18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

[Watermann]

Yeah smart phones are awesome, I take pics with my Droid and upload them directly to PB so I can show you guys. Now isn't that thoughtful? :heh:

 

[Gibbles]

Now i dont have much of an excuse to not have pictures :lol:

 

[GA_Boater]

Yeah smart phones are awesome, I take pics with my Droid and upload them directly to PB so I can show you guys. Now isn't that thoughtful? :heh:

Isn't it Gibs whose wife always has the camera? Hint Hint.

 

[dozerII]

Now i dont have much of an excuse to not have pictures :lol:

Now isn't that the truth Good luck with the rad swap, so we can see that girl out on the water.

 

[shipwreck00075]

RIGHT ON! Just read all 50 pages! Gives me great motivation!! Your boat looks AWESOME!!! Great job leaving the paint off too! Bare Naked for sure.

I am going to paint my top white and leave the sides and bottom naked !! so sweet. Soda blaster for xmas please!!!

 

[Gibbles]

Rad came a little late, hope to have it installed this weekend. Still working through front end issues on the s10, i just ordered a conv kit for the idler arm to use a 1 ton arm. That should fix a bunch of issues. And thans for the kind words, be really sure you want that bare metal look. I think getting the paint and making it somewhat pretty took me most of a summer! I got the photobucket mobile app but i dont see an easy way to knock the image down to 800x600...

 

[Gibbles]

I also noticed google chrome on my mobile device removes my formatting running it all together...

 

[Gibbles]

StarCraft on the water!

 

[Gibbles]

I'm still getting some cavitation, I think it's related to the weight of the engine, however I trimmed it all the way down and it helped a ton.

Also note the tale tail, I took part from my mercury bin, using brass fittings to elevate it on the power head (what I had available).

I'm also going to put on the other prop the engine came with and see if it helps.

I took the video right as a storm gave us a little break, waiting for my fil to pull the trailer up to the ramp.

The boat handled the storm great, I ran through some chop at a good 27 MPH standing, and I was totally happy, however as a test I had my FIL sitting in the front of the cabin to add weight up there, and as I looked in there I saw him bouncing around giving me a wth look, I broke out laughing and told him to come stand out on the deck. :lol:

Also the video does not show it well, but when idling there is steam that kinda surrounds the engine, in the video it looks more like 2 stroke.

The engine has a thermostat keeping it hot enough to steam up as it leaves the exhaust port, gives it a cool effect.

I'm very happy with how the boat handled, for the first time a storm on that massive lake did not give me grey hairs other than the thought of lightning hitting my now taller aluminum boat. :faint2:

The Bimini top also did pretty well, I built the frame my self, and I kinda rushed the straps and the mounting early Sunday morning before we left for the lake, and when the wind picked up I had to keep checking the mounts,

 

[Gibbles]

note the rattle sound at about 2:15.

Somewhere on the boat I'm getting a tin rattle, still working on finding it, it will require some 5200 me thinks

I also removed the 20hp kicker and installed the 9.8 from the Jet, mostly due to the steering link, and figured it would be good to test with a little less weight.

 

[Watermann]

Oh yeah the Chief looks great and that dorm fridge seems to run pretty dang good too. :thumb:

As far as weight goes, your no where near what I have going in my Chief with the cast iron V6 and outdrive... 850 Lbs. I picked up the Nauticus Smart Tabs here at iboats, the factory blemish discounted ones. They really do a great job of extending the hulls planing surface and keep the boat more stable with almost zero bow rise on the hole shot.

It sure is nice to see these old SC's hit the waves again rather than sitting in a field rotting away. Good work Gibbs!

 

[GA_Boater]

:thumb: Gibbers. Lookin' great, My man. BTW - That's not steam from a hot motor. She kicked into defrost mode for the ice maker. :lol: Now the fine tuning begins. Means more floats for testing.

 

[jbcurt00]

Nice video

thanks for the boat ride

 

[laurentide]

Awesome, man!

 

[Gibbles]

Thanks guys, I had a great time.

I have also been enjoying my video, and have been sharing the fruits of my labors with coworkers thanks to my phone (recorded via phone).

usually starts like this "Hey you look stressed, here relax with this video of my boat!"

I'm also offering my Jet for sale, handy since I have a picture of it on my desk :lol:

And I think the rattle might be the top of the bulk head mount on the passenger side, heading out to the canyons I hit a huge wake that nearly threw us up and out.
I had noticed that it actually ripped the screws out.

I'll need to revisit the mounting of the bulk head with a series of rivets, larger screws, and maybe a bracket on the back side of the console...

Oh yeah the Chief looks great and that dorm fridge seems to run pretty dang good too. :thumb:

As far as weight goes, your no where near what I have going in my Chief with the cast iron V6 and outdrive... 850 Lbs. I picked up the Nauticus Smart Tabs here at iboats, the factory blemish discounted ones. They really do a great job of extending the hulls planing surface and keep the boat more stable with almost zero bow rise on the hole shot.

It sure is nice to see these old SC's hit the waves again rather than sitting in a field rotting away. Good work Gibbs!

Looking at the video on their site (nauticus) they show exactly what my boat is doing, it's almost nose up at half throttle, looks like that's the ticket!

What size did you get?

I'm thinking the larger the better, I also found a set of 12x9 stainless (to match the shine!) for $150, looking at about $119 for the blem here on I boats (missing the #5 adjustment).

 

[Watermann]

I'm not sure trim tabs fall into the bigger is better :lol: The struts get stronger and the pads get wider. I got the 60# model

Factory Blemish" SX Smart Tabs For Boat Length 15' - 19' FT and 60-150 HP - Nauticus Your Price: $99.99
Save: $50.00
(33% Off $149.99) Part # SX9510-60X

 

[Grandad]

I'm not sure trim tabs fall into the bigger is better :lol: The struts get stronger and the pads get wider. I got the 60# model

Hi Gib. Congratulations. Glad to see you're on the water again. I agree with Waterman, bigger doesn't mean better. I think 80# struts will be too strong such that the tabs may not fully level with the hull when at speed and create unnecessary drag. Although my tabs are somewhat larger in surface area than what Nauticus offers, I used their 60# conversion struts. They are quite adequate on my 21' Holiday which probably weighs similar to your 18' Chief. - Grandad

 

[Gibbles]

Thanks for the input! Blem trim tabs have been ordered!

 

[Watermann]

Sure thing, oh and on the install. The tabs come with SS screws for mounting which is fine for the top strut mounts but the tabs will sit below the transom and Z channel. So what I did was get some 1/2" 3/16" closed end blind rivets for the tabs. I put a bead of 5200 in, around the holes and ran a bead in between each hole and then popped in the rivets. I also did the same up top for the struts. Without having any wood behind the AL skin it seemed a bit risky just to have the screws hanging out inside holding onto just 080 AL, although I had put on an extra piece on the outside just for the tabs so it was double thickness. Those tabs have a bunch of stress on them but between rivets and 5200 it should be all good.

 

[Gibbles]

Good idea with the double thickness My chief had trim tabs at one point in its life, and they filled the holes with rusty screws... I used some rivets i had on hand and worked the 5200 into the shaft end so when the tool seet them ot would pull the 5200 in. So far it's not leaking, but this will be a good time to do a little better.