After most of a year away from this project the slowest Starcraft resto ever attempted is back underway! I did manage to complete the floor last Sep before I packed up for winter (more on floor below), but spring this year was horribly cold and wet, and also I was busy getting ready for my wedding that happened in the end of June, so I am only getting back to it this week. I will also be going on a trip later this month back home to visit family, so there won’t be a lot of progress until August.
Last Sep:
Here are pictures of the floor pieces with backing plates, OTF, and spar process. If you look close you can see my lines for the stringers and extra bracing, I had to ensure the backing plates did not interfere.
I got 3 coats of straight spar on all sides (6 on the edges), let it dry for a few days, then lightly sanded the spar with 120grit and used Lepage contact cement to glue down the Nautolex vinyl. The contact cement was a bit of a pain, it kept sticking to itself rather than the spar, so I ended up using all of a 500mL and most of two 946mL cans to get full coverage. To ensure I didn’t have placement issues I laid the vinyl on top of the floor in the right position, clamped a 2x4 down the center, then folded back half the vinyl over top of the 2x4. I then rolled the cement with a foam roller on both the floor and the vinyl, waited the recommended 15-20 min, then carefully flipped the vinyl back over and rolled it down to stick it firmly on. When I did the other half I ensured to fold it all the way back to the part that was already stuck down. The cement worked quite well (although expensive due to the quantity, total was almost $100) and the vinyl is firmly stuck.
Once all the vinyl was on I flipped the floor pieces over and worked on securing the edges. I applied more contact cement to the floor edges and the vinyl with about 1” overlap to the bottom, then stuck/rolled it down and used SS staples every 1-2” all the way around. I cut off the excess vinyl and the job was complete and I could recover from the hand cramps of putting in 500+ staples with a hand stapler!
And that brings us up to today! Since I installed the vinyl right over the seat mounting holes I had to locate them again so I can install the pedestal mounts once I get the bolts. I measured the backing plates on the bottom, found a good starting point on the top and then just poked with a pushpin until I found the first bolt hole. I didn’t take long after that to locate the rest, and I temporarily stuck nails through so I don’t lose them.
How did you guys deal with the bolt holes, do you have to do anything to the edges or just ream out the vinyl enough to get the bolts in?
