Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

[jigngrub]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

When ordering from Jay-Cees I alway place a big order to make up for the shipping, I either order extra of something I use a lot or something I think I might need in the future that would come in handy... I have enough rivets to build a battleship.

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Lots of extra rivets for sure. Better to have too many than not enough.

Got the floor in today and attached the bait well to the hull and ran the plumbing. Also attached the console to the hull. I filled all the void spaces around behind and under seats and compartments with foam board and put about 20 square feet of the 2" thick board under the floor. It's jammed in there pretty tight so I doubt it will ever rattle around. I should be able to get the rest of the seats and storage compartments in tomorrow. Here's a couple pictures of how it looks now. More Pictures tomorrow. I sure hope the outboard runs after all this! 1988 Starcraft

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Your boat is looking good! You'll be on the water soon.

You may want to consider putting in some more rivets down that center stringer and on the edges of your deck, your spacing looks a bit too wide. Your decking is liable to warp with the rivets that far apart. I put mine in on 8" centers and I wouldn't recommend any further apart than 12" centers.

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Thanks for the suggestion. The spacing of the rivets on the edges of the deck is based on how far apart the ribs are. They all don't show up well in my pictures but they're 12" apart. Each rib got a rivet. There's nothing in between the ribs to attach the deck to. The rivets down the center are a different story. I've got them 16" apart which was what they were originally. They attach to the center stringer so I can add one in between each of the ones I've got and make it to 8". The forward and aft deck sections are only partially supported by that stringer and they each have two rivets in the center that are 10" apart. I'll add some more down the middle of the center sections. Now I'll only be able to build a small battleship when I'm done. 1988 Starcraft

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Well it's all together and there aren't any extra parts left in my garage (other than left over rivets). The battery needed a charge so the engine test is tomorrow. Tuesday is the "sea trial", assuming the engine is OK. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The advise I got here was invaluable. I can remember what I thought I was going to do when I first posted this topic and I'd have had big trouble without all your help. Thanks all. I'm going to mount some new rod holders and am going to buy some touch up paint to color my rivets red so they don't stand out so much, but I'm ready to go fishing. Can't wait. Here's how she looks tonight. 1988Starcraft

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Let me be the first to offer Congratulations on a job EXTREMELY well done! and Wish you a perfect running engine, perfect weather for a splash, and an all around PERFECT day testing your newly redone boat!

Have Fun!

PS- don't forget the bilge plug...

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

The bilge plug is already in place. Can't wait to get it wet! Thanks. 1988 Starcraft

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Cool man, well done!

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Great job '88! The fish gods should reward you handsomely with lot of fish slime for your hard work and efforts in paying homage to them.

What kind of fish are you going to chase? Walleye? Trout?

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Here in Connecticut our trout season doesn't open until April 21. Not many walleye spots here. However I live near the Thames River and there's a good spring striped bass fishery there. I grew up on the river and know lots of good spots. The river is where I'll be if the engine runs. I'll let you know how the next few days go. 1988 Starcraft

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Did my engine test today (a day later than planned) and it ran surprisingly well. A little reluctant to idle at first but once it ran a while it was fine. I used the rest of the day to paint the new rivets, put new tires on the trailer and grease everything I could find to grease. Tomorrow morning I'm going fishing. Given how happy I am with the way it turned out, I'm going to replace my old homemade bow casting platform soon. I've got plenty of nice plywood left over from the decks and now that I'm not as reluctant to drill holes in the hull, I can put in something that looks a lot more "professional". 1988 Starcraft

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Well now I'm really depressed. The motor ran well, the floor is great, but the *#*#### boat still leaked. Maybe a little slower leak than before but none the less it leaked a couple inches per hour at the drain plug. I'm not sure what to do now other than fill the boat with water again and see if I can find where it leaks out. The only things I couldn't check very well previously are the rivets that were on top of the trailer bunk. If those were loose maybe the bunk held them tight enough so I could see water coming out. I'm at a loss to figure out why it still leaked after flooding the bare hull twice and fixing anything that dripped unless the water on the outside causes it to leak where the water on the inside didn't. If that's the case, I have no idea how to find the leaks. I have a small tractor and may be able to lift the hull off the bunks with water inside to get a close look at those rivets. I REALLY don't want to have to take it all apart again.

I'm obviously pretty frustrated and if there is some secret to tracking down the leaky rivets, please let me know. Is there something I could apply to the outside of the rivets (like the Gluvit on the inside)?

Not only did it leak but the fishing wasn't very good. 1988 Starcraft

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Leaks are best fixed from the inside and outside fixes don't last long.

Did you gluvit the inside rivets and seams when you had it apart? 5200 all the thru hull screws? Do you have silicone caulk anywhere below the waterline?

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

I know outside fixes aren't as good particularly when you haul the boat on and off a trailer like I do, but I guess it was just wishful thinking. Frustration showing.

I put two coats of Gluvit on every rivet and seam below the waterline. There are no through hull screws so I didn't use 5200 there. I did use LocTite marine 2-part epoxy on the 4 rivets I put in. I don't have any seams with silicone caulk (that I know of). There are no seams except along the waterline and as far as I can see there isn't any caulk. There was some red colored material oozing out along the seam on the inside of the boat which I assumed was the 1988 version of a sealant and I left that intact. I didn't see any leaking along that seam when I put water inside the boat. I could put silicone along that seam on the outside of the boat since it's easy to get at. The leak is bad enough that I'm beginning to wonder if a couple leaking rivets is all that's the problem so maybe the seam is a place to work on.

I'm also beginning to wonder if putting water inside the boat is a good way to look for leaks. Obviously the pressure on the rivets is reversed from what it is in the water. I suppose it's possible that there could be a leak that is only from the outside in and not from the inside out. The boat was so flexible when I had everything out of it that I wasn't sure it was road worthy or I'd have taken it to a lake and leak tested it that way, plus filling the inside seemed like a good alternative.

Other than re-doing my leak test and lifting the boat so I can look at rivets where the bunks are, I'm out of ideas. However if it didn't show leaks the first two times, I'm not confident it will show me where the problems are now either.

1988 Starcraft

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Did you run your livewell while you were out? You may want to recheck your system, livewells can give you all kinds of headaches trying to figure out where your dang boat is leaking... and then it turns out the boat isn't leaking at all, it's that damn livewell!

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

I'm also beginning to wonder if putting water inside the boat is a good way to look for leaks.

I did this on my Jupiter. I didn't figure it would show me anything useful but I tried it anyway. Not 2 seconds after I stuck the hose in the bilge, water started STREAMING from this pinhole I had in the rear right under the transom brace. I patched that up and that took care of like 90% of my leakage.

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't run the live well pump while I was out but only because it wouldn't run. An electrical problem that I've had in the past I think. That said, the intake and drain through hull openings are obviously below that waterline and water can certainly come in from the outside flooding the system because there are no check valves in the system. If I didn't tighten a clamp enough or (worse yet) drilled a hole through the hose while putting in all those rivets, it would likely leak even if the pump didn't run. I'll put water in the tank and let it go down both the fill and drain lines and see if I can discover anything that way.

I'm glad to hear that filling the boat wasn't a stupid idea. I'll try that again. I'm still suspicious of the rivets hidden by the bunks.

If I had to take everything back out should I be worried about trailering the boat without the stiffness of the floor and seats to hold it all together? It seemed very flexible when it was empty and I wouldn't want to damage it in transport to a boat launch. At least all the rivets I put in have a center that I can drill out from the outside and wouldn't require grinding again.

Has anyone ever had leaks that didn't show up using the flood the inside of the boat approach? 1988 Starcraft

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

I did my live well test today. I plugged both the inlet and outlet through hull fittings and filled the well high enough to back fill the inlet pipe. No water showed up in the back of the boat. I was pretty disappointed. I put the boat back in the garage. When I store it I put the tongue on a jack stand so the bow is higher than the stern and higher than it is when it's on my truck. I was resigned to having to search for another leaky rivet so I went back out to start the inspection. To my surprise and joy, there was almost a quart of water in the back of the boat! I guess the boat was too level during my test and I just couldn't tell that the water was in the bottom of the boat. I didn't wait long enough to have leaked enough water for it to get to the back. Tomorrow I'm going to re-do the test on a hill so I'll know quickly if it's leaking and I can figure out if it's the inlet or outlet that's the problem. I'm VERY happy I won't likely have to take anything other than the well out of the boat. Another update tomorrow. 1988Starcraft

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

just like trailer light issues are always a bad ground.......it seems leaking fishing boat issues is always the live well. Good news.

 

[1988Starcraft]

Re: Replacing The Floor On My 14 foot Starcraft

Well I spent all day doing diagnostics. I took the live well out and couldn't make it leak. I'm not sure where the water I saw came from but it could have been left over from my first test dunking. I put the live well back in and it still didn't leak. I lifted the whole boat off the trailer with my tractor (I guess that's obvious since I'm not that rugged) and couldn't see any missing or loose rivets. I filled the boat with water and low and behold, I see water streaming out. Upon closer inspection, I drilled a hole in the bottom of the boat putting a rivet into the rib above it. What a dope! I didn't see it before since it's in a place where there isn't supposed to be a rivet so I didn't really look at that spot. In my own defense, the spot is on the edge of a rib where I had to attach two rivets (most ribs only had one rivet) and I must have been pretty close to the hull when I drilled through and didn't notice the change in resistance when it came in contact with the outer hull. Oh well, at least I found it and didn't have to take anything big out. I should be able to goop up a rivet with marine epoxy and it should be fine.

Another test dunk when the repairs are done and the weather turns better later in the week.