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89 Starliner Factory Refirb

Sam I am

Sam I am

Well-known member
Well, most of you are already up to speed. In case you're not, here's the link to the plan thread.

http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31426

But if you're lazy like me, you prolly don't want to link hop so I'll do quick recap:

I bought this Starliner 3 years ago from another forum member.

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The boat is in great shape and I was really happy for the most part with the exception of fuel consumption and the older interior, which was starting to show signs of wear. I could burn through the 29 gallon tank in a matter of hours if I was pulling the kids tubing and working the throttle. At that time, 91 was well over $5 per gallon. So we reduced the use of the boat a lot and it sat on the covered lift far too much. I listed it for sale twice. Once last fall and again this spring. I'm pretty sure it was going to be sold this spring. I had cleaned it all up and for someone to look at and in doing so fell back in love with the boat. So, my wife and I had a serious talk about putting some money into the boat and we decided to go for it. I started with the motor. I wanted great performance and great fuel economy. Sometimes a tough combination to find. My sentimentals favorites last spring were a 250 Pro XS or a 250 Suzuki SS. However, when Evinrude released the new G2, I was pretty interested by the looks and the fact I could color match panels. Then I read about the fuel economy and finally I read about the performance. Winner. I picked up a NIB G2 250 HO from Jet A Marine in Calvert City Kentucky, plus gauges and rigging.

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New Flush Mount Throttle

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I'm going with the Icon Pro Series Gauges

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New Atlas Jackplate

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New Uflex Steering

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With all that decided. The next step was to get the Boat to the factory in Bucyrus, OH...which is a long, long ways from Fargo. So, off we went.

Loaded up without the motor. I was able to sell it for $2500. Every little bit helps.

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This is somewhere in Ohio...about 1.5 hours west of Bucyrus on 33.

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All in all not a bad trip. I put two new tires and new spare on the trailer for the trip.
Later that night the sunset was great...cool pic of the liner behind the Ram.

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And finally, after a night in the Holiday Inn Express...The Checkmate Factory.

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Once at the factory, I met Kip Combs. He and I had been working on the plan to bring this beast back to her full fire breathing splendor. And the man behind doing would be Dean Reynolds. Dean took me around the factory and showed me some cool stuff they had...the Miami Boat Show mate, a 2400 BRX in process...an old Baja getting redone...other stuff too.

Dean and I spent some time going over the boat and looking at the finish. He did got Steve out to look at the boat and they determined the boat had been cleared at some point. The factory was clearing boats with dark gel through the 80's but all the old timers thought they had stopped doing that prior to 89.

Anyway, here's a pic of Dean and Steve. Steve is pretty old school...smoking cigs while holding a bucket of acetone!

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I got some pics from Kip today...they got the portion of the floor removed where the foam was pushing it up. The old foam would expand when it got wet. They got everything off the hull...the rails, the windshield, rigging, old interior, steering...everything is out. Forgot to add that this boats color was call "Merc Blue" to match the blue strips on the old Mercury OB's.


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Pretty cool. How was most of the hull, pretty dry? It appears, so far, that not much of,the floor has been cut out.
Looking forward to seeing and hearing more about your Starliner.
 
What's the estimate on getting the restoration done at checkmate? Seriously considering pulling my motor for me to do and having check do their magic on the rest.
 
ontherocks83 said:
What's the estimate on getting the restoration done at checkmate? Seriously considering pulling my motor for me to do and having check do their magic on the rest.
Click to expand...

They thought they would have very thing done in a month...I told them no rush as my season is done. They're going to let me keep it down there til spring if needed. They had some down time through Sept and Oct...but generally things get really busy in the winter.
 
They had a production boat to get out this week, so mine went to the back burner. I told them no rush...but yeah...I emailed Kip today asking for an update, too!. They got a little more done on the floor all the way back to the transom and got every little last bit of hardware off the hull and stern. The floor was soft around the ski locker, but the transom, stringers, core are all good.

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The Merc blue really pops where the sun hasn't gotten to it. Hopefully it all comes back...just have to wait and see.

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If they can't save that blue, some flake would look killer on that hull!!! Great thread by the way, looking forward to seeing how this all turns out!!
 
Are they going to remove some or all of the old foam? I thought some got wet and pushed up the floor? They were able to check that the core is OK everywhere?
 
karzrus said:
Are they going to remove some or all of the old foam? I thought some got wet and pushed up the floor? They were able to check that the core is OK everywhere?
Click to expand...

I sure hope their removing the old foam. Especially if it's wet. Come to think of it, I'll just send Kip and email to be sure. :confused:
 
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