1979 18' Starcraft SuperSport Restoration

[mbroughton02]

Just saw that iBoats is running a 20% off sale . So I just ordered my front seats.

I'm being indecisive about the rear ones, so I held off on that for now.

 

[shaw520]

Nice price !

 

[mbroughton02]

Nice price !

And that's before the 20% off

 

[Pusher]

Since you're new, did you know about the forum member 5% discount?

 

[Watermann]

Only 1 promo code at a time though.

 

[mbroughton02]

Got my floor cut out and doublers in between sheets, as many of you have done.

Got a ski locker on ebay for cheap; only needs a small repair to the teak.

Tomorrow will start applying coats of spar to the floor pieces, and will install the ski locker ends and bottom. Then foam.

Would be lost without all the info on this forum.

 

[Watermann]

Good looking fit to the deck ply and it looks like some nice quality wood too. :thumb:

I would suggest priming / painting the inner transom skin to give the AL a barrier to future galvanic corrosion.

 

[mbroughton02]

Good looking fit to the deck ply and it looks like some nice quality wood too. :thumb:

I would suggest priming / painting the inner transom skin to give the AL a barrier to future galvanic corrosion.

Yes the ply is 5/8 AC. Very reasonable at $30 a sheet; special ordered from the lumberyard where we do a bunch of business at work.

Thanks for the tip on the inner transom skin. What you're seeing is still a work in progress. The black splotches are marine tex which I still need to sand. But I think the paint is a good idea.

 

[Old Irving]

Always good to see the boat come together. You may want to think about how wide you make access to your bilge at the transom. It will depend on your gas tank, battery, and other stuff you want to store back there. I made mine wider so I could clean it out, maneuver the bilge pump, and whatever else I need to do back there.

 

[mbroughton02]

More progress today. Applied the 1st and 2nd coats of Spar Varnish on one side of the floor.

Decided to take the triangle approach to the foam that I saw at least one other person on this forum do:

Obviously not done yet, but this really wasn't bad once I got into a groove. What you see in that pic was just under 1 full sheet of 2" XPS foam. Took about 5 hours. I did all the cuts with a circ saw. Works quickly, but the foam loves to pinch the blade so a steady hand is required. Would be much easier on a bandsaw, but I don't have one.

Tomorrow I'll cut pieces for the top of the ribs, and then install the ski locker, and then foam around the locker.

Oh, and in case someone else decides to go with the foam triangles, here's how I cut my sheet in order to have minimal waste, and allow me to measure and cut one row at a time.

Most of the pieces are 16" long which goes into the 48" width of the sheet exactly 3 times. The shortest side of the triangles is different for each "bay" but on average 6" (more towards the front of the boat, less towards the back). Cutting the sheet one cut at a time across the 48" edge means you get exactly (6) 16" triangles out of each long cut, which is coincidentally exactly how many pieces you need for each "bay". So you measure a bay, cut off, say, 5.5", and you get all the pieces you need for that bay. Measure the next bay, etc etc. Make sense?

 

[g0nef1sshn]

Nice work on that foam!

 

[Watermann]

Yeap that's what you're looking for, support for the decking and flotation. :thumb:

 

[Tnstratofam]

Looking good.:encouragement:

 

[BWR1953]

Hey! That looks familiar!

Good job on the foam blocks. That's the way I laid out my sheets as well. :encouragement:

 

[mbroughton02]

Finished the foam on the sides:

And I started working on the ski locker. My buddy with the machine shop sold me a nice piece of aluminum for the bottom and he even bent it for me with a giant press.

Framing in the ends with aluminum angle and aluminum stock acquired at HD.

I'm hoping dozerII will pop in here and share his technique for applying nautolex to the ends of the ski locker:

Was everything one piece, or did you do the ends separately?

 

[dozerII]

Your SS is coming along great. I use 3M spary 90 addesive. Make sure to wipe the aluminum down with acetone to remove the surface oils. You have to do the ends of the ski locker separately, wrap the vinyl around the bottom flange so it is pinched when you rivet them in and wrap around the top flange so it gets pinched when you rivet the deck down.

 

[mbroughton02]

Your SS is coming along great. I use 3M spary 90 addesive. Make sure to wipe the aluminum down with acetone to remove the surface oils. You have to do the ends of the ski locker separately, wrap the vinyl around the bottom flange so it is pinched when you rivet them in and wrap around the top flange so it gets pinched when you rivet the deck down.

That's what I thought but just wanted to check. Thanks for the tips.

 

[ezmobee]

Nice job on the flotation and deck. Looks great!

 

[Pusher]

If you're not familiar with aluminum work and your buddy didn't do it at the shop already, you might want to stop drill the corners of the flanges to prevent future stress fractures.


It's coming along nicely!

 

[mbroughton02]

Ok, who here uses the Weldwood Contact cement for applying Nautolex?

I know Dozer uses 3M 90 Spray Adhesive but it seems that others have used either the Nautolex adhesive or contact cement. Spray adhesive is pretty expensive, so I wanted to try the CC.

I did the first half of my ski locker with the CC 3 days ago. Bare aluminum cleaned with acetone. Coated both surfaces with the CC using a 3/8" nap roller, waited 20 minutes, applied Nautolex, and took the weekend off. Came back today and I can peel the Nautolex back fairly easily. What did I do wrong?