Starcraft Bass Boss 170 Renovation

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Hi all, I have been a lurker on this site for quite some time now. Some of you guy's work is truly amazing. I have just started to renovate my Starcraft Bass Boss 170. I hope that my rebuild can compare to some of the other posts that I have seen on this site.

I recently graduated college and had acquired a Starcraft Bass boat for a reasonable price 3 years ago. I was contemplating cutting ties with the boat and investing in a newer fiberglass rocket. But, I have a lot of memories with this boat, having fished out of it since I was 5 years old. I want to give it a facelift to get more use out of it myself, and possibly increase the resale value if I do decide to part ways with it. I know it sounds sappy, but it feels like an old friend, and if I do part ways with it, I would like to give the boat a fighting chance to create some memories for someone else.

I am going to recarpet the whole boat. I am also going to be extending the casting deck to allow me to add a rod locker rather than having the rods mounted outside. I will also be rewiring the entire boat, replacing the seats, adding a new trolling motor, and repainting the boat.

As far as the trailer goes, I plan on repainting, rewiring, and adding a spare tire mount. I might hold off on the trailer renovations until this winter to allow me more time on the water this summer/fall.

I'm am setting a tentative goal of August 1st for the rebuild of this boat. If I get it done sooner than that date it is all for the better. Low expectations bring high results. I have a fishing trip planned with the previous owner of this boat at some point in August, and would be tickled pink to be able to show him the renovated boat. I would like to get it done sooner to allow me to fish more, but until it's done, I will be fishing as a co-angler. Not being able to fish out of my boat is all the motivation I need to get this project done quickly.

All constructive comments are appreciated, I'm sure I will be shooting out some questions to everyone that views my project so feel free to post your own questions.

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The boat prior to renovation. I had planned on starting this earlier this winter, but due to travel for work, I was unable to start until now.

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The carpet is original, and is due to be replaced

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The casting deck had to be reinforced before I bought it.

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The steering console will stay, currently only the aerator on the rear livewell was working properly out of all the switches on the dash, hence the rewiring
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Mercury 45 hp motor. It could stand to be serviced, I plan on taking it to a co worker who is more experienced in this area. I wouldn't mind putting a 60 or 75 hp motor on the boat, but we'll see how the bank account fares over the next few months.
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I have a Marcum Lx-6, and would like to add a spot for the transducer to allow me to use the Marcum on soft water as well as hard water.
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The seats are decently worn, if I'm going to replace one, I plan on doing them all to match. I will have 3 seats, and one pedestal up front. I am leaning towards using Cabela's seats to replace the existing ones.
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Current rod storage doesn't protect the rods from the elements, I would like to incorporate a rod locker into the extended casting deck. I will most likely place the hatch in the same position that the rods are located now, but just adjusted towards the front of the boat. I have been looking at R&R designs to build the hatch for me, but if you know of a different manufacturer I am all ears.
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This is a non aerated livewell, attached to the steering console. I store my lifejackets in there for now, I am debating whether or not to add an aerator for this livewell. I would at least like to find a different storage place for the lifejackets. This is an excellent spot to keep my beverages cold while fishing. I used to fill it with ice to keep the beers cold during the day, then just pull the plug at the end of the day to let the water drain out. I might insulate this livewell to keep my beers colder longer :)
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Another picture of the steering console

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I plan on leaving the back deck as is for the most part. The only change I would make to it is to add more room in the rear compartment to account for an extra trolling motor battery, as it stands I have room for 2 5 gallon tanks of gas, 2 batteries, 1 charger, and the fuel injection system.
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The rear compartment is tight, with the 2 fuel tanks, batteries, charger, and the fuel injection system. I'm looking to create a little more room, and am debating on moving the charger beneath one of the seats. The only concern with that I have is the heat that it puts off while charging.
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View from the rear of the boat, the new casting deck in the center will extend to the back of the livewell with a step, and it will extend to the center console at the passengers seat to account for the new rod locker.
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Another picture of the tight quarters in the reat compartment. There is room to expand the compartment outwards, but I would have to remove some foam to do so.
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A picture of a crack at the very front of the boat. I have never had any issue with excess water coming into the boat, but I do plan on rewelding these joints.
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The opposite side of the front of the boat. The picture doesn't do it justice, but there is a crack here similar to the one on the opposite side of the boat.
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Side view of the boat. I'm still debating on what color to repaint the boat. The nice thing about the grey color is that when it chipped off the aluminum underneath wasn't obvious unless you looked closely. I plan on cleaning and sanding the current paint job and painting over top of it.
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The decal is a bit scratched up. I plan on removing the existing decals and replacing them with new ones. I am open to suggestions on who to go through for this. Some sort of striping to go over the base paint job.
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The trailer needs work, but I may hold off on that until this winter to maximize my time on the water this summer.
 
So tonight I got started a tear down of the boat. It was pretty straightforward to start, removing trolling motor mounts and the deck hand mount up front. Then I started removing seats, steering console, seats and carpet. I reached a good stopping point for the night and started making my posts on Tinboats.net. The amount of rivets that have to be removed is crazy! I am definitely going to start looking for an air powered rivet gun for the recarpeting of this boat. I have worked with a manual rivet gun while on the road for work enough to have gained a great respect for the air powered rivet gun :). I've attached some pictures of the start of the tear down in this post. I was feeling a bit in over my head looking at the boat after a few hours spent removing parts and carpet. I hit a snag when trying to remove the steering cable from the motor. I was wondering how to remove the steering cable from Mercury motor? I need either detach it from the steering console or the motor itself. I was wondering which one was easier to do, and how to do it :) ?

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The tear down on the front deck went pretty smoothly!
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I was wondering about the best way to removing the steering cable from the motor. I loosened the nut attaching the cable to the motor, but it wouldn't come all the way off, and I didn't want to bend the rod in the process. If I remove the double sided nut attached to the motor will that allow the steering mechanism to come free?
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Not the best picture, but I could remove the steering cable from the center console. I don't plan on removing the motor from the boat during this whole rebuild. I can if I have to, I have access to a skid loader in our shop, but I planned on covering the motor and painting around it when I get to that point. I am basically wondering what is the easiest way to remove the center console. Detach the steering cable from the motor, or detach it from the steering console.
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At this point I'm feeling a bit in over my head. The local lakes are finally opening up, and now I have no boat to fish out of :evil:
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Just have to keep telling myself that it is going to be so much better once this project is done. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...
 
Been working on the boat over the last week after work. I fished as a co-angler in our bass clubs season opener this last sunday and I probably should have stayed home to work on the boat. 30 degree temperatures, snow, wind, and got skunked. Oh well, it was good to get on the water.

Since the last post I continued with the deconstruction of the boat. It was a bit daunting taking out the motor, pump, and wiring, but now that I have it all out it feels like I have a blank canvas to work with. Hopefully I can remember how to wire everything up once I get to the point of reassembling the boat.

I used tips that I found while reading about the other builds on this site and purchased a gallon of acetone and xylene for cleaning the aluminum. Once I power wash the boat, I will get started removing the glue and polishing the aluminum.

I plan on painting the boat red with yellow accents, I am a bit unsure how to tackle that, and may make another post later on to pose some questions about priming and painting the boat. There is a coat of grey pain already on the boat, and I was wondering whether or not I would have to remove that coat before putting a new coat on it. I was also wondering what steps to take during the painting process. Etching/primer/base/Gloss etc.

Here are some photos to update where I am at with the boat at this point in time.

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Flooring finally removed to expose a mouse motel of sorts. Every piece of foam with a hole in it was soaked. I estimate that I removed almost 100 lbs of foam. I plan on replacing all the lay in foam with new.

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Getting there, removing the steering cable was a chore. I had to remove the motor before it could come completely free, then I had to fight to get it trough the foam and aluminum and the back corner of the boat. Hopefully it goes in easier than it came out.

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Removing the motor wasn't all that bad with the help of my roommate's skit loader.

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Transom looked to be in good condition, the bolts all had silicone on them. I sealed up the holes once I removed the motor to prevent moisture from penetrating the transom.

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The acetone/xylene mixture paired with scrubbing pad and putty knife works well to remove the 23 year old carpet glue.

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All of the wiring and hatches removed. Debating on whether or not to remove the expanded foam in the compartments. It doesn't appear to be rotten. I don't know what it would take to get more expanding foam. I am leaning towards leaving the existing foam in until I do some more research.

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I plan on removing the back half of the foam in this compartment to expand the engine hatch. I would like to add an extra compartment to allow me to add an extra battery for a new trolling motor. There was no room to spare in the engine compartment with the two gas tanks, two batteries, pump, fuel injector and battery charger.

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I have to remove the bilge pump and aerator pump and clean and polish the engine compartment yet. I thought about floating the boat once with the pumps still intact to see if there are any slow leaks in the boat.

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All the foam removed from the bottom of the boat. I will flip the boat on it's side and power wash it out before I get started prep to paint. Should I paint the inside as well as the outside? Or do I just clean the aluminum and lay the floor and side panels in on top?

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I debating on how to build my deck extension. I will either build it similarly to the front deck, with aluminum riveted to the studs in the bottom and cutting the aluminum floor to match, or riveting the deck extension to the aluminum floor that was previously intact and not cutting up the aluminum floor. Input is appreciated here.

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So this is where I stand now. It feels good to have all the parts removed and have a blank boat to work with. Hopefully before the week is over I will have the boat washed and ready to paint this weekend.
 
Your build is excellent. I noticed it because i have the same boat and motor combo. I really like mine, but i think im having some motor trouble. Runs great but seems powerless.. How fast does yours go with 2 people and a very light load? Also what pitch prop? Thanks
 
Interesting project, I've got an identical boat with a 60 Merc. I'm going to redo the decking on my rig and am looking at a product called Coosa composit. It has beed a while and I was wondering how you project has progressed?
 
Has anyone heard of an update on this project? I inherited a boat like this and need to do the same thing....plus replace the transom.
 
I sincerely appreciate the interest in my project.

So turns out the deconstruction phase is the easy part... Work travel picking up to about 75% really compounded the problem too. I started deliberately avoiding tinboats.net because I was embarrassed of the progress, which lead to even less progress on the boat. Vicious cycle lol. I was able to satisfy my fishing itch with ice fishing in the winter and co-angling tournaments in the summer, but I'm dearly missing having a boat and am ready to dig in again.

Hopefully after this upcoming 4th of July weekend I will have the deck framework finished and all of the welding on the boat completed. Pics to follow.
 
Yes. I agree. The destruction was easiest. It took some doing but I made it into my transom. The wood was like mulch. I am really looking forward to your update and pictures. Keep going!!!!
 
I'll be posting a detailed update next week when I get some down time while on Vacation. Almost every bit of spare time I have been spending working on the boat and haven't had a chance to update the forum.

Good news is the trailer is done, bad news is my paint on the boat has a bit of an orange peel finish to it. Looks like I'll be wetsanding and buffing this week.

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More to come next week.
 
Well it's been a long time, I might as well wrap things up. The boat is almost done. I have learned that it is never 100% done because there is always one other thing that I would like to add. Unfortunately I didn't keep up with the blog as much as I should have, but I have this forum to thank for many of the techniques I used while restoring the boat.

I left off last summer and had recently painted the boat and finished the boat trailer.
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I also sanded and repainted the fiberglass center console. In this picture I set the center console in to make for a smoother installation of the new outboard motor controls.

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Oh yeah I forgot to mention. I GOT A NEW OUTBOARD MOTOR! A lightly used 50hp 2 stroke Mercury. It was a huge step up from my old 45hp 2 stroke merc. Having the oil reservoir and hydraulic pump all contained in the motor itself saved me a lot of room in my engine compartment. And is just an overall cleaner set up in general. I was able to trade in my old motor for some value as well. Plus the new motor just looks a hell of a lot sharper.

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Once the outboard was installed, I got to work on the front and rear decks. I bought a Minn Kota Maxxum 55 for the boat as well. No regrets there. Deploying the trolling motor is a cinch compared to my old trolling motor, and I prefer the rack and pinion style steering rather than the old Minn Kota elecric pedal. In this picture I was installing the decks before weatherproofing them. Initially I was going to use pressure treated ply board to cover the decks, but I read that the pressure treated lumber containing copper residue will create a diode with the aluminum that it comes into contact with and eat through the aluminum. So instead I bought untreated lumber and coated it with KILZ waterproofing that I got at Home Depot.

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I bought a recessed trolling motor foot pedal bay. So far I have been pleased with it. I don't have a Captain Morgan sore calf after running the trolling motor all day, and it keeps the front deck looking organized. Installation was really simple with the directions included with the EZ Troll Tray. I will say that I don't love that I can feel the plastic tray flex when I put all of my weight on it.

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Carpeting the wooden decks was quite easy compared to carpeting aluminum. While carpeting the wooden decks I used staples on the back side to allow me to stretch the carpet. Carpeting aluminum called for A LOT of clamps and patience. I later began to cheat and use rivets to help carpet the aluminum.

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Used new insulation board in the bottom of the boat. Installation was relatively easy, just remember to measure twice, cut once. Also make sure to run extra wires behind the foam boards just in case you want to add electronic accessories to the front of the boat and still have the wires hidden. I learned that the hard way when I realized that I hadn't run wires for deck lights and sonar. Thank God for fish tape.

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Carpeting aluminum is a chore and I had to get creative with clamps and shims. I couldn't find the picture that I had where I was using about 50 clamps while carpeting the livewell edges.
 
I had a fishing trip planned at the end of last summer that was the deadline for having a working boat. That required a lot of long nights and I wasn't as diligent about taking photos during the build. It was pretty boring anyhow. Lots of clamps, carpet glue, drill bits, rivets, screws, and beer.

For the fishing trip I focused on getting the boat functional not finish. I had all the hatches installed but not carpeted. I had almost no electronics on the boat besides the two boat motors and two water pumps. The front livewell hadn't been installed, and the seats were simply thrown in the bottom of the boat. And it was still a great fishing trip in a partially renovated boat!

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Me standing by the partially finished boat. It floats, that was the first test. You can see that the hatches are still bare aluminum.

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One of my favorite pictures of the boat that I took at dusk. So far I am pleased with how the black paint looks. There are no railings on the trailer at this point which makes the boat stand out but makes loading the boat much more difficult.

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Picture of a bass my dad caught on the frog. Only a sliver of flesh was keeping the fish on the line. I told him to set the hook like he means it next time, these are bass not crappie.

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He made some comment about a blind pig and a nut during this photo.

It was a great first voyage with the boat. Part of me wanted to smash a bottle of beer across the bow of the boat but I couldn't bring myself to do that for fear of scratching my new paint job. There was still plenty of work to be done on the boat.
 
This winter/spring I continued making progress on the boat. At this point in the process it starts to get really fun. Buying electronic accessories, hatch covers, gunwhale straps, deck lighting etc.

Picture showing the finished hatches. I routed the batter charger drop cord out the ventilation tube to allow for easy access to the charger.
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So far so good with the new outboard
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Purchased a Lowrance Elite 7 Chirp unit for the boat. This is the first time I have had a chartplotter on the boat and I love it. I had previously used a Navionics app on my phone but would mostly use it for ice fishing. Without a gauge cluster on my dash, it is also nice to be able to know my speed and bearing while on the water. The rod mounts shown in this picture haven't been fixed to the side panel yet.
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I installed my Marcum LX6 head unit on the front of the boat with a ram mount. I bought the open water transducer and fixed it to the bottom of my trolling motor. Having the hatches carpeted makes fishing in bare feet more enjoyable.
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Used a RAM Mount to install the Lowrance on the fiberglass center console. The side of the center console has a curve to it so I cut out a piece of rubber to shim between the base of the mount and the fiberglass to make the mount flush. I also put a plate of aluminum on the inside of the center console where the ram mount is fixed to add support for the ram mount.
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On the inside of all of the hatches I used a product called Trim-Loc to make the carpeted edges look cleaner. It helps clamp the carpet to the aluminum and creates a clean looking finish. And it takes a lot less time than using clamps and glue to carpet the edges.
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There is still some work to be done on the boat. I still have to mount the seats properly which will require me to build a wooden fixture to raise the seats off of the floor. I am also looking for decals to put on the boat and motor. But at this point it is better off than when I started this project a couple years ago and that is a great feeling.
 

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