18 foot starcraft complete rebuild

[diesel]

ok here is the shake down. i aquired a 1978 starcraft super sport v o/b. open bow which had seating in the bow but now is gone due to rotting. this is a new deal for me redoing a boat from the hull up. first things first i want to blast the boat to remove all the different paint that has been put on it over the course of its life. there is a place in plainwell called consolidated stripping i belive that is a do-it-yourself place. so question 1 is will walnut shells weaken the hull? question 2 how thick of a floor is over kill i would like to put in 3/4 floor. question 3 what is a good foam to put under the floor to deaden the sound so it doesnt make as much noise through the water to spook shallow water fish? i got alot more questions but these are just the start. thanks for any info or opionons you may have

[1mainiac]

Blasting the hull may be overkill but walnut shells and light media won't hurt the hull. Inspect every rivet and seam carefully. Remove any pop rivets and replace with buck rivets if possible. I did my 18 Srtarcraft with 1/2 marine grade plywood which I then sealed each peice before installing it and I overlapped it with a second layer of 1/2 plywood with all the seams reversed so it was solid as a rock I also built in a rod locker in the floor while I was laying it out so consider what you want it to look like and build what you want. Pour foam is most likely the best way to deal with foaming it in I never finished mine as my wife made me buy a bigger boat she was not comfortable in the 18 with no bathroom. Weight below the water line won't hurt you much and will add to overall stability. I really liked my old Starcraft but had a chance to get a bigger boat and wife wanted indoor plumbing so I traded it to my my brother. Oh and I have a friend who is over 500lbs and he fished on my boat several times and the dbl planked floor held just fine solid as a rock to work on.

[Prof]

Hi Dan,

First of all, welcome to the site. I'm pretty new here as well, but I've found the members here to be absolutely great and very helpful.

I’m impressed and want to encourage you in your project. Having a vision and then moving to accomplish that vision is one of the greatest feelings that you can have.

I’m sure that there will be many who would be interested in receiving regular updates on your progress (keep in mind that we love pictures) and you might even find some advice that you can sift through as well.

Jim makes an important point when advising you to go through a thorough inspection of the hull and her rivits.

As for your floor, you might want to consider using marine grade plywood as apposed to treated plywood for several reasons. First of all, marine grade plywood, although more expensive in the short run, will likely be not much more expensive in the long run. Here are a couple of reasons why. Marine grade is going to have zero voids and will thus be more ridged then treated which means that you can use a thinner dimension to achieve the same end result. Even if you use the same thickness, marine is going to be lighter – treated is just plain heavy! Remember, that ultimately, your boat has a gross weight capacity and it doesn’t matter how that weight is met. I know that a few pounds here and a few pounds there doesn’t seem like much, but it all adds up.

Secondly, marine is going to have a more uniform thickness and will stay that way. Take a look at treated… first, it is likely not fully dried; therefore you will see some change in the nominal dimensions as it continues to dry. Secondly, it is full of holes, dips and, and if looked at closely, will often be wavy.

Additionally, some treated plywood will have an adverse affect on, and react negatively to, aluminum. Therefore, as your Starcraft is aluminum, you should consider this possibility as well.

Finally, remember that plywood has directional stability. It will be stiffer lengthwise than it will be widthwise, so if you span the longer span with the plywood on the long bias, you will have a stiffer floor – whatever thickness you use.

As for the foam, what ever you do, remember that any water should be able to work its way down and towards the back where your bilge pump can do its thing. While poured foam has some advantages, it does tend to restrict movement of water and may soak up water as well.

Here is a link to another project that is similar to yours.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=260400

They did a great job although they used treated plywood which I would not recommend. You can search the same site and get some great information on this same issue and also on any number of other issues as well.

Anyway, good luck and be sure to keep us informed and please remember the pictures!

John

[S. Yonker]

2 how thick of a floor is over kill i would like to put in 3/4 floor. question 3 what is a good foam to put under the floor to deaden the sound so it doesnt make as much noise through the water to spook shallow water fish?

Great advice so far.

I too am collecting ideas for a project boat & have some suggestions regarding the flooring & sound proofing.

I've been reading that some rebuilders glass in the marine plywood to seal out the water, but I'm leaning toward applying a textured paint such as Durabak to the flooring & eliminating the need to applying a fiberglass barrier.

Durabak will seal out water, provide a non-slip textured colored deck surface & allow me so save weight/install time by not having to resurface the floor using vinyl or carpeting. By not using vinyl flooring or carpeting, the weight that saved can be used to offset the application of Durabak to the entire hull area underneath the floor of the boat. Applying Durabak in this area will provide sound dampening as well as provide a seal around rivets & seams.

After you gut the boat, I was told to fill the boat with water & get underneath it to check for leaky rivets/cracks. If you discover a leaky rivet, I read that some folks drill out the leaky rivets & replace them with 10/24 stanless machine screws with nylock washers. Before tightening the machine screws they applied some 3M 5200 adhesive on the screw head to create a leak proof seal.

I'm also considering replacing the the bow seating area with a step up continuous platform in front of the windshield that will have a built in, insulated, self draining fish box or a cut out in the platform that will hold an Igloo type cooler that I can remove. Any additional space in this platform area could also have some flush mounted boxes that will hold some Plano 3700 tackle trays.

One last idea is to string some of that red or green LED light rope underneath both gunnels that has a dash mounted switch. Using the red or green lighting will preserve your night vision & yet still provide indirect illumination to the floor.

I haven't started my project yet, so by all means post progress pictures & any nifty/novel ideas that you incorporate in your project.

Good Luck!

[diesel]

thanks to all the info so far guys. i have talked to a few guys that have done rebuilds and have gotten a few more ideas on how to go about this. i am still trying to figure out how to post pictures on the threads on this site so bare with me i got some of the start of the project. shooting on a spring of 2010 first time out trip with the thing.

right now here are some of my plans. i am taking the port side consoule out of the boat to make more room for fishing and landing fish if needed since it is an outboard (lots of guys tell me it easier to land on the side which does make sence.).

also gonna repaint the old girl not gonna disclose the paint scheme yet cause i want it to be origanal. also desided on the name for the boat couldnt see still calling her 'dirty bastard' (my brother has some issues glad my sister in law named my neice and not him) the old girl's new name is gonna be "WATERY GRAVE". but as soon as i figure out how to load pictures i will be adding them as i go.

agian ya'll thanks for the help and ideas. good luck with your fishing this year also

see ya on the big ole pond

[Gone_Fishin]

I just finished a rebuild of an 18' open bow Lund. I coated each board (all sides) with Durabak for the reasons Steve mentioned. Fiberglassing the boards seemed like a lot of unnecessary work. This is my first season with the rebuilt boat, so no information on durability of the Durabak. I love the non-slip properties.

I wish I had filled the hull with water as suggested here. I did a visual inspection for a small leak I have, but found nothing. In hind sight, I wonder if I have some water logged foam under the floor boards.

My flooring was 1/2" in the bow area, and thicker at the back of the boat. I replaced it with marine grade of the same dimensions. The two layers of coated 1/2 inch as mentioned would be rock solid, but in my opinion adds a lot of unnecessary weight and work.

Save as much of the old wood as you can for templates. Even then, it is a lot trial and error fitting and trimming. Build the whole floor of bare wood and test fit it in the boat, before you commit to fiberglass or durabak and screws. Make allowances for the thickness of the finish at the joints. Do the same assemble first process for your consoles, bow storage areas, etc.

I found the worst rot on the vertical pieces of wood rather than the floor. I lost 1 1/2 inches to rot on the bottom of my consoles (walk through windshield). It was held together with the carpet used to cover the old wood. I'm sure the rubber backed carpet trapped in moisture and contributed to the problem. I bought the boat used, so I don't know how it was cared for previously. It looks like it spent a decent amount of time outdoors. I hope the coating of Durabak I gave it prevents that in the future.

I replaced all screws and nuts with stainless steel. Jamestown Distributors has an online presence and had everything I needed. All nuts have the nylon insert to prevent vibrating loose.

Good luck, keep us posted.

[Nailer]

Here's one thing to consider in the debate of Marine or treated plywood. The new process of treating wood (since 2002) uses Alkaline Copper Quartenary. The Alkaline Copper Quartenary will have a Galvanic Reaction and eat away at your Aluminum supports.

I don't believe the Marine ply uses the Alkaline Copper Quartenary.

[diesel]

treated lumber is bad for alum. because of the alkaline so what i am gonna do is us a A grade ply wood and mix up firberglass resin and coat the plywood and let the resin set up and then the wood is fully sealed. for what i read and it does make sense so we'll see but first i gotta finish tearing the boat apart and deside if i am gonna blast it so i can start all over from a bare shell for fresh paint