rebuild 1968 Starcraft Mariner v 16'

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Mike96

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Hi everyone, this is my first time working on a tin boat. I have been reading the forums for some ideas and figured I should post my rebuild so I joined. When I started my project I wasn't planning on posting so I don't have many photos from the beginning.
boat.jpg
Last year I bought 1968 Mariner v with 1970s Evinrude 70hp. The hull had some leaks and the motor was a mess. Once I got the motor going and put some pop rivets to fix the leak as I didn't have solid rivets at the time I noticed how the hull would twist and the whole boat felt soft. There was also a crack in the knee brace and knew I would have to reinforce the transom. In the fall when the boat was on the trailer I noticed the transom was bent and it would need to be replaced. This is when I decided to redo the floor and reinforce everything.
knee brace.jpg
when I removed the floor there was all kinds of junk and some presents from the previous owners. I blasted out the ribs and opened all the drainage passages with a pressure washer. I also removed the transom to find it was also rotten
old transom.jpg
I wanted to be able to remove the floor if I needed it. I welded an aluminum frame using 1"x2" rectangular tubing to make a frame and then welded aluminum angle for the joists every 10", all the aluminum was 1/8" wall thickness. Once I had built the frame I put in place and welded L brackets on so they would sit on either side of each rib. This way I can drill out the rivets if I ever need to remove the frame and I don't have to put any holes through the hull.
frame.jpg
I turned the boat on its side to fix any loose rivets before I attached the frame and found a surprise. I have never taken a good look at the bottom before and I saw copper anti-fouling paint and the paint on the bottom was chipping badly so I decided to repaint the hull. I flipped the boat upside and put some boards across the trailer to make it easier to work on. I started sanding it but I couldn't get all the copper off especially with all the rivets to sand around. I ended up using aircraft paint stripper and removed all the paint. I went over the whole bottom looking for any copper paint I missed and found some in some pits so I carefully used a blade and removed all of it. I sanded the whole boat with 220 grit to smooth the surface and help the paint adhere. There was also some old broken clips for a cover that no longer existed so I drilled out the brackets put solid rivets in. I also replaced the temporary pop-rivets I put in the last year to stop the leaks.
preped for paint.jpg
I called a local marina for paint and they were useless and told me to go to an auto paint shop. I figured I would just use the paint I have instead of driving 40 mins to town. I had some Sherwin Williams automotive paint laying around. I applied 3 coats of etch primer then another 3 coats of urethane prime then wet sanded everything with 400 grit which helped hide a lot of the scratches and imperfections.
etch primer.jpg
urathane primer.jpg
I noticed that the hull was bent in along the left edge so I strapped the boat to the trailer upside down and used a hydraulic jack to bend the edge out and straightened it. I did a final coat of primer and then 2 coats of blue 2k acrylic urethane.
painted and straightened.jpg
painted inside.jpg
that's as far as I have gotten in the last couple of weeks. I'm just waiting for the paint to cure before I flip the boat.
 

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