82 Starcraft MR 180 floor, slight refit and leaks

[redneck joe]

About to round third base?

 

[redneck joe]

Got some fancy donated new rod holders in the front.

 

[redneck joe]

Got to put underneath the console together again then move back to finish all the plumbing before the last floor panel in.

 

[redneck joe]

Hooking the shift cables back up and the shift one has two holes to choose from. I had already popped off before I thought to take a pic. Really no wear marks or any clues like that so I mirrored the top. I checked and it shifts correctly at the motor. I also put the throttle cable on both ho.es and it works the same. Why two holes?

 

[redneck joe]

No input on the above for helm controls so went with it we shall see. All hooked back up. The nin year old neighbor kid popped over for lunch (demanding tacos yet again) so he helped put back in. He ran the screw gun while I was underneath holding the nut.

Been a good couple days, nothing pic worthy:

Steering in and working. Cleaned the helm portion of all old grease and lubed up fresh. Shotgun cleaning brush for the tube at the motor and all lubed up.

one of the switches at the helm basically crumbled right after i said 'joe why are you putting back 43 year old switches so all three are being replaced. On the way. THinking about new wire and fuse block. TBD.

Removed the trilling motor wires from the stern to the front. I will be putting the trolling motor batteries up front and will never ever need those.

Pulled the t&t wires thru the new wire chase all went well. Spliced wire back together and other than the known slow internal leak the T&T is up and running. Fun note, if you hit the stripped wire ends to a metal steering wheel the trim activates....

Ignition all back in, kicks over. I'll muff later once i get the fuel lines hooked up.

Check valves in on the livewell drain and the fill line.

Hoping for a test splash next week. Have a customer tomorrow morning so probably no work with this heat in the afternoon.

Hoping for a test splash monday then if all good put the last panel in and call it good for the refit. Lots of other little fun boat stuff but we are closing in.

 

[redneck joe]

Hooked up a fuel line and muffs, she fired up first try.

Need to finish the livewell plumbing then to the lake to putt around for water leak test and such before I pop in the last floor panel.

 

[Fj40fiji]

Hooked up a fuel line and muffs, she fired up first try.

Need to finish the livewell plumbing then to the lake to putt around for water leak test and such before I pop in the last floor panel.

I’ve read all of both of your threads I think. I have just torn my boat down for more repair than I want to take on but here I am. Your thread has given me a ton of information and encouragement to just press on and get this done, and to just lean into it and do it as well as I can. I’m very excited for you to splash this boat!

 

[redneck joe]

OK, I've decided to add a fuseblock for the bilge, livewell and nav lights. The switches are new and the tips are all rusty and they have circuit breakers now that are 43 years old. The existing wire looks to be maybe 12 ga so good there. The fuses appear to be 2am so assuming the fuse I use would be the same? And there appears to be no breaker on the nav lights, suggestion on what fuse Amp to use there?

 

[redneck joe]

Updating main thread with my wiring debacle.

helm wiring, should be simple, i'm not too bright.

Decided to put in a fuse block for my three items that need it to replace the two 43 year old circuit breakers. I want to use old wiring but some became disconnected during my rehab. I have a red, two blacks and two greys. The greys remained hooked up to the nav lights and i just jumped...

forums.iboats.com

 

[redneck joe]

Ready to set the last section of flooring today and..... half inch to long. First round of OTF slathered on the ends.

 

[Fj40fiji]

What a bummer. I went through a gallon and a half of OTF over the week getting all my decks saturated and I decided I’m going to make a couple of cuts/ holes. I have a little old left over epoxy, I’m going to hit the cuts with that to save the effort of repeated coats of OTF. Hopefully they don’t have any detrimental interaction.

 

[redneck joe]

I think i remember you are using nautolex so epoxy should be just fine i would think.

 

[Fj40fiji]

When they build this boat, they really start at the bottom and go up. In order to get to the rivets that hold the side upholstery panels on, you have remove the windshield- the frame of which is also installed over the carpet on the cuddy roof/ dash board area.
The vinyl around the fronts seats and helm was the worst looking part of this boat. I’m all in now so figured I will recover all this too.
Also: found a local upholstery shop that had the CA compliant version of the Weldwood contact adhesive. Note the black band around the top of the label, I believe that’s the low VOC formula, the regular label is solid blue. It isn’t labeled CA compliant, but I think that’s the only major tell in the labeling.

 

[redneck joe]

Hit my 90 degree heat index by 0730 but I'm still going to plug along until I can't.

Goal is steering cable back in, stern section of flooring riveted in, two tank fuel valve mounted and stern gunnel panels and foam back in. About halfway there but dam it's hot.

 

[BWR1953]

Hit my 90 degree heat index by 0730 but I'm still going to plug along until I can't.

Goal is steering cable back in, stern section of flooring riveted in, two tank fuel valve mounted and stern gunnel panels and foam back in. About halfway there but dam it's hot.

Stay safe out there. Overheating can sneak up on you.

 

[redneck joe]

Stay safe out there. Overheating can sneak up on you.

Yeah did about 10 days or so, really dehydration so been recovering from that for a bit. Lips still kinda 'thick'. Just need to jump I'm the pool more often.


Had to backtrack a couple things, missed riveting the floor at the edges. Not to hard but any backward steps are still backward steps.

 

[MikeSchinlaub]

Man, I haven't been getting any notifications for this thread. I just happened to see there was a new post under the Restoration section header.

I clicked unwatch and set it to watch again. We'll see if that works.

 

[redneck joe]

Not much to see, just me rambling on about the heat.

 

[redneck joe]

Been a crazy week. Family from Denmark and Tokyo flew in, three separate 'family' groups in from Mo, another from AL. 14 people first night, kicked one group of three out the second night. 32 people for the day on 4th. I slept almost an entire day afterwards. The two international families are on US side trips, be back friday for a few days then another side trip for each. Then both back to home country on 22 July. I've done about a dozen loads of laundry last 24 hours. Thankfully mostly pool towels and bed sheets.




Back to the boat.

Things I wish I knew ahead of time:

When reassembling the aluminum panels, those little pricks of the hands are actually slices of the skin on the hand. Blood and sweat mixed makes it look quite dramatic. Wife was horrified.

Pay attention to the length of the rivets bought. Long ones take a lot more work.

When riveting flooring one can use a 2x4 to just use the weight of ones fat body to compress rather than squeezing by hand.



Cable boot for the steering cable is out for delivery so that goes on at daylight before the heat hits and I'll be ready for a shakedown cruise.

As a well kept house husband, i have lots of things to do to get ready for the return of family so may not get into the water tomorrow but will need to ASAP, everyone is expecting some boat time and rule #1 is no shakedown cruise with family unless they can problem solve on the water.

 

[MikeSchinlaub]

Acetone will help you find all those little knicks really quick