1989 Skeeter Starfire Rebuild

[fishinsarg]

Hello Men I bought this boat from a Marine in NC a couple of months ago. It took about two trips to Bill at The Boat Shak, and the motor was running fine, but still lagging when trying to plane out. We did find that if one of my buddies were up towards the bow, the boat would plane out easier. Which led me to believe that the back end of my bot was full of water causing it to be heavy, so I puled out the carpet and WOW. Oh did I mention that when I bought it, the guy said it had a soft spot but could easily be fixed with a new piece of plywood. Well when I pulled the carpet off I found soggy flotation, and mud that used to be plywood. The only thing that is still standing is fiberglass. Here are some pictures of where im at now.
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So that is where Im at so far, well actually I have taken the motor off and all of the compartment doors. Im taking the top off. If anyone can give me any input or advice that would be great I am sort of blindly doing based off of other posts to this website, and a good fishing buddy. Thanks guys, happy fishing and MTF...

[paulheels]

now you get to make it yours, and you can add any new stuff you want. My floor is next on mine. Keep posting pics, I know I will be looking at yours when I start mine. Good luck..

I lived in Chapel Hill and Mebane until 2007.

[fishinsarg]

Ya you are right its going to be a long hard road ahead but at least the winter is coming up.

[Skeet'r89]

Check out my pictures posted in the Skeet'r 89's transom rebuild, pinned at the top of the forum. In my opinion splitting the hull is the easiest way to repair the inside of the boat. You can not get to all of the bad areas from the area you have cut up. Good Luck with your project, I feel your pain.

[biggreen08]

i do feel for you man you have a long daunting task ahead of you----i had a 89 sk1700 i was doing the same thing to but i found another boat that was cheaper than what i was going to spend in wood and glass keep focused and take your time and be careful splitting that thing!!!!

[ProcraftMike]

Lee, my floor and restoration pics are posted at the top if this forum as well. It looks to me like you will be doing similar work to what I had to do. I did not split the hull on mine to add the new floor. Each boat is a little different.

[ranger230v]

Yer Hosed!!!!

[ranger230v]

Boy I crack myself up. On a serious note, you need to take a long hard look at some of those Skeeter rebuilds. I can tell by your photos your stringers are shot. If your floor is gone and your stringers are gone I can almost guaranty your transom is shot. You would be embarking on a long journey. I t can be done, but it takes one hell of a commitment. I wish you luck whichever way you decide to go.

[fishinsarg]

Hello again, fist of all thank you for all of your kind words and yes at some points in time I do feel I have been hosed. However, now this is my own boat and I have built it, ha take that Skeeter, haha. Anyways down to business... Today was a fairly productive day after three days of drilling rivets and cutting through silicone and also taking off the motor we took the cap off. Im not going to say how I did it, because I know a lot of the old timers would have their jaws on the floor now, but I will gie a special thanks to Cindy, Jim and Weiss for helping make it possible. So here are some photos of the end state of this week. Enjoy,

[rbrown2007]

Great job, best of luck to you on your restoration. I have a Javelin 396 I'm restoring it's very time consuming with the Army life you know?! Haha anyway, if you need any advice or if I can help any way shoot me a PM. An good luck to you again. BTW don't let no one tell you that you got hosed, they just don't have the balls to go knees deep in a restoration project.


Rick

[AMS BOATS]

It would be a good time to inspect and replace any hoses,gauges,pumps,etc.I rebuilt a 1986 150 starfire and sure wished I had done my gauges while it was apart(not much room under console).Does that boat have a short rod locker?You may be able to easily extend it while apart.
Good luck !

[fishinsarg]

It has a fairly long rod box however not that deep. I did look at gauges I really need to replace the gauges on mine too, i am also thinking of re-wiring it as well. Does anybody know about digital gauges for instance, lowrance NET? I did some brief reading on them last night. Any input would be great. Thanks again.

[fishinsarg]

Also I want to extend the deck

[ranger230v]

Sarge, That demo is comin along real nice. I hope you know I was just playin' with you in my first post...just making an attempt at levity. I'll be checking in to follow the progress and will throw in my 2cents if your looking for any advice. I think its great your willing to tackle this project so best of luck.

Hey Rick, That macho trash talkin with a keyboard is kinda silly. I always try to help people when I can, but most of the time I'm lookin for help. I may not be knee deep on my project, but I'm at least up to my mid calf area .
Stop by my thread sometime and check it out. If you still feel the need to have a go at me then click on my profile and send me an email, mine's not hidden


Modified by ranger230v at 6:10 PM 10/27/2008

[fishinsarg]

I know it was a joke, I can take it, I started this project because I was tired of my fishing buds, 1 in particular telling me that the boat was a POS therefore, I started this hopefully one day this boat will smoke his Shadow...Well men please keep checking in on the post, I going to try to finish gutting this piece out this weekend. oh and by the way NC is

[fishinsarg]

Does anyone think that Seacast would be a good idea instead of wood for my stringers, please, please i need to know. Thanks alot

[arjone01]

I used it in my transom, very happy with the results, easy as can be.

[fishinsarg]

sweet thanks

[fishinsarg]

Did a slight bit of research I think I will use seacast for the stringers, and possibly the transom Im still debating on doing the transom because i really havent seen any issues with it yet. I dont know we'll see...

[arjone01]

For a few more bucks while you're at it why not? Just to be on the safe side and then it'll last as long as you as well if you every had to pull it apart to fix it again then you'd kick your self in the a$$. I'd say it's safe to say if the stringers were shot then the transom was not too far behind.