1999 Starcraft Superfisherman Transom Restoration

[muskyhunter1978]

Think it over, and you might come up with a solution.

Storage can be an issue in any boats. I have nephews who bring an entire tackle store when they come. Within 20 mins, every surface is covered in stuff. I have to constantly remind them to put their stuff back in their giant suitcases, so we can walk around the boat, and to lay their rods in the back corners of the boat when they grab another one.

Constant battle. Was the same when I had a 20' bass boat with tons of under deck rod storage, go figure. NEVER enough storage on a boat!

Ha! buddy... i have a 15 year old son who turns out boat in a mine field of lures, rods, etc every outing. I keep reminding him to keep the boat in order becuase if someone hooks a musky, its a chinese fire drill every time to get the net and land the fish.. lol.

The issue with musky rods these days is they're getting longer and longer. Most are in the 8'6" to 9'6" range and they challenging to store. I was looking at this boat. The main cockpit floor is made up of three panels running the length of the boat. I wouldn't mind investigating in floor storage here for rods. Maybe when I refloor this thing as my next project, I'll look into it and hopefully come up with a nice setup.

 

[muskyhunter1978]

Did you add thickener to the epoxy before filling the holes? That makes life a lot easier. Chopped strand or Cabosil makes it stronger, too.

Nope... lol. I used penetrating epoxy on the whole thing and regular epoxy on the holes. Thankfully, most of the holes filled about 3/4' when they cured. Belt sander with 120grit cleans up the backside mess easily. I should be good to go. Lesson learned.. I haven't worked a lot with epoxy (though I do like working with it), so a rookie mistake. Thankfully i have a gallon of it for many projects... haha.

 

[thill]

If you have any fiberglass cloth or mat around, use scissors and just chop some up. Mix a little epoxy and stir it in. You can actually use regular pink insulation, too, if you have some around. It takes a bit of mixing to get it completely saturated, but it works just fine.

Having the fiber in the epoxy or resin makes it stronger and uses less epoxy, so it's a win-win.

 

[thill]

Ha! buddy... i have a 15 year old son who turns out boat in a mine field of lures, rods, etc every outing. I keep reminding him to keep the boat in order becuase if someone hooks a musky, its a chinese fire drill every time to get the net and land the fish.. lol.

You understand! It's a battle, but is fun to have the kids on board

 

[muskyhunter1978]

You understand! It's a battle, but is fun to have the kids on board

For sure. This is him through the last few years and he and I's fishing addiction... they grow up too quick!

 

[Casey6169]

NEW UPDATE:

I finally had some decent weather where I could feel my face and hands enough to do some work in the garage (not heated unfortunately). Getting the wood out turned out to be quite the chore. Starcraft should have infomercials... "but wait... there's more!" for the amount of screws and rivets they use in their boats... lol. There is a channel that the wood sits into. They had four screws through that channel into the wood. Two of the screws in the center were easily removed, but the two on the ends required me to either lift up the entire floor of the boat to get to, or cut the wood away enough to expose them. I opted for plan B and just cut the wood out. I'm planning on doing a complete reflooring job and vinyl in a year or two anyway. Besides that, I can patch it back in for now and reapply the carpet for the time being.

The wood is really jammed in there on the sides. Its tight to the side walls of the boat and required quite a bit of back and for finessing to finally wiggle it up far enough that it popped completely free. Out it came!

Now the ugly.... yes, its is very ugly. The water intrusion was pretty bad as you can see and the damp treated wood did a number on the aluminum skin. But, alas, I did run a flap disc across the aluminum briefly to see what I had and it looks worse than it is. It cleans up really easily down to bare metal.

I'm going to spend the next week or however long it takes flap discing it as clean as I can get it, then using an acid, such as white vineger, with stainless brushes to scour and further deep clean it. I'm also going to completely remove all paint from the outside of the aluminum to expose the metail so I can see any hidden defects that need cleaned up.

One other thing I discovered is that the foam underneath the flooring I removed is damp. Not soaked, but damp. I am going to cut the floor way back from the transom and dig it all out of there to dry foam and get some closed cell foam to replace it before putting the floor back down. When I do get to the full floor replacement, I'm going to replace all foam with closed cell in the floor.

I feel like the hardest part is over, disassembly. From here its pretty straight forward and not quite as time consuming work. A labor of love.

A couple pics of the carnage...

Hello. I have a 1996 superfisherman 190. Bad transom. And I've removed all the screws that I've seen. And not been able to pop the transom out. Actually have picked rhe boat up by the transom. Please help identify hidden bolts

 

[muskyhunter1978]

Hello. I have a 1996 superfisherman 190. Bad transom. And I've removed all the screws that I've seen. And not been able to pop the transom out. Actually have picked rhe boat up by the transom. Please help identify hidden bolts

It can be TIGHT, depending on how swelled the wood is. But, I'd go over the entire thing to ensure every bolt and screw is out. There is a ton of fasteners.

Here are a couple of places that caught me by surprised and I missed.

1. There is a channel the bottom of the transom wood sits on/in. There are like 6 screws through the channel, into the wood. The bad part is, you have to cut away, or lift the entire floor of the boat to get to a couple of the screws. I opted to cut the wood and will patch back in when I reassemble.
2. There are small, L brackets inside the gunnels that tie the gunnel sides to the transom. They are a PITA to get to. Open the doors on the back of the gunnels and look back up in there. You should see those brackets and screws.

Once I had all of the screws and bolts out. I took 3" lag screw eyes and screwed them into the top of the transom on each end. Then, I attached my engine hoist to an eye and little by little, began wiggling the wood up out of there. You'll get to a point where its wiggled free enough and she'll pop right up out. Its going to be HEAVY so either use a hoist or other method to lift it, or get another person. Hope this helps!

 

[Casey6169]

It can be TIGHT, depending on how swelled the wood is. But, I'd go over the entire thing to ensure every bolt and screw is out. There is a ton of fasteners.

Here are a couple of places that caught me by surprised and I missed.

1. There is a channel the bottom of the transom wood sits on/in. There are like 6 screws through the channel, into the wood. The bad part is, you have to cut away, or lift the entire floor of the boat to get to a couple of the screws. I opted to cut the wood and will patch back in when I reassemble.
2. There are small, L brackets inside the gunnels that tie the gunnel sides to the transom. They are a PITA to get to. Open the doors on the back of the gunnels and look back up in there. You should see those brackets and screws.

Once I had all of the screws and bolts out. I took 3" lag screw eyes and screwed them into the top of the transom on each end. Then, I attached my engine hoist to an eye and little by little, began wiggling the wood up out of there. You'll get to a point where its wiggled free enough and she'll pop right up out. Its going to be HEAVY so either use a hoist or other method to lift it, or get another person. Hope this helps!

I ended up removing the splash well and
found 2 more 1nch screws . Haven't got to lift it yet. But I had a mini x picking up the boat without it breaking free. Hoping to get it free. Going back with Coosa board.

 

[muskyhunter1978]

I ended up removing the splash well and
found 2 more 1nch screws . Haven't got to lift it yet. But I had a mini x picking up the boat without it breaking free. Hoping to get it free. Going back with Coosa board.

With mine, I had to remove the splash well as the top rolled over the transom edge and was part of the cap system. There was another sheet of aluminum, with a few screws on the backside of the wood as well, it acts like a cover and is painted to match the boat. I decided to replace that piece two as I was fabbing up the new tins. Essentially, there was several layers of tin on the backside, including a couple of L shaped pieces that everything ties back together when it goes back in.

Just keep working at it and do not force it out and potentially cause more issues or tweak the rivet seals around the transom perimeter.

 

[muskyhunter1978]

Its been a hot minute since I posted anything new. I've been in mostly a holding pattern with the boat as weather and temperatures here in good ol PA have been cold, rainy.. then cold.. more cold, snow.. rain... you get the picture.

Today, after a long and impatient wait, I have a couple of good days in a row to finally epoxy the new panel in place. I waited this morning until temps hit 55 and went to work. With a high of 78 and a low of 59 tonight, I was able to get it done. This was the biggest step in this restoration and most important one, getting it glued put in properly.

I had everything ready to roll this morning. I scuffed both the backside of the transom metal and the new sheet with 80grit flapdisk, cleaned thoroughly with acetone. I will say this. The Gflex 655 is one tenacious and narly epoxy. It is a bit thicker than I expected and its a bit of a challenge to mix up. But its easy and a one to one ratio. I put a layer on the backside of the transom tin, relatively thickly, ensuring every pit was completely filled and skimmed smooth. I then put a nice thorough coat on the new metal and joined the two together. It took me about 30 minutes to get both the epoxy applied to both pieces and when I put it together, this stuff sticks like crazy. So much so, I had a bit of a time getting it lined up with the holes I already pre drilled. It sticks to everything like mad.

Once all lined up perfect, I began applying all the clamps and snugging everything down. As I did this, the epoxy started oozing out all of the corrosion holes and through bolt holes, I took a putty knife and skimmed everything smooth. Now we wait for 24 hours for full cure. The directions say I can remove all clamps in 10 hours, but I'm in no hurry with this step and I'll wait the full 24. Once ready, I'll double check and reseal any corrosion holes that need a little more, then a good full sanding of the outside of the transom skim in preperation for primer and paint. I'll go through all my through bolt holes with the drill to clean them up, then drop the wood in and drill through the sealed epoxy holes in it. Then, its time to nut and bolt this sucker back together.

And for the record, I checked it 6 hours into curing and I know have a pair of the wide vice grips glued fast tot he top of the transom... that sucker won't move. lol.

Pics to follow.

 

[muskyhunter1978]

Spent the evening with an angle grinder and finishing sander cleaning up the excess glue on the inside and outside. I can't say enough good things about this epoxy. I have never seen a glue to tough. I took a utility knife and though I'd trim the stuff that oozed out on the top edge of the two pieces. No dice, it will not cut with a knife. Finishing sander gets it down, but slowly. Its insanely tough stuff. I ended up taking a flap disc on the grinder and knocking it all down to pretty much level with the surface, then finishing up with the sander. Which brings me to my big piece of advise if you use this stuff. Clean it up as good as you can before it cures! It was a bit of a mess when I glued it up, but anytime I use any type of glue, I always make a mess.... lol.

I need to mix up a tiny bit more to touch up some pin holes that it seeped out of too much. Its a thick epoxy, but on a vertical surface it did ooze out a bit too much.

So, for anyone that needs to glue up something structural, I highly recommend Gflex 655. Its expensive, but I think its worth it.

Some pics of the glue up process, the clamping and the oozing out the other side.

 

[LDUBS]

That looks like it worked out really well. Well, except you might need some new vice grips. haha.

 

[muskyhunter1978]

Update. She's starting to look like I did something finally. I spent quite a bit of time sanding the exterior of the transom skin in preperation for primer and paint. That GFlex epoxy is incredibly tough stuff and is pretty hard to sand even. I had to go down to 80grit on a finishing sander to make it faster and easier to get the high spots of the epoxy down before stepping up to finer paper. But, in the process, I ended up with a nice etched up surface for the primer to stick to. I don't have a paint gun so I opted to just rattle can the entire thing. I have some techniques I've used with spray paint in the past to create pretty dang nice finishes, albeit a bit more time and prep. Funny story, I was concerned a little about finding a color of white that matched the OEM color of the boat. Low and behold, rustoleum has a color called heirloom white that I am really happy with how close it is. I have a pic of the cap color against the side of the boat for reference. Being its on the back of the boat and I'm not blending it into existing paint, I feel it is a pretty dang good match.

After sanding, I cleaned it all up and shot a few coats of primer to beat the natural oxidation process of aluminum. I temporarily put the Z channel in place and slid the new core down in the boat. Its snug side to side and dropped in with very little force. All of my holes I predrilled and filled with epoxy lined up and I'm in the process of redrilling all of the holes now and getting it ready to bolt in permanently. Once its all drilled and I have no more fab work to do, I'll shoot the color on the transom and clear coat. Feeling like I'm getting close now!
































One "gotcha". After the new tin was glued in, adding 1/16" of additional thickness, that Z channel at the bottom that the core sits on would not fit quite right. The vertical struts that the transom core all bolts to didn't allow for enough room for that additional thickness. I decided the best and easiest thing is to simply get it lined up, mark it and cut out the bit where the struts are, gaining back that thickness. I probably could have just jammed it all in there, but I don't like adding undue stress to it. Also, with the new inner skin being a smidge thicker than the old one, I'm going to notch it out as well so it fits well and everything bots up perfectly.

I have a bunch of 316 Stainless bolts and hardware on its way. Hoping I'll be able to get the bulk of it bolted up and done this weekend.

My final project is to fix and repair the U channel pieces on the top. Two of them were pretty beat up with corrosion. Starcraft used some type of nail to hold them on and I seriously doubt it was any kind of stainless. Being the cheap *** I am, I think I'm going to use that epoxy to fix the couple of spots on them that were eaten up, sand them and repaint. Then use stainless screws of course to reinstall.

 

[muskyhunter1978]

New Update:

I was trying to decide if I wanted to assemble and then paint it all, bolts and all, but I decided I liked the shiny bolt look. So I spent a week with 4 coats of primer sanded in between, then 4 coats of paint, wet sanded, then 4 coats of automotive clear, wet sanded. It turned out great. I was bit worried about the color to be honest as it just looks darker than I wanted, however, its an odd color. I painted the top cap and if hold it against the sides of the boat, its pretty darn close. Its the lighting and the angles that make it look darker.

The top cap was kind of eaten up in a few spots and I was trying to decide if I wanted to just get new pieces made, or try to salvage these ones. I cleaned them real good, then... G Flex to the rescue. I taped the inside, gooped the gflex on the damaged areas and let it cure. Hard as a rock and once I sanded it, you can't tell.

Pre assembly day today. I dropped the wood core in and tested whether I was "that good" with all my pre drilled holes, or if I was going to have a time. I'm that good... lol. I can't believe how well everything lined up. Two bolts ended up needing the drill ran through them to tweak the inner skin, but other than that, she's just about ready to permanentaly bolt up. To say I'm thrilled with how well tonight went is an understatement. The only boo boo I made was one of the splashwell drain holes being pretty off. I bought a new hole saw that is stupid aggressive and it had a bit of a mind of its own. I'll make sure it all lines up, then dress up the hole with some epoxy resin and if needed fill the the little void I think I'll have with a bit of 4200 when I install the drain tubes.

Tip: Get one of those drilling squares made by Kreg. Lowes and Home Depot sell them for I believe 15 bucks. Honestly, I attribute that to how well this thing all lined up as I used it to drill all the holes through the core, twice. Once for the first hole and the second time through to redrill through resin only.

That said, I bet I had the core in and out of the boat a half dozen times. Once to fit it and drill all of the 1/2", 1/4" and 3/16" holes. Pulled it, over sized all the holes and then sealed the whole thing and the holes. Back in the boat, once lined up correctly, I touched each hole just a little with a drill to find the center of the resin. Out it came and then drilled all holes for their final size. Back in the boat and she all lined up like it was meant to be.

Pics of the progress:

 

[muskyhunter1978]

Well gents, she's really starting to look like I did something! I have it mostly bolted up and everything to this point is fitting well. I initially was going to use the nylon washers under each bolt, but since its already primed and painted, I saw no need and didn't like the look. I simply gooped a bit of 4200 into each hole and on the backside of the bolt heads and lightly spun them until it was evenly coated around the head. Then without turning the bolts, tightened them down snug. A couple holes are slightly off inside the boat where the splashwell bolts down on the vertical support struts, but nothing that a drill didn't clean up. Now I'm in the process of priming and painting the splashwell and getting the rest of the odds and ends, such as the rub rail, a couple of deck support brackets, screwed down.

I'm waiting on two new stick on transducer pads (i went through all this work, i'm not putting holes in it again.. lol. I also messed up and only ordered one drain tube so that should be here as well. Outside of that, she's darn near done finally and I'm pretty happy so far with the results. There are a few things I learned on this project that I'll share at the end in hopes it might help some others tackling such things.

Here's a couple pics.

 

[Stand Up]

Your hard and determined work ethic is starting to show. Beautiful looking craft she will be. Keep at it and you'll be mighty proud. Thanks for posting all the work so far. Love it.

 

[overboard]

That's a heck of a job you did there, I also have a 17' Starcraft SFM and think you will be well pleased with that boat once you get to use it, IMO, time and money well spent!

 

[LDUBS]

Your hard and determined work ethic is starting to show. Beautiful looking craft she will be. Keep at it and you'll be mighty proud. Thanks for posting all the work so far. Love it.

That's a heck of a job you did there, I also have a 17' Starcraft SFM and think you will be well pleased with that boat once you get to use it, IMO, time and money well spent!

X3. That is an awesome job.

 

[muskyhunter1978]

Thanks everyone. Very happy with it so far. I'm at that point where I can see the finish line, but I don't want to rush the last few bits. Painting and clearing the splashwell today and trying to button up some other stuff like reinstall the bump rail, corner caps, etc. Can't wait to get it back on the water and fishing.

 

[thill]

Bravo!