When I was a youngster, I got to drive our family’s 14’ Glastron runabout every summer. I’d been wanting to buy and renovate a 14-15’ runabout for some time, so I started checking Craigslist. I came across this 1964 Jet Star with a 50hp West Bend motor, listed for $750. My offer of $700 was accepted, and after selling the motor and some things that were in the boat for $380, my total initial outlay was $320.
1964 Starcraft Jet Star
The Jet Star was primarily designed as a sporty ski/watersport boat with a bench front seat and a rear-facing bench seat for observers. Its length is 15’ and it had all the features I’d been looking for in a boat. I had never really worked on boats before, but after reading a lot of information on iboats, I decided it was something I really wanted to do.
Before picture of the bow area.
The before picture of the transom area.
The first phase of my renovation was to clean it up and get it ready for painting, my goal being to have a safe and nimble older-style boat that I could enjoy on the water. I purchased a 2003 50hp Johnson and installed new seats, floor, flotation, rack and pinion steering system, and modified the transom to accept the long-shaft motor. By the time I had finished, I had learned a lot about painting, and had installed all new deck hardware (except for the famed “Jetson” stern light!), the Johnson 50 with new controls, a bilge pump, new rub rail, rewired the entire boat, and laminated an oak dashboard. It took a lot of research and hard work, but it was worth it.
After picture of bow area.
After picture of transom area.
The final details added to finish it up were vinyl decals of the name “Permanent Vacation” on each side, a new capacity plate and two cup holders.
Overall I really enjoyed the project, but one thing that added to its expense and made it take much longer than I had anticipated was that I did not have a clear objective in mind when I started out. I had not decided early on whether I just wanted to get on the water as quickly as I could, or really make this into a “showboat”. In the end, the latter just evolved because as I went along, I thought, “I’m only going to do this once, so I might as well make it look as nice as I can.” With the help of many iboat forum members, all my effort has paid off, because it’s a pleasure to drive and a lot of people on the water are very curious and I get a lot of compliments when they see it.
The final product! Looks great! Restoration completed by lakelover
View many more pictures and information on this restoration here.
Nice Job !!!! It really looks great !!
Looks awesome man! Nicely done!
Outstanding write up. Congrats on getting ‘published’
Thanks for the comments!
Just curious – did you replace the windshield? I have an 18.5 ft. ’63 day cabin I am still using… it has two curved Plexi windshields. Want ot be sure I can replace those before I start the project