Starcraft Jupiter project. [Update: 7/25, w/pics]

[-DannyBoy-]

A couple days ago I came home with this in tow... a Starcraft (15, 16 ft.?) It was given to me so I really have no complaints. It has an older 45 horse Chrysler on the back which I know nothing about and I was also given a rebuilt 65 horse Chrysler (again, older), which I think is probably too big for the boat?? Anyways, a buddy of mine and myself have been wanting a boat to build up for awhile. First and foremost, we are fisherman. A good 16ft flatbottom is what we really wanted as we spend alot of time on the rivers but by the time you get a decent shell and motor they are just too expensive around here, especially knowing that we'd be tearing it apart and dropping another 1500 or so on it. So, we're not complaining! The other side to that is... that means tearing out that bow lid and framing up a deck. I know this will pain some of you but it is what it is!... Unless somebody wanted to trade for a flatbottom?? ha.

Here she is...

In love with that old speedo!!

The previous owner supposedly sealed all the seams and rivets before he applied this nasty paint job.One thing I wasn't planning on was getting a new trailer for it, but after seeing the bent tongue and patch weld job behind the spare tire...it's gotta go.

I really like the boat. It's not my first choice, but you can't beat the price of free. It seems pretty sound as well. Transom will need replaced but other than that and some teardown, I think it will be a relatively straight-forward build, from the bottom up. Monday we will clean it up, maybe tear it apart some more and draw out some plans. Luckily, my friend is a dirty used car sales manager, so we have access to their shop!

Sorry for the long post! Thoughts??

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

I'll resize the pics next time. Sorry!

 

[HopeSheFloats]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Welcome to the club!
A beauty, and at that price you can't go wrong
Looks like an older Jupiter model{not sure though}, Our own 'Huron Angler' has put together a page of brochures on a ton of older Starcrafts..here...
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=349830

Tear that bow covering right off, if that's what you want, I may end up doing that myself to mine someday, the heck with the purist , make it yours!

Look forward to watching this come back to life.

 

[IceWater]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Of course the price is right, but so is the boat. A Starcraft is the best boat for fishing. 16' is easy to handle and you can get it into smaller lakes. You will get plenty of good restoration ideas by looking at the other Starcraft projects on the forum.

Good luck!

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Thanks guys. I've been ALL OVER the resto forum for a couple weeks now and have learned alot.

Sooo, first official question. The previous owner put that turd nasty paint job on the boat and supposedly sealed all the seams/rivets on the OUTSIDE with some unknown compound. It's not seen the water since paint. I would like to replace it but am concerned with the rough texture of the paint there. Should I wet/dry sand? If there is some kind of sealing compound on the outside, could it be sanded or wire-wheeled off so I can gluvit the inside?

Suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[jspano]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

i had some kind of textured paint on my hull. my first thought was to rough it up and paint over it but sanding seemed to risk damaging the rivets so i went to striping the paint.... it was a PITA but turned out well worth the trouble. i got it to bare alum i self etched it and went to a paint store (the kind you would get your house paint from) the guy was really knowledgable and bought a qt of self ecthing primer for like 12.00 (i didn't realize that it was self ecthing until after i got home and read the can) so there are options out there i would have spent a lot more buying rattle cans.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Okay..... here is a link to Starcraft Restorations (not all but most going on) http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=385090 (thanks North Beach)

And

Here is a link to MANY Starcraft brochures http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=349830 (thanks Huron Angler) which make help you identify the model.

You have a modified Hosclaw Trailer that has been .... well home brew modified.

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Just out of curiousity, what do you all think about that trailer, is it worth anything? I don't want to keep the boat on it, regardless. I travel long distances often chasing fish and would much rather have a bigger trailer, bigger tires, possibly galvanized.

Just a reminder. Note the bent tongue held up by a patch weld job under the bow.

 

[redfury]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

I'm sure that trailer can handle that boat just fine...great thing about metal trailers...they can be welded. That boat is probably going to come in ( with motor ) at about 900lbs I would imagine. A replacement trailer off craigslist is going to run you between free to $600 depending on exactly what you are willing to buy. Fix that one up a bit ( make it purdy ) and sell it for $150.

Oh, and that Jupiter should be able to handle the 65hp Chrysler no problem.

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Oh, and that Jupiter should be able to handle the 65hp Chrysler no problem.

Ya, after seeing somebody on this forum had an 80 horse Merc on theirs, I'm confident mine will handle the 65.

P.S. That motor just got dropped off and I can't believe how good of shape it's in. The guy that rebuilt it even said he'd like to come along on my first splash just in case it needed some adjusting! He also said that old 45 wouldn't take much to get going. The 65 didn't come with controls, but I'm pretty sure the controls on the 45 will work on it, the wiring is run and marked already, so I'm pretty darn pleased at this point.

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Got things pretty well cleaned up tonight. A lot of teardown and cleaning. We didn't really plan on doing much but once we got going things just seemed to never end... Got a lot of the remaining crap gutted, just need to get the splashwell off now (which will be a pain!) and a few other loose ends. We had it in a shop with a hotsie, so we fired that sucker up and cleaned the living crap out of it. Got a good portion of the non-skid stuff off of the inside walls and really cleaned up the bottom nicely. The good news is we had that boat filled up pretty good with water 3 different times and only found 1 very small leak (that made it throught the turd paint, anyways)

I need to get some pics up so I can seek some advice on a few things.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

My last boat was a Jupiter. I had an 85 on it which was the max it was rated for. It pounded you in the chop pretty good but was a VERY stable hull. Should make a great fishing boat. If you haven't seen this one already http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=386551 he did a great fishing conversion on a Jupiter.

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Hey ezmobee (or anybody else for that matter), how did you seal the edges of the subfloor in your Jupiter, assuming you did? There's that weird channel on the sides that the floor will fit into and I'm struggling to figure our how that will get glassed in...

 

[ezmobee]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

I didn't seal it and I can't think of any reason you'd need to.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Hey ezmobee (or anybody else for that matter), how did you seal the edges of the subfloor in your Jupiter, assuming you did? There's that weird channel on the sides that the floor will fit into and I'm struggling to figure our how that will get glassed in...

Most of us have kept the width of the deck such that it doesn't actually touch those "channels" that are actually sponsons/chines to reduce spray.

If the deck makes contact with those when the hull flexes you can get some squeaking that gets olds real quick.

I agree that the 65hp will be a good size for the rig, and that smaller Chrysler will probably be a good parts motor(if they are similar vintage).

BTW you don't need to glass the deck, you can just coat with epoxy resin, using actual cloth/mat is better but not required by any means.

Congrats on the free boat, and welcome to the tin can madness

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Ok so as long as I've got the drains unclogged in the stringers I shouldn't worry about getting water underneath the subfloor?

I guess I always thought the idea was to keep the bottom of the boat as dry as possible by sealing it off as best you can to keep things from rotting from the bottom up...

 

[ezmobee]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

I wouldn't at all worry about it. Pull the plug when you get home and store her bow high.

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Hey EZ, being as how you also had a bigger motor on the back of your jupiter, did you find it necessary to have the splashwell? Mine looks to be about twice as deep as yours and I was thinking about eliminating it completely... I'm going to at least cut it down in size. Thoughts?

 

[ezmobee]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

You have the same splashwell but a taller transom. I wouldn't eliminate it altogether but you could shorten it up a bit. Check out this thread http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=412704

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

Re: First Starcraft. Thoughts?

No picture-worthy updates but I've got some things done in the last couple weeks. Last night we got the splashwell and bow cap off. What a chore that was!! The splash well wasn't AS bad but that lid...wow. We ended up cutting the rubber bumper trim on the very front of the boat and removed it so we could loosen up the pice it fits into, which also clamped down that lid. So the teardown is officially a wrap. The transom was more like sawdust on one side, mulch on the other but we did manage to get the mulch side out intact so that will help us to make a template.
It had all kinds of nails in it that went right through the aluminum, which means I have a lot of unnecessary holes to fill.

Speaking of that bumper trim, can that be bought by the foot anywhere? The PO spray painted my existing trim black and it's sticky as flypaper.

I'll get some pics up next time.