Re: Bringing an Oldie back to life.....(pics)
Greetings fellow Starcraft enthusiasts,
I have been gone for a while but I wanted to give everyone an update as to my progress. I cant believe it has been a month since I last posted but between vacation, work, kids time sure does fly. I also had to make some time for the walleye run here in the Fox River valley. The fishing has been great so far this year. I have, believe it or not, found some time to make some progress on the boat. Let me apologize in advance for the long post, it has been a month for cryin? out loud!
First, the motor:
I was apprehensive about putting any money into the Johnson 40 electramatic at first. I had a couple free hours one night and decided to do some tinkering with it and before I knew it, 4 hours and one sacrificial rubbermaid garbage can later, I had it running! I started with a lot of testing of the electric shift components as it has been my understanding that that is the weak point on these motors. Thanks, of course, must be extended to all of the very knowledgeable members of this forum for all of the great information available in the outboard motor section. Next step was a compression check. 90 psi in both cylinders meant I could move forward. Then I moved on to the motor itself. This motor has electric start and a generator and all, I mean ALL, of the original wiring had corroded to the point that the insulation was crumbling away. I know a fair amount about basic auto and motorcycle wiring and much of it translates over so I wired the components necessary to turn her over and gave it a whirl. After another trip to the store for a fuel line and 2 stroke oil I yanked the battery from my truck, connected her up and shot twelve volts into the solenoid. Wouldn?t you know it, it started first time, revved like a bat outta hell, and died. I ran out to the back yard, dumped all of the yard trash out of our big rubbermaid trash can, filled her with water and gave it another shot. NOTE: Significant other was NOT happy when she heard the engine roar the second time and came to see what the commotion was only to find the trash can filled with a milky solution of exhaust/oil/water in "her" trashcan and yard waste dumped in a pile in the back yard. Anyway, The motor started up any time I cranked it but died in a few seconds and I knew it was probably the carburetor so I opened the plug at the bottom of the float bowl and used the pressure of the priming bulb to do a very rudimentary carb flush. That solved the problem and I was able to get her running and keep her running. There wasn?t a whole lot of water exiting out the back so I checked the thermostat and guess what, it had been removed and never replaced. So this is what I ordered and am anxiously awaiting.
1)Carb rebuild Kit
2)Ignition tune up kit (plugs, points, condensor, wires)
3)Starter solenoid (long story, I shorted the working original out)
4)Thermostat kit
5)Impeller for water pump
6)Propeller shaft seal (just in case)
7)Lower unit gasket kit
All that came to about 200 bucks. The wiring is actually very simple (again, I have done this kind of thing before) and I am going to make a wiring harness from scratch. I will take some photos and detail that process once the parts arrive. Oh yeah, I found the correct controls for the motor on Ebay and I had the winning bid at 10 dollars. That has already been delivered and is sitting in my garage.
Next, the boat:
I haven?t really spent too much time on the boat herself. I guess there are choices that I haven't yet made that have kept me from really tearing into her. Things like seating configuration, flooring, windshield/no windshield(more on that later) are holding me back. The weather has been kind of crappy here this weekend so today I decided to pull her out of the garage between thunder storms and spend some time with her. OK I confess, I wasn?t really planning on doing any work, I was just going to sit in the boat and try to get some "artistic inspiration" for the interior. That?s a fancy way for saying I was going to sit around and imagine I was out on the water making waves and cruising around. I do that from time to time. I think the significant other is catching on though because every time I tell her I am going for some "artistic inspiration" time in the garage she raises one eyebrow and says things like, "I haven?t seen anything artistic yet".
So there I am, sitting at the wheel and turning it from side to side like a kid in a toy car, I think I might have even made vroom vroom sound effects with my mouth. Then the rain stopped and I figured that if I didn't start doing something soon the whole summer could pass and here in the midwest, summers are very short and winters are very, very long which would mean another year in the garage. So I wheeled her out into the yard and got out the paint buffer and compound and got to polishing her up. I started at the bow and managed to get the bow section and sides done up to about where the lower rubber rails begin on the sides of the boat. The results, in my opinion, are very good. The paint cleaned up very nicely and the metal rails that run along the top of the boat were completely transformed. I have posted a few pics below. Let me know what you think. Now I know that short of a completely new paint job like many of you here have done she is not going to look good as new but I think she is going to look pretty decent on the water, especially for a boat that cost me $200 including the trailer and motor.
EDIT: My photobucket account is acting up for some reason and I cant upload the photos to get URL's. I would rather not attach them as I would have to resize them etc, etc. I will upload them tomorrow.
So, now for some of your opinions on a couple matters. First, the windshield. The windshield has some very visible cracks that you can see in the picture. A new or good condition used windshield is just not going to be in the cards for this season. Unless of course I can find a steal on one i.e. a couple hundred bucks or less, which is not likely. My question is, would you guys cruise her with the cracked windshield as is? Or, just remove it until I can get my hands on a better one? I LOVE the look of the windshield and I just can?t see myself taking it off and motoring around and not feeling like the boat is naked or something. If you saw someone out there with that cracked windshield do you think it would look alright or take away from the boat itself?
The next is the floor. I had originally decided that I was going to pain the floor that is in there and just get her out on the water but more recently started leaning towards gluing down some carpet only because I thought the painted floor would show shoe prints and wind up looking worse than the bare wood. Now, in the very front of the boat is a piece of wood that is original to the boat and has a vinyl covering. I was reading through the Starcraft brochures and they describe the floor for this model and year as a non -slip vinyl covering. The stuff seems very durable (lasted this long, still looks good) and is very much non slip. My question is, have any of you ever used something like that? I havent seen it mentioned in any of the restoration threads. I thought maybe it wasn?t used because it would trap moisture on the wood and rot it sooner. I know someone here has either tried it or knows why no one uses it.
One more thing:
For tgp***:
I measured the seats for you. They have a metal tube frame that lifts them off of the floor. Here are the dimensions:
From floor to bottom of seat (open area, tube frame) - 4.5 inches
From floor to top of seat cushion (part you sit on) - 10.5 inches
From floor to top of seat back - 22.5 inches
From forward tip of front facing seat cushion to rear tip of rear facing seat cushion with the seats upright - 45 inches
From forward tip of front facing seat cushion to rear tip of rear facing seat cushion with the seats layed down - 65 inches.
Hope that helps.
