1958 Blue Star 1548 rebuild -- steelflex applied

Hey guys, I've been hiding around here a while but have never actually introduced myself. This place is very inspiring! I've always wanted a bass boat but after some of the conversions I've seen you guys do on your ol' tins I thought that would be much more fun, gratifying, and cheaper (hopefully). I got my boat back in March but didn't get to really touch it until school got out in May. I've been getting the paint off and trying to clean it up to get ready for paint, which it will have soon hopefully. My plan is to set it up like a bass boat basically, a side console with decks in the front and back. I've already got the steelflex for the bottom, it's just waiting for me to finish my prep work. I know this boat's a 1958 model, but I swear they repainted it a different color every week lol. This has been far more time consuming than I had thought and hoped, and hope I never have to do this step again. I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures of when I got it to the progress I've made so far..





























New transom pieces cut from 3/4" ply


Transom gluing.. This is by far the best use I've found for Neverstart batteries




Fit and bolted in with SS hardware. Still need to pick up a few more bolts and it'll be ready to be sealed




Busted weld. Not sure why the PO thought this would hold. They had a 35 horse mercury on it #-o


Transom corner brace cut and ready to be bent


Test fit


Almost done. I'll probably have it welded too so it will be extra rigid


Holes filled with Marine Tex. I think I had somewhere around 55 holes to patch. Someone got trigger happy with their drill!

Lookin good so far! I hear what youre sayin in regards to the prep work man what a long process that is! Ill be steelflexin mine today after work and hopefully i wont need too many energy drinks toget it finished. Hopefully my wife will snap some shots along the way for me. Good luck

Express said:

Lookin good so far! I hear what youre sayin in regards to the prep work man what a long process that is! Ill be steelflexin mine today after work and hopefully i wont need too many energy drinks toget it finished. Hopefully my wife will snap some shots along the way for me. Good luck

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Yeah the prep work takes forever and it seems like you're not making much progress when you actually are. I've only got a few more things to do before I'm ready for steelflex. Your project is looking really good, I can tell you've put the prep work in. Good luck on the steelflex tonight, I look forward to seeing pictures!

Well I got my knee braces built and am about to seal the transom. That transom had ought to be a heck of a lot stouter than it had ever dreamed of being. Anyways now I'm working on stripping the paint and carpet glue off the interior.

Template for second knee brace



Test fit. I meant to bend the flanges different directions but somehow managed to screw that up lol. Oh well no big deal.

I got a sweet deal on boat with a 40 hp Yamaha so I've been taking it out and anyways I'm back to work on this one. The plan is to take the motor and controls off the boat I just got among other things and put them on this one and eventually sell the new one.. maybe. I'm beginning to like it too lol. Since the 40 horse is a longshaft, I decided to go ahead and have the transom built up since I was gonna have the corner braces welded anyway. Well $450 later it's a tall transom and stouter than it ever was. Wasn't exactly expecting it to be that much but I got a great deal on the motor so I'm ok with it. It's much more rigid and better looking than a jack plate would be. If all goes well tonight, I will be steelflexin the bottom of the hull. I just hope I don't pass out in this heat!

Well the measuring cups I got were wayyy too big so I made a mess trying to mix up my first batch. I got about 2/3 of the bottom done with the first coat but didn't go ahead with the second coat cause I didn't want to waste any more. Will I be alright scuffing up the steelflex with 60 grit by hand and then wiping it down with acetone and putting the second coat on? I'm gonna try to get some small dixie cups for measuring to make it less messy. If I get a chance tonight I'll try to get the bottom completely 'flexed. I had a problem getting the steelflex on the strakes (I think that's what they're called) and that was with a 3 inch foam roller. Anybody have any suggestions for how to get the steelflex on parts like this? Thanks in advance for any help.

Great looking job! You'll be glad you raised that transom up first time you have to come off plane quickly, or are slow trolling in a following sea. I raised mine up on my SeaArk 1548 DuckHawk and am really glad I did. We were trolling for walleye last week and it was so windy it was whitecapping in the minnow bucket. When we'd turn downwind, the waves were slapping against the transom and would have come in if it was still 15". Then later on we were moving and a maroon in a pontoon boat ran right out in front of us, never even looked our way. I had to kill the throttle, shove the tiller over hard, and drop off plane quickly. Big stern wave splashed against transom, and a little came in, but we would have shipped a LOT of water with the original 15" transom.

What kind of foam you gonna put under those seats?

Thanks timebak! I checked out your transom in the other thread, it looks great as well. And yeah that's a huge plus too, I'm not keen on getting water in my boat!

I have the bottom almost completely steelflexed, I still have to do a little touchup on the front where it was starting to set up and when I poured it on it wouldn't roll out. I sanded some of it down and it doesn't look as good as I wish it did, it will be OK. Also I still have to put another coat on the strakes and keel. The transom will be getting some too, if I have enough.

Also, on the first coat, I was using some 7" foam rollers I had left over that I cut into 4" and 3" pieces thinking it would work fine. Well it was ok for a flat surface but they provided zero flex over the strakes and seams. On the second coat I used some of the 4" mini foam rollers, and they made a WORLD of difference. There's a lot more foam in them so they were much more flexible and worked great.

timebak said:

What kind of foam you gonna put under those seats?

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I'm not gonna put any foam in here, as it would take a lot for it to be worth it and I don't want to mess with it. Hey now that it's a tall transom I don't have to worry about any water coming in anyway right? :LOL2:

The plan is to use the seats as part of the framework for my floor, since they're so low. I'll then build a deck up off of them. I know the storage won't be too deep, but I'm willing to live with it.