1966 Starcraft Sea Dart -budget resto/mod

Howdy. I picked up an old Starcraft a few months ago and have been working on fixing it up to be a nice fishing rig. I found this site helpful and chock full of great ideas. I poached a few but had a bunch of my own ideas of course.
Here are some pics of when I brought the boat home.

This is a nice deep boat with some cool touches on it.

Stripped off the paint

I had some 3/4 plywood kicking around so I fixed up a temp floor to try out ideas. Also I had an old camper rotting in the back, so I used the table legs as posts for my swivel chairs.

I bought a used minn kota trolling motor with foot control but the foot pedal didn't work very well. I could only turn left ! So I took it apart and looked at it and figured out which wires did what. Then I got some switches, on/off toggle and a DPDT switch to make it go left or right. Also a potentiometer (kinda like a dimmer) to control the speed. Worked like a charm !

Well I think I know what I want to do now. Get serious. Tractors are very handy.

cleaned and flipped

flipped and cleaned

I should probably do something about this trailer while I'm at it eh.?

prepping for paint

sand, clean, sand, clean then self etch primer

Booya !

not bad for my first time with a spray gun

I like the white look plus I didn't want to buy more paint

new rollers and a new winch strap as well

some mud flap rock guards I had laying around

cleaned up the inside. Got rid of all the extra metal bits and re-riveted a bunch of spots. Also sprayed this stuff around the seams and rivets

I also shortened the bow a bit to get rid of the ugly "bucket hole" the previous owner thought was cool.
sanded and cleaned and primed

sprayed the whole inside white

re-installed my custom casting deck.

lots of storage under neath plus a hidden seat that folds away

battery box is part of the structure and screwed to the floor

anchor box is removable and has some space underneath for an extra lifejacket

back table top is hinged and flips up. also I put my other battery there for the electric start and lights.

I think it's a nice simple layout. The floor is screwed down and there are some pool noodles underneath, but not enough to block water from getting to the back.

Best of all it's nice and light so I can tow with my 2004 Impreza Outback sport.

All in all this was a fairly cheap makeover. I paid $2800 for the motor (2008 suzuki 4 stroke electric start), boat and trailer. The motor alone was worth that price. I spent a few bucks on paint, deck stain, rivets, sand paper and leak seal. Most the other parts used I scavenged or recycled from jobsites that I was working on. I'm not done yet, but I'm using the boat this weekend and for the rest of the season. Cheers

On a tiny island hideaway.

I don't know about you but I get a lot of looks when I pull my boat with may subaru.

Nice job on the transformation!

I like the repurposed milk crate and plastic tote. The fold away seat is a nice touch, might have to file that away for future use.

Bilgediver said:

I don't know about you but I get a lot of looks when I pull my boat with may subaru.

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I sure have had some looks alright. Up here in Saskatchewan a half ton truck is considered a small vehicle. Don't bother me any ! I'll pass them on the hwy and the gas pump.

Josh in FLA said:

Nice job on the transformation!

I like the repurposed milk crate and plastic tote. The fold away seat is a nice touch, might have to file that away for future use.

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Thanks Josh in FLA ! I think that next season I will splurge on another fold down seat and put it where the bench seat goes. Its not that comfy sitting on the bench like that. Not that I'd sit there anyway, lol I've got the captains chair

A slide show with music of the boat build, but if you've come this far you have pretty much seen these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skX0BxxRSYI

Also a short vid showing the custom trolling motor controls in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCDEn_Ts4oE

And the boat in action on a very windy day with some choppy water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOt9e4uD_Vw

Was getting alittle rough there,nice build.
That Suzuki's pretty quiet.

https://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg535/knezzer76/Mobile Uploads/20140802_230419_LLS.jpg
https://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg535/knezzer76/Mobile Uploads/20140802_230347_LLS.jpg
https://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg535/knezzer76/Mobile Uploads/20140802_230311_LLS.jpg

I am going to be painting my G3 white and I was wondering what paint you used and how it was holding up.

ed