14' starcraft rebuild update with pics ALMOST FINISHED!!!

Ok, i picked up this boat off a buddy last thursday for $250 with the trailer, and an 18 hp outboard. I have some plans for it, 1.) I want to strip it down, sand it, and paint it. 2.) I wanted to put a deck in it, flatten out the floors, put rod lockers, a livewell, fish finder, foot controlled trolling motor ect...

Well after spending a few hours gutting the inside of the boat I flipped it over on it's top to begin sanding the rhino liner that the previous owner had put on it. It was not put on correctly, there were paint brush strokes all over it, it had big cracks running through it, and a few spots were chipping off. Then I noticed where all the rivets were, they were much higher off the boat than they should be. So I pushed on one of the high spots with my finger and my finger goes right through the liner... They guy put a thick layer of aluminum roofing tar on the bottom of the boat before he rhino linered it.. So what was going to be a pain to get the rhino liner off in the first place I now have to remove the liner, the tar, and the original paint from the boat.

As of right now I have got all the liner and tar removed from the bottom of the boat, and am very slowly getting the rhino liner off the sides of the it now. Then I have to get the original paint off the bottom of it. What shoulda been an easy fix has turned into a big job. The guy who sold me the boat originally wanted $600 for it. If I paid 6 for it in the shape it was in I would had a stroke when I found the bottom in the shape it was in.

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Now for the questions I have... I've been looking around on how to make a template for the flooring in this boat seeing its near impossible to measure the insides of it. How do I make a template for it? Does anybody know how stable this type of boat is in the water? Any help with this would be appreciated.

I made a template for mine using cardboard and trial and error.

Quick update on my project... My wife's grandfather owns an autobody shop, so it was a big help for me to bring the boat there when they had room for me to work on it! It was a big help for a couple of buddies to come over and help me to sand down all the remaining liner and paint it still had on her!

So after about 2 weeks of sanding and stripping i finally got it down to the aluminum!


In the mean time I got an awsome deal on Craig's list, I bought a pedistal seat, a hummingbird depthfinder, and a real treat, a 74lb thrust minnkota maxxum trolling motor, payed $150 for all of it!! What a deal!!



I also got out for some bassin, heres a 5 lber, and got some super cheap gas!!



Now for the good part, Saturday I got the boat into the paint booth, got her primed, and painted. All the paint was free, he gave me some cans of paint to choose from that he had laying around from older jobs! I checked out my options and thought the dark metalic grey with a yellow top looked good, so we went with it!!




Now I have started the measurements for the inside of the boat, and am making templates for the deck!!

Heres a quick update on my boat if anyone actually cares.... i started the inside of it, installed the deck, the trolling motor, and my fishfinder.

Looking real good, I like the colors. coming together nicley.

Nice work. That paint job is awesome, and you couldn't beat the price for the paint. Actually, you seem to keep getting great deals all around with your boat.

Please explain the gas price!

Looks good man, I like the color scheme.

Quick update. Boat is almost finished. All of the floors and carpet have been installed. pedistal mount for the seat is in, just waiting on the last 3 floor doors glue to dry. Then I'll wire it up and fire it up!!! The only place I screwed up was not making space for the hinges on the storage doors... I think I did good for my first build!

Looks top notch, I think you'll find that the added weight of the mods will add to the stability of the boat. Gonna be a fishin' machine.

BobFuller said:

I also got out for some bassin, heres a 5 lber, and got some super cheap gas!!
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! :shock: :shock:

What's the story on the gas?

Looks awesome!!

What about the gas? I need gas that cheap.

Ok, the story behind the gas was we had a shoppers club card for a grocery store. Every $100 you spend you get $0.10 off a gallon. We ended up getting $3.50 off a gallon up to 30 gallons of gas!! We paid $11 for like 30 gallons!! It took a year of saving the points on the card to get that much off!

Boat looks great.