floor. I dont think I would be able to its just not long enough to run under the floor. The main battery, yes, that i will build a box and sink it into the floor. Top will poke out but all that will be concealed. The trolling batteries and charger will be between consoles. I installed that today... except after I got some rails in I went to put the battery in just for a pic and completely forgot my trolling batteries are 29 series and much larger than my main battery... so i will have to undo that and do it over.

And Irving thanks for the post and kind words. Im doing as much as I can physically handle.. and as much as my wife lets me lol. Im also doing as much as I possibly can in the time frame I have so theres a few things here and there I will do but will have to skip for now.

Will post some pics here soon. I wish I could upload from my phone :-( But making some nice progress. Finally got one coat of CC on all the floor boards, livewell is bolted down, aerator installed, and front deck is basically ready to bolt down after another coat of epoxy. Before i bolt any of the floors down im triple checking for leaks.. filling her up with water again to be safe, then going to the lake and see how she floats to make sure she sits right. At this rate Id be happy to have make a splash mid to late may. After that I have a list I made of things I will gradually work on during my fishing season and winter. Pics to come shortly! Im happy with how the deck came out I hope you guys like it as well!

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Sorry about the book I wrote before this post lol. New phone didnt look like I wrote too much until I get on here with my laptop... But here are the pics as promised. Not too many pics I was trying to get some work done and honestly didnt think about it.. Wish I had more I would like to have them for not only to post on here but to one day look back on all of this. And Pusher here are some pics of great lakes fishing. Got some big lake trout (I like to eat them but a lot of guys throw them back they are very very slimy and smelly lol), brown trout, coho, and a big skamanian salmon. Took me about 30 min to get that sucker in!

The front deck, none of that is bolted down, its just to get me motivated to see whats to come. Would love to get new seats but likely not going to happen til winter. I cant justify spending 1000$ on new seats with everything else Ive had to pay for. Definitely getting new seat mounts and hubs though. But, youll see one of the pics is of the old front deck layout compared to the new. Im very happy with the new one.. And it looks like a mean face so when I put fish in the livewell I know Ill chuckle a little imaging the boat eating the fish... I enjoy the simple things in life =) Now that the front deck is cut Ill order some carpet to put up front. Didnt want to get the new carpet all messed up moving the front deck pieces around. On that note, I see a lot of guys on here rip everything out from the get go. I found out pretty quick leaving all the old material in until the end is helping a lot with taping.. I dont have to cover the inside of the boat I just get paint, glue, or whatever else on the old stuff then when Im done Ill rip it out. You can see paint on the old stock vinyl if you look close.

And lastly, one pic of the front of the boat I checked the wood out up front and it actually looked good. I pulled on it as hard as I could and it didnt budge. But, it did have a small hole in it. Assuming its from someone mounting a graph up there.. So, all I did was buy a big sheet of aluminum, cut it to size and mounted it.. Ill tape everything off and paint that to match the rest of the boat. Took longer to cut it than it did getting it mounted.

 

[Pusher]

Those are some pigs! Good on you for not extending your arms too. I don't understand why people don't let the fish speak for themselves.

Looks like your layout is coming along quickly. Have you thought about sewing your own seat covers up and rebuilding the seats? $1,000 would buy a nice sewing machine + vinyl... Might make for a good winter project too

If you don't mind my asking, how much did that livewell cost?

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

Up to this point I havent considered sewing my own. Never sewn.. wife does all of that though and she has a fancy sewing machine so maybe something to look into.

The livewell I looked everywhere for.. took me forever to find one that would fit.. still had to mod it a bit to make it fit right. But I paid about 100$ for it and it was around 60$ to ship. Only site Ive found so far that sold a large selection of livewells is great lakes skipper. This is where I got mine: http://greatlakesskipper.com/custom...oximately-30-gallon-poly-marine-boat-livewell

 

[Pusher]

That's nice take for that price! Thanks PntBtr

 

[MD28]

You caught that out of Holland? That's a nice one! Boat is really coming along, nice work!

 

[pntbtrjllytme]

The skam was out of holland yes right outside of the pier on a rapala firetiger dt 10 lol. I was more just experimenting to see if anything would hit it. Got the fish in and the lure was cracked in half. The laker was also out of holland just off the pier that day. Caught that off of a yamamoto worm bouncing off bottom! The others were out of south haven by the power plant.