In Motion Now!!!

A reasonably busy last couple of days. Goals were to get the motor off the boat and stored in the garage and to get the boat in the garage off the trailer. I ended up getting more done… some out of necessity (boat was too heavy to get off the trailer on my own) and some cause I got rolling!

It started on Friday night… built an engine hoist out of some scrap wood and metal bits lying around. It ain’t pretty (referring to the hoist not my mug shot …

My had dropped by… it was great to have another set of hands to help… full shot of the motor still on the boat and hooked up to the hoist…

Everything went pretty we’ll… I really need to have a solid wheel at the end of the boom as the come-a-long bound up preaty good. Ah well… it worked!

With the motor off and stored away… got down to business. Got the seats, and sides removed.

Got the splashwell out cleanly with no issues this time. Removed the rear floor and some of the styrofoam. I guess a little snow had got in and the main pieces in the center are currently fused to the floor.

Then I removed the gas tank and the stand the tank was sitting on. Original OMC tank — 24 US gal!!! Pretty large… not too bad of shape actually. There was some leakage at the top where the filler pipe joined the tank. Other than that, look pretty good. Had about 2 gallons of fuel in it.

 

• Re: 1968 Starcraft Jupiter – Rebuild

  Then removed the floor boards. They came out cleanly… good for templates. Much of the styrofoam was in mint shape… like it was brand new. No water absorption or deterioration whatsoever. I then cleaned up and put much of the good stuff on my covered porch. The side panels are also in great shape.

  

  With the load lightend considerably, I hook the trailer and boat to the car and was able to push, pull and lift the boat off the trailer onto my dollies. With some effort, I was able to get the boat into the garage, ready for the phase. It really feels now like things are in motion… transom comes out next and with some heat in the garage, the rest of the styrofoam should come out as well. Then cleanup and removal of the windshield and other bits so that I can flip the boat over.

  

  I also was able to re-store my trailer behind the garage. Using a system of ramps and just plain old dragging the tongue and a lot of grunting, I was able to get it up the stone stairs and a 18″ rock wall so that it is out of the way for the rest of the winter. Note to self, need a better system! Overall, got some stuff done. Feel good that things are in motion again and in the right direction.

Major Update — Out with Starcraft I and in with Starcraft II

A new tinny has arrived! Baby Jupiter V…

But first… the story. It was chilly this morning… new english temps:

Old english temps:

Jupiter 1 left home this morning… all loaded up and stripped down:

Was dropped off at the scrap yard. A moment of silence was held…
Interesting note: It weighed in at exactly 300 lbs.

The drive north with the rebuilt trailer was smooth as silk. No issues whatsoever. Lights worked. Trailer tracked straight. Car ran fine.

 

• Arrived at the seller’s house and got to work. Rick the seller, had the boat on blocks. However, my back roller on the trailer would not go under the boat. So we un-hitched the trailer, lifted the tongue of the trailer up in the air and hooked the roller under the front of the hull. We then attached the witch cable to the eye hook of the boat and began to winch the trailer under the boat — slowly. Little by little the trailer worked it’s way under the boat with the keel sliding from roller to roller. With less then 2 feet to go, the boat was perfectly balanced on the trailer. We re-coupled the trailer to the car and winched the boat the last foot and a bit. Worked like a charm!

  

  

  Drove back home without incident.

  Couple of shots of the boat — sorry if the quality is lacking — but it was pitch black outside by the time we got home:

  It has a had cranked windshield wiper of all things!! It also has some kind of box on the front deck behind the bow light. I haven’t a clue what it is yet… anybody got any ideas from the picture?

  

  AM Radio — it works. As does the speedo.

  

  Pretty clean inside compared to the other Jupiter…

  

   

• On board bow gas tank! Not sure if this works… but pretty cool.

  

  65 hp Stinger “Mean Machine” motor. Works. Prop is brand new. Motor apparently runs great. We shall see.

  
  

  Seats are not in great shape. But I have another set!

  
  That’s it for tonight. I will see if I can get a video tomorrow and do a walk around in daylight. Have a great night!

Epic Sanding Saga

It really looked like someone had put 20 or 30 cherry bombs ina bag of green flower and then lit the cherry bombs off!!!  The good news is that i have managed to partially clean the garage.  Sanding continues at a somewhat glacial pace given our proximity to xmas.  executive decision with corporate approval is to insulate the garage.  I just cannot get the garage warm enough for what needs to be done next without insulation.  i think that there will be better progress once xmas is done and sanding is complete.  Here are some money shots….

well tomorrow… i cannot paste using a tablet computer in wordpress…. go figure.

Dust Storm – Part 1

Sanding is not high on my list of things I like to do.  I don’t despise it — I just find it somewhat unpleasant.  Think enema and you will get the idea.

Nonetheless, an old friend came over Friday night to help with the challenge of sanding the old paint off the boat and grind out the corroded parts of the hull.  After 3 1/2 hours we had managed to sand one side of the hull — more or less to a primer ready state.  We both looked like we had been in a desert sand storm.  I wisely, had worn a full face mask breathing apparatus.  Tom went alfresco — not even a mask.  His theory — he would go out for a smoke when it got too dusty and the preceding coughing fit would dislodge the dust from his lungs.   strangely, this seamed plausible.  If it worked for him, it worked for me.  He didn’t die… so a win win for both of us.  I really appreciated his help, as it is a big, nasty job to sand off the paint and grind out the 1 billion corroded and pitted area’s of the hull.  We used a combination of orbital oscillating sander, wire wheel and cone on a drill and hand sanding.

On Saturday, I spent only and hour and vacuumed the garage.  On Sunday and Monday evenings I learned something invaluable.  If you use a cone wire wheel on a 11,000 rpm grinder, you can cut your time from 7 people hours (politically correct term) to 45 min to sand/grind one side of the hull of a boat.  On top of that, the job done is brilliant.  It required only a quick hand sand using 120 and 180 grit paper to bring it to a state that can be readied for primer in the spring with a quick sand using 220 and 320 paper.

Tonight and tomorrow all being well, I hope to complete the sanding of the hull and sides of the boat and flip it back over to begin the transom next week.

The Stern

So the idea for the stern of the boat is this:  I am having a new stern piece cnc’d out of Aluminum that I will attach to the existing stern — skinned on the outside of it.  I will then make the transom board to match the new design — basically the back of the Jupiter is smily face … now the transom will be much higher — two inches lower than the two sides of the boat.  It will extend towards the center of the transom on both sides at that height.  There will be a 31 inch wide opening that the splash well will attach to.  The splash well is now 34″ deep instead of 24″.  On either side of the splash will be 3 pcs of 3/4″ ply attached to 2×2 aluminum angle iron riveted to the hull ribs and the transom.  There will be 2 small jump seats or perhaps two swivel seats that can extend upwards for fishing…. more likely the later will be installed.  A swim platform will also attache to the hull beside the motor so that we can get in and out of the boat from the water with much more ease!
The result:  more transom strength;  room for the gas tank; fishing platform without taking up much room in the boat; new splash well that is in good shape!
Will post pictures as I get into it!

More Progress…

I have made some indirect progress on the boat.  I now have all of the patch plans and have the aluminum patch itself.  There are 20 holes in the bottom of the hull around where the transom brace attaches to the hull.  The aluminum itself seems strong enough… but not in great shape if I am being honest.  The plan is still to rivet and 5200 holes that are small enough to be riveted.  5200 the larger holes with and aluminum backer in the floor of the boat and then rivet the patch in place and 5200 the patch to the hull as I rivet it.

I had the patch designed like a triangle to try and make it a tad more aero dynamic so as to try to reduce the chances of it lifting and/or peeling back.  We shall see if this actually works.

 

I also cleaned up an old tach — I think it came out great!!  Wayne at my work also created a great SS Starcraft logo on his lunch hour (thanks Wayne!!!) for the sides of the boat and one for the dash.  They will really look good when I buff them up!

The Flip Continued — and more…

Progress update:  Managed to get the boat flipped over and into the garage.  The neighbors next door, my 4 year old son and wife got the boat flipped over by lifting it off the dollies, setting it on it’s side and rolling it over on to the dollies.  Really wasn’t a big deal.  With the boat completely stripped it probably doesn’t weigh more than 250 to 300 lbs.
Getting it into the garage was a bit more challenging.  When it was up right the nose of the boat cleared the shelves at the back of my garage and fit neatly between the two shelves with about an inch to spare.  However, with it flipped over, I had to actually lift the nose of the boat onto the shelves and slide it in.  The doors for the shelves also had to come off to allow access for the whole nose of the boat to fit.
The other challenge is that I have a remote control indoor rock crawling course on the the right hand side of the garage.  Right now it holds the splash well, the side panels, the remains of the dash and other salvage debris from the gutting of the boat.  As a result it is rather tight to get the right side of the boat… but hopefully I will be able to properly sand that side.
I will get into it in a bit…but I have decided to redesign a the stern of the boat — transom area, splash well etc.  The idea is that the gas tank I want to install will not fit under the existing splash well, the splash well is not in the best of shape if I am being honest and I would like to re-enforce the transom.  I will detail it out more shortly.

The Flip

I now have the boat flipped over and upside down in my garage.  I used a wire brush attachment on my drill to scrub the area on the bottom of the boat were the triangular transom brace attaches to the bottom of the boat.  I will post some pictures shortly, but the long and short of it is that there are about 20 holes in the bottom of the boat.  I used the claw end of my hammer to bang on the metal in the area and it seams surpising solid.  The hammer bounces of the metal — no denting or softness.
The most interesting discovery though is the fact that approx. 40% of the rivits that hold the floor ribs in place are corroded — some quite badly.  The hull had hundreds of small corroded area about the size of a dime!  Along the edge of the keel was also badly corroded.  I used the drill wire brush to clean each one out… there isn’t any perferation… but it doesn’t look great.  I did a little reseach on the corrosion and it seams that it could be that the boat sat in the water and as a result corrosion was able to occur or that the paint that was applied caused the corrosion.
Here is my plan to fix the holes and patch/seal the corroded areas around the rivits and the hull. 1. Sand the hull and wire brush out the corroded areas 2. I am going to get a triangular patch made of 18 gauge aluminum to go over the back of the hull made up at work on Wednesday. 3. Put a rivit in the small perferations with 5200 in each hole 4. 5200 the larger holes with an alumium patch on the inside of the hull 5. Rivit the patch to the bottom of the hull and put 5200 sandwitched between the hull and the patch to add an extra layer of protection to that area. 6. Put 5200 to fill all the corroded areas around the rivits 7. When everything has dried/set, lightly sand any areas that are rough 8. Paint in the spring when it is warm…

Logo’s and Gas Tank

On another note, the Starcraft logo on the sides of the boat were missing. However, the guys at one of our plants is going to laser cut a couple of Starcraft logo’s. I will post some pictures when I have them. They are made out of stainless steel… they should be quite nice.

I also have a 12 gallon gas tank that I am going to mount in the boat. I was hoping to put it up front, but it makes the leg run a bit tight — I am 6 4′ — so leg run is important. If I mount it at the back, it will actually fit perfectly between the aluminum stringers! It will also fit under the splash well. I may have to extend the splash well a bit to have a cover/sliding doors in front of it. Has anyone put a gas tank of approx. this size at the back? With the boat be to low at the back with the motor, battery and approx. 85 lbs of fuel? I can modify it a bit at the front to make it fit better… it’s just not ideal.

The Discovery

I now have the boat flipped over and upside down in my garage. I used a wire brush attachment on my drill to scrub the area on the bottom of the boat were the triangular transom brace attaches to the bottom of the boat. I will post some pictures shortly, but the long and short of it is that there are about 20 holes in the bottom of the boat. I used the claw end of my hammer to bang on the metal in the area and it seams surpising solid. The hammer bounces of the metal — no denting or softness.

The most interesting discovery though is the fact that approx. 40% of the rivits that hold the floor ribs in place are corroded — some quite badly. The hull had hundreds of small corroded area about the size of a dime! Along the edge of the keel was also badly corroded. I used the drill wire brush to clean each one out… there isn’t any perferation… but it doesn’t look great. I did a little reseach on the corrosion and it seams that it could be that the boat sat in the water and as a result corrosion was able to occur or that the paint that was applied caused the corrosion.

Here is my plan to fix the holes and patch/seal the corroded areas around the rivits and the hull.
1. Sand the hull and wire brush out the corroded areas
2. I am going to get a triangular patch made of 18 gauge aluminum to go over the back of the hull made up at work on Wednesday.
3. Put a rivit in the small perferations with 5200 in each hole
4. 5200 the larger holes with an alumium patch on the inside of the hull
5. Rivit the patch to the bottom of the hull and put 5200 sandwitched between the hull and the patch to add an extra layer of protection to that area.
6. Put 5200 to fill all the corroded areas around the rivits
7. When everything has dried/set, lightly sand any areas that are rough
8. Paint in the spring when it is warm…

This should work to seal and strengthen the area.  All being well!