That's a pretty truck. How did it avoid road salt all these years?
It sat in a barn on a horse farm most of it's life, the owners lived down south somewhere and only used it during the summer when they came up to NY. Unfortunately it's gotten some rust now. I've had to use it every so often in the winter hauling firewood when my winter truck had to be scrapped due to a rotted frame. Now this one needs some attention. Still really good considering it's age and how I see the new trucks looking after a few years.
Nice project. Those little rubber things are Wellnuts as they're marked. Kinda pricey, but very effective for securing stuff in wet environments. I used them in my Holiday to secure the sleeper seats, the toilet and even the trim tabs. They have a brass threaded insert so they're pretty indestructible and they expand as you tighten them. I have stainless steel trim tabs on an aluminum hull which is a concern for corrosion, I suppose. The rubber Wellnuts isolate the 1/4"-20 ss mounting bolts from the aluminum and very effectively seal the drilled holes in the hull. (I also isolated the tabs from contact with the hull on rubber pads.) - Grandad
Ok, they were about where the front of the rear seats would have rested. I looked at the seats thinking someone may have screwed them down but there's no holes in the seat frames. Gotta be another PO experiment. These ones don't have any inserts in them either so maybe they pushed through and are sitting on the bottom of the hull.
Well, you seem to be at the stage where it is hard to stay out of the boat, and every thing you open up or turn over yields another discovery or mystery or treasure or horror. I love it. The pocket door looks like an add on to me, due to the not so boat friendly hardware. It may be factory, but also looks a bit like a cut down aluminum storm door. Whatever, it is pretty clever and seems to work. I will be looking at that idea soon myself, so thanks for posting the details. The thing under the seat looks like a cigarette lighter socket??. Also I see there are foot rest boxes under the seats. Storage or battery boxes?
Congratulations and enjoy the trip.
Ron
Yup, definitely hard to stay out of it, was back in it at 2am with thoughts running lol. The door doesn't look to be cut down to me, wonder if it was a swinging door that sliding door hardware was attached to. When I get that part torn apart I will post more details and pics of it. I like that it doesn't swing open by the seat !
Under those boxes are 18g fuel tanks. I bumped one of them while ripping up some carpeting and the top moved so I gave it a yank and sure enough it's hinged. Probably for access to the senders and fittings. Also found a set of jumper cables under one of them.
That piece under the seat kinda reminded me of a cig lighter too but I thought it was an odd place to put one. It has a metal sleeve that goes right through the plywood, jb mentioned a power outlet, which would make sense. I've seen pictures of Chieftains with spotlights and I think they were hanging on the bulkhead on that side. I'll have to look for those pics again.
Dont hold me to it, but yes, those do look like the rib end plates SC installed.
There was a similar early-mid 70s boat posted that had a factory retrofit of those plates done. In her's the plates were also larger then 'typical', IIRC. Hers may have been an 18ftr.
Hmm, that 'socket' under the post seat does sort of look like a power port. Hand held spot light maybe? Cant really tell where it is under the port seat though...
Storm pocket door could go either way, but I'm w oldhaven, most likely an addon. But get it cleaned out some and take some more pix. The door edge trim is cut to fit around the sliding door thumb latch pretty well. Does the thumb latch lock and unlock the door when closed?
I'll have better pictures of those plates once I have the floor up. I planned on doing that today but my wife was admitted to the hospital so I've been there all day and most likely for the next few days. The weather will be kinda touch and go for a few days anyway so no big deal.
That socket, or what's left of it, is right between the cast seat brackets that bolt to the seat bottom and slide on the tubing.
Ya know, now that you mention the door latch, it's the wrong style for a sliding door. It has the normal catch for a swinging door, so, it's been changed to a slider. I bet I can find the right type of latch for a slider. I'll be looking at Lowes for one that locks, be good to keep honest people honest lol.
