1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

[Kroussin]

I have been on a mad hunt for a boat for the past two months and i finally found one. Biggest problem was that I had NO MONEY, but I did have a 2007 suzuki dirtbike that had been sitting for the past two years due to an expansion in the family.

so after searching high and low i made the deal and drove close to 200 miles on the 4th of july to make it all happen.
i was looking for somthing more family friendly than my old 14' but yet still usable to me.

The plan is to use the boat the rest of the seasone and adress things little by little and then once winter hits go in deeper

the bike that had been sitting for the past two years(obviously taken when I was riding alot more)



the new boat (not me driving)



Alot more to come as i have spent almost every day since i bought the boat fixing things that werent up to par. just too late to post tonight

 

[Kroussin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

Well i have a little bit of time so i will knock this out.

The wiring was in desperate need of attention. scotch locks everywhere. standard insulated terminals in damp conditions and the wires had began to corrode. switche's that were iffy at best. rats nest wiring everywhere. so I spent some time and a little bit of money and got it all straightened out and left pigtails for stuff i would like to do in the future like new/more gauges, interior lights, blah blah blah.
I failed to get pics before but all the wires to the helm were laying in the gunwale cubby hole unsuported and strewn about. i wraped them with spiral loom and hung them back in there supports. all the new terminations re uninsulated terminals with mastic heat shrink. should last a good while at least they do in the severe inviroments my truck see's

before and after pics. still not perfect but much bette than before.

BEFORE




AFTER






crap electrical cut out



for some reasone I didnt take any pics of the temporary switch panel completed. and the battery hasnt made its way back in since I am going to have to address the floor area back there

 

[Kroussin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

before i reluctantly call it a night i will leave with one question

this crack is in the port side of the splash well, aside from getting somone to possiably weld it what would be the next best feesible way to repair this and make it blend in as best as possiable. rivet some aluminum behind it and the put a cool sticker over the crack? hahaha

 

[dozerII]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

before i reluctantly call it a night i will leave with one question

this crack is in the port side of the splash well, aside from getting somone to possiably weld it what would be the next best feesible way to repair this and make it blend in as best as possiable. rivet some aluminum behind it and the put a cool sticker over the crack? hahaha

View attachment 157179

First off welcome K, nice boat you have. By the looks of the photos the transom was replace recently, the crack in the splash well was as a result off the old transom pulling out on it. On my 18 SS I made a large gusset out of 1/8 aluminum and glued it to the inside with JB weld then riveted it. The JB weld filled the crack and I was able to sand and paint. If you got to post #42 in the 18ss reastore thread in my signiture you can read how I fixed mine, it is continued on the next page.

 

[Kroussin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

awsome thanks. the transom was replaced 5 years ago acording to the seller. the seller had just recently taken the boat on trade he was a self proclaimed powersports shop so he wasnt 100% sure. nice enough guy and im sure he is going to make out like a bandit selling my bike but i'm happy and he is happy and the boat has allready been of more use to me than the bike had been in the past couple summers

 

[Kroussin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

sooo last night after i got done tidying up the electrical i decided i needed to tackle to floor in that area. even if i throw down some ply that is not epoxyed i need somthing a little more sturdy than what was ther. Remember that the whole floor is coming out this winter again so if I have to replace a couple sheets of ply than so bee it. i'm not rolling in the cash by any means but haveing my battery fall thru the floor would really suck, And i found somthing while running wires that i needed to take care of or it would bother the crap outta me.

here is what was really bother me (minor I know) there were two bilge pumps one good one and on that was shot. the bad one was screwed to a piece of aluminum and couldnt be removed without cutting out a little bit of the deck and removing a little bit of foam.


well as you can see there was a piece a ply (or tow) layed down over the rotten stuff. once i delicatly removed the screws and rivets i managed to pull them out in 1000 soggy piecies. the spot that looks dry was actually just as soft as the dark rotten spots



was expecting to find pour in foam and dreading pulling it all out i was pretty happy to find some styrofoam evne tho it was water logged
removed it all vacumed, wiped out and replaced the waterlogged stuff with new, and I got the old defective bilge pump out. still need to mount the new(er) one solid




From what I understand to maximize proper floatation it is 100% necissary to install a jug of some sort and it seems as tho most prefer a laundry detergent jug. so not wanting to jeapordize that i made sure to put one in before i forgott. I did install foam on the outside of the stringers I was just too camera happy at that time.

 

[Brenn]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

nice boat,welcome.

 

[rheagler]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

Nice looking boat. Looks like you're not wasting any time getting to fix it up. Have fun with it and welcome!

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

That jug is going to rattle around in there and drive you crazy.

Just slap a couple coats of exterior grade Spar urethane on your new plywood deck and it'll hold you over 'til winter and you won't have to buy all new plywood. Use 3/4" plywood for a stronger build.

At least you don't have to worry about the transom, it looks new and sealed in the pic.

 

[Kroussin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

jug is in there SOLID cant make it much tighter fit.

if I used spar urethane then can I just epoxy over it this winter or will the two not get along?

from the gist i get some are not using marine grade ply. if that is the case what ply should i be looking for. no one stocks marine grade ply locally so worst comes to worst i'll have to use some standard cdx to get me thru a couple weeks until I can order the correct stuff. I do realize that there are pro's and con's to both ways. so long as I can make it last 5 years solid after the redecking i'll be rather happy. i'm sure i'll be itching to "rearrange" the interior by the 5 year mark

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

You can sand the urethane and apply epoxy no problem.

MDO plywood is as good as marine grade, and is cheaper. A lot of folks on this forum like the Aruco brand ABX plywood. Just about any AB, BB, or BC exterior grade should be ok.

CDX has too many large voids between the plies, I'd avoid it.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

From what I understand to maximize proper floatation it is 100% necissary to install a jug of some sort and it seems as tho most prefer a laundry detergent jug. so not wanting to jeapordize that i made sure to put one in before i forgott. I did install foam on the outside of the stringers I was just too camera happy at that time.

View attachment 157302

I can see you're gonna fit in well here, The jug is required as you mentioned. LOL. Welcome to the tin drydock. Good trade - A Holiday for a bike. Like jigngrub said about the sanding the urethane and epoxy later and you will have one sheet less to buy this winter. Your plan to fix the wiring and temporary soft spot is good. Run the boat the rest of the summer and you will have a better idea what you want to change. You have a good start on that. Again welcome and have fun!

 

[Kroussin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

thanks hopefully I can pick up a sheet of ply in the next couple days and have it in by saturday. I doubt it will have the proper time to cure the urethane but am really anxious to get this out again so I'm just going to run with it. this winter i allready plan on alot of upgrades to get it big lake ready Since i live withing 15 miles of lake superior and my family has a camp on lake michigan. allready have A second bilge pump to be installed and considering a third JUST IN CASE.

been looking at making a mooring cover since I have a bunch of material on hand to make one and would like to keep as much rain out as possiable. the floor takes forever to dry. it got rained on for about 15 min's last thursday and the floor near the helm is still wet. I'm sure damp ply has alot to do with it but DANG! also with the drain plug not being at the lowest point in the hull and bilge pump location is limited due to hull ribs transom support and foam the boat holds a couple inch's in the bottom that JUST WONT GO AWAY!

also going to have to drill out some rivets and buck some new one's in as i found 5 that are broke on the bottom side of the boat. the are spread around the hull and none are withing at least 2' of eachother so i'm hoping it's not from any serious stress on the hull. 1 of them was weeping so i put some 3m 5200 adhesive sealant aroundand as much in the hole as I could, that and the 4 others to help seal it up for the time being. hopefully it lasts until winter.

No new pic's tonight as I really didnt accomplish much aside from removing th old defective bilge pump from the aluminum bracket that it was mounted to. will likely use it this winter to mount both pumps to for now the one will hopefully stay put in the bottom of the hull from ole man gravity.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

Tip the bow up as high as possible then the water will mostly run out the drain and you can sop up the rest. Most likely the boat will be wet under the floor until you rip it up and put in new foam and Gluvit the hull Not enough air gets under there to really dry it out.

 

[Kroussin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

hate to question people that have done it before but is 3/4 going to be a little overkill and overweight?

looks like the boat came factory with 1/2 that was not treated in any way and it has lasted this long, well minus 5 years since thats when it should have been replaced. also by going to 3/4 i am going to have to do alot of reworking since there are alot of piecies that get screwed onto the top of the floor. I know 1/4'' aint much but it's definately enough to cause some issues with the splash well supports, side panels and dash.

also went and found everything i'm going to need to temporarly do this floor. hopefully pick it up tonight after the 14' sells.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

Go ahead and put the 1/2" decking down now and you can switch to 3/4" this winter if you don't like it.

1/2" is too thin for me, but other folks have used it and seem to be satisfied. Some folks don't mind a "springy" deck, I prefer a rock solid deck. Also when it comes time to fasten down hardware and accessories I like the good solid bite 3/4 gives the screws, while screws tend to strip and stuff comes loose on 1/2" for me.

 

[Kroussin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

very good point on the fastenrs. too bad I cant find the stuff in 5/8 and meet in the middle ground then just add backer where needed. the boat is very open in the back and I really like it that way right now. have tossed around the idea of ordering up or building a bench seat alog that back that will double as two seperate coolers. sorta like pontoon seats. they will have to have to be hinged to gain acess under the splash well however. nothing a good piano hinge cant handle

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

The Arauco is 23/32', so it splits the difference between 1/2 and 3/4'. My floor feels solid.

 

[Kroussin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

I really need a bigger budget (read more pay). I'm waiting to get my flooring materials until payday and I cant stop looking at all the cool acessories. ugh dang internet

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday 18' O/B refit,repair,rebuild,restore

While your wait for the budget approval and you have a chance go to Home Depot or Lowes or Menards, even all three. Compare prices on the ply. My HD has the Arauco 23/32" for $31-$32, Lowes was higher, don't have a Menards in my area. Of course you can surf their sites too and not waste gas money.

Or grab a brew and a lawn chair and stare at the Holiday - That is official progress cause you get ideas.