We have a new project....

Chad Huff

Chad Huff

New member
thanks to Ed L. Matt and I have a new boat project to work on for the fall. We bought Ed's dad's boat, and now that Baseball season is almost over we are working on it together and planning to use it this year on the Mississippi. It's a 1961 Starcraft, 15' with a '71 Evinrude 25 hp.

A lot of you have probably seen this boat in Ed's posts, but here are some more photo's, including some of work to be done. I will post up more pictures as we work on it.

[inline boatfull.jpg]


View attachment boatrear.jpg

[inline transom.jpg]

the first step will be to tear out the old wooden seat tops then sand and paint the inside. After that replace the seats and flotation.


View attachment flotation.jpg


View attachment flotation2.jpg

In the meantime, we could use some ideas on a good boat blind system for a V bottom like this.... anybody have any experience or ideas/ We sure appreciate the help?


Thanks,

View attachment Boatfull.jpg
View attachment transom.jpg
View attachment Boatfull.jpg
View attachment boatrear.jpg
View attachment transom.jpg
View attachment flotation.jpg
View attachment flotation2.jpg
 
Last edited:
This is a job for the one and only Scott Farris ; )

He built a very cool blind system on his boat, which is similar to yours. Looks like a fun project and your son will learn a ton.
 
Chad and Mat,

It'll be fun to watch this project come together!

Go luck with it. I plan to see you both back over here this season.

Ed L.
 
Those old v-bottoms can make great duck boats. A friend of mine just got his webpage up, they make custom blinds on the side. They also sell camo cordura and blind accessories, you might want to check out the blind sockets. The web site is huntersdesignblinds.com. Check it out and you can get some ideas for yours. Good Luck! Mark
 
Chad,

How solid is the transom? It looks rough from here. Is it in good physical shape but just looks cosmetically rough? I'd want to be sure it is sold before I went too awfully far out into the river. The motor puts a lot of force into that part of the boat.

Charlie
 
Charlie,

I don't want to speak out of turn but since I know the boat....hehe.....The transom is a strange design in boats. The transom is fully tigged aluminum and is sandwiched between 1/2" ply. It has two of the beefest aluminum gussets I've seen on a boat of that size. The ply neeeds to be replaced but we took the boat out for a test drive and after all these years there is NO flex to that transom at all. Good question though!

Take care,

Ed L.
 
Chad,

If you ran the numbers on the replaced center section it may say the motor is a "1971". Just for future information it's a 1975 although I'm sure common parts will fit both years. Also I'll need to check but I think I have all the part numbers in exploded views for the various functional groups such as "power head", "Lower Unit" "Fuel System"....etc. If I still have that backed up I'll send you the files.

Ed L.
 
Thanks guys! We are already having a GREAT time with the project (plus we are carving a bunch of decoys as well, now that the garage is finally setup after the move). We finished taking out the old wood from the seats and deck, and all the old flotation. I will post some pictures later today.

Andrew, I emailed Scott and got the plans for his blind. I like it a lot, and am thinking about doing something similar. A couple concerns I have are:

1. Dog on slippery flat surfaces (plus it looks like some sharp bends that could be a bit hazardous). I am sure scott has figured all this out though :)
2. Storage
3. Expense (afraid I am not Scott Farris when it comes to bending, cutting and welding).


Mark,
Neat site. Those blind brackets might be the ticket. I am also looking at these:
http://www.acconmarine.com/p-87-qr-bimini-top-post-hinge.aspx

anyone with any experience with them?

Charlie,
AS Ed said, the transom is Bomber, but the wood is a disaster. replacing it is going to be a BIG project. I am wondering if there is a need for so much wood. Especially the wood below waterline.

Any pictures of blinds on old V bottoms anyone?

Thanks everyone! This is a great site, and you guys have a ton of experience, that a marsh rat from Missouri like me doesn't have, so I appreciate the help.
 
we have a ways to go, but we got the seats, decking, and old nasty flotation out. A grinder helps a bunch on the old rusty bolts.... just so you don't catch the old rotten plywood on fire :)


View attachment Mybuildpartner.jpg


View attachment cleanupstarted1.jpg


View attachment cleanup2.jpg


View attachment cleanup3.jpg


When sanding the old paint, should we take everything off, or just the loose stuff. The paint is old enough, that I wonder about it's durability if I don't take it all off.

Also, what grit sand paper would you guys recommend on a belt sander???.... I don't want to rough the metal up to much.

View attachment Mybuildpartner.jpg
View attachment cleanupstarted1.jpg
View attachment cleanup2.jpg
View attachment cleanup3.jpg
 
Sanding paint stinks. At that age I'd think it is pretty likely that there is some lead paint involved too. You don't really want to get that airborne if that is the case.

My personal favorite paint remover is called "Aircraft Remover". It is a nasty gel that you spread over the old paint and it causes it to come loose, then you take it off with a scraper. It is VERY ugly stuff, "methly-ethyl nastystuff" as our hazmat instructor used to say.

That being said, if you work outdoors and are very careful (keep the boy away) you will be down to bare metal in no time and will have a fresh substrate to work with.

On the one I restored (76 starcraft mariner 16') I rinsed several times, scuffed with 3M pads, rinsed again, cleaned with a commercial degreaser and then shot 2 part epoxy primer. After that I topcoated with parkers. It is not as durable as FME, but I didn't know about FME at the time...

Any way you do it, put a tarp under the hull to catch the paint and nasties. Dispose of them properly for all our sakes.

Charlie
 
Klean-Strip's Aircraft Remover is the only way to go. Flip the hull over and put it over a DISPOSABLE tarp as Charlie mentioned and follow the directions. If you scuff the paint up with 80 grit first it helps to get the paint remover down where it needs to be. Disposable gloves only slow down the burning where you get it on your hands, use heavy kitchen type rubber gloves and keep a hose handy to rinse off any that gets on you. Rinse and scrub like Charlie said and use a primer for ALUMINUM and it will hold up for years to come.

Great project! Keep us posted.

Gene
 
WOW...You guys are movin! Looks better already! Chad I don't believe you'll have to worry about lead. The paint dad used was Parkers over Starcraft original paint. I don't think Parkers used lead in their paint. Even in the 60's lead was a big issue.

Keep up the good work!

Ed
 
Charlie and Gene, I went on Klen Strip's site and found the following info:

This professional grade paint stripper is fast acting and will effectively remove finishes from the metal surfaces of automobiles, trucks and cycles. It is effective on acrylics, lacquers, polyurethanes, baked enamels and epoxies. Non-corrosive to common metals under normal exposure time.

I believe that parkers is oil based, am I correct? I am not seeing oil based products listed. Any experience?


According to the website, it is available at O'Rielly auto, pep boys and Walmart automotive.
 
That boat and that boy look like they were born to duck hunt.

Please keep the pics coming, that looks like a great mid-summer project.
 
Not sure about the parkers paint but sounds right. With the parkers being on top of the original finish I think it would still work. I'd rough up the parkers with a course enogh grit to see the original finish showing through in the scratches, so the remover can get down to it. I've only used this product in automotive uses, there may be other oil based paint specific removers out there. If it was me, I'd try the aircraft remover before sanding the whole thing. I've run into a few paint substrates that just turned gummy and had to be wiped off rather than easily scraped and rinsed, might have been oil? Having a can of paint thinner handy to wipe it down with for cleanup is helpfull as well. A body puddy spreader works well to scrape the peeling paint off as the remover works it's magic.

Good luck!

Gene
 
Ditto what Gene said.

In the past I purchased it at a local auto body supply store, but maybe that has changed? You don't want the aerosol, you want the gallon container of gel like stuff.

Charlie
 
Ed, glad to see that the boat and motor found a good home. Chad and Matt you got a great deal there hope to see some pics of it in new paint.
 
I've painted two IH Scout IIs twice each with single stage automotive paint as well as several old canoes. Don't get too fancy.

First wash down with strong soap & hot water. I'd invest 80 bucks or so in a Makita disc sander & attack the hull with a wire brush. If it won't wire brush off - it doesn't want to come off.

Keep in mind there are 50 year old aluminum boats around with no finish at all still being used. I'd use a base coat of Rustoleum flat black. Then get a local paint store to duplicate "burnt umber" in a flat oil base paint and create your own camo pattern.

Brushed on paint is more durable than rattle can paint any day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top