Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

Hello everyone. Last year I got a 1984 Cheetah that I am working on restoring as a dream gift for my father in law. It needed a new outdrive, but had a great motor. The shop I chose to do my work took their time, but I finally got the boat back this week. As it stands now, the motor and outdrive are good. The steering has also been replaced. It is now time to turn my attention to the interior.

About 10 years ago a previous owner restored the boat. He did so with normal grade plywood, and didn't bother getting a boat cover. As you can imagine, all the wood is falling apart. I'm going to need to re-manufacture the rear flip lids and box that the engine is housed in. I'm also going to need to redo all the vinyl (if that's what it is) covered trip pieces on the sides. I'll need to redo the back seat, and all the pads up in the front bow of the boat.

Are there plans for how to do this? Due to the existing wood just falling apart, I cannot use the existing peices as templates. I'm pretty handy, but brand new at the boat world. Any advice y'all can give me? When I get some daylight, I'll take some pictures to really show what I'm working with.

Thanks for any help y'all can give!

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

No, using the existing pieces as templates is really your only option. Either that or measure, cut and trim down until it fits. Are you going to be reusing the vinyl on the boat?

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

It really helps to keep your posts in ONE thread. Helps everyone keep and eye on your total project without having to jump all over the forum.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

444 said:

No, using the existing pieces as templates is really your only option. Either that or measure, cut and trim down until it fits. Are you going to be reusing the vinyl on the boat?

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I was scared of that. The vinyl needs to be replaced too. I'm scared of judging how much gap I need to leave for the vinyl to wrap around the wood. I noticed that the side peices also had foam on them The pieces that go along the bottom of the floor and form a kind of cubby for stuff were completely disintigrated. The vinyl is on one peice, so maybe I can get a rough draft just from looking at where the folds on the vinyl is.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

Woodonglass said:

It really helps to keep your posts in ONE thread. Helps everyone keep and eye on your total project without having to jump all over the forum.

Click to expand...

OK. New here. Will do.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

Okay ... here's some pictures of the project. Last night I removed all wood trim, the vinyl side pieces, captain chairs, and back bench seat. I also removed the metal trim around the hole in the floor because it was loose. Any tips on how to tell if I need to redo the floor? It does not feel spongy at all when I walk/jump on it. But the drivers captain chair tipped over backwards when I gave it some gas the other day. The screws they used to hold it down were 1/2 inch thick, and were completely rusty. Also, there were other holes in the floor, indicating that it was at least the 2nd time that chair has been attached to the floor.

(OK ... gonna have to work on getting pictures on. I'm not allowed to upload pictures to this site, I can only insert a link. I'll try uploading pictures into my photobucket account and just post the links over here.)

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

ttt,

You can upload pics from your pc, My signature has a link on how to do it. Use the Go Advanced button. Makes it easier.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

Woodonglass said:

ttt,

You can upload pics from your pc, My signature has a link on how to do it. Use the Go Advanced button. Makes it easier.

Click to expand...

I followed your instructions. When I click to add a picture, it only shows me one screen that asks me for the http link to the picture. It did not show up on my screen like your instructions said. I figured it was probably a thing where people who donate get that priviledge or something.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.


Open bow front end. The vinyl is cracked and has holes throughout, especially where it attaches to the boat.


Drivers side after I removed the captains chair and plywood/vinyl sides. One side was up high on the fiberglass, and the other side peice was low, creating a cubby type area for storage. The captain chair fell over backwards when I throttled it the other day on the lake. It was at least the second time the chair has been installed in the floor. Not sure if I need to replace floor or not.


Passenger side. Captains chairs shown. I removed the metal around the hole in the floor because the wood had rotted so the screws were not holding it tight.


Rear view. There is a bench that seats 3 here. The part on the floor was rotten. You can see it sitting on top with the holes for the speakers. This entire bench needs to be re-covered and have new plywood.


Dash of the boat. Fuel guage works. key switch works. Voltmeter works when the boat is running. Horn works, and bilge pump makes a noise (not sure if it's really pumping). All other gauges do not work and I'll have to fix them.


Here are the side pieces. The wood is almost non-existant on some of them.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

OK. Quick update. Last friday was electrical day. I finished removing all the seats and padding, and went to work fixing the wiring on the boat. None of my guages worked. The keyswitch seemed to be the only thing that worked. The previous owner was a screwball. He had wired the 12V power to all guages, to what I have to assume was once a toggle switch that went up in the empty "accessory" switch location. This made no sense to me. I rewired it so that the guages 12 power came from the key switch being in the "ON" position. I got it wired, and suddenly ... it worked! SUCCESS! It was so nice to actually have a working trim guage. I was tickled pink. I also had to rewire my lights. The Nav/Anc switch was working correctly, but I had no lights. The Bow and Stern lights were fixed by making a new ground connection. The lights on the guages were fixed by running sandpaper on the back of the guage where the ground contact is made. This worked nicely. So now all lights are working well (except for the trim gauge light, which for some reason only comes on when you push the bulb holder thing in. I tried and tried but couldn't get a good enough connection there).

With the electrical all buttoned back up and working nicely, I turned my attention to the deck. This is where I could use some input. I was under the impression that I was going to have carpet over plywood on the deck. What I found instead, was that I have carpet on top of a thin layer of fiberglass on top of plywood. The wood is still rotted though, especially around the seams for the water ski compartment hole in the floor. Can I just rip that wood/fiberglass out? Is there going to be support underneath it so that I can just put new plywood down? Also, I noticed that bow of the boat, seems to be on top of the same floor. When I look in the storage compartments in the seats in the bow, I can see the fiberglass layer of the deck in the bottom. To me it looks like when the boat was done last, they removed the entire top section of the boat, redid the floor, and then added the top rails/bow of the boat. I obviously do not want to remove all of this to replace the floor. Would I be okay just carefully using a sawzall to cut the deck right where the bow begins? I will also need to replace the walls of the water ski compartment, as they are also rotting away.

I have pictures, but my work will not let me upload them to my photobucket account. I'll get them added as soon as possible. This will show the floor and wood rotting that I am seeing.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

ttt said:

Dash of the boat. Fuel guage works. key switch works. Voltmeter works when the boat is running. Horn works, and bilge pump makes a noise (not sure if it's really pumping). All other gauges do not work and I'll have to fix them.

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Turns out the guages didn't work. I just didn't know what I was looking at.

Also, the bilge pump tube had become disconnected from the hull, and so when it pumped, it just pumped water back into the boat. I fixed that. I also replaced the blower. After 30 minutes debugging the wiring to the blower, I found that the wiring was correct, and the actual blower was bad. Replaced it and now it all works well.

I was really all grins. I went from a working keyswitch and bilge pump motor, to everything working correctly (even the depth finder).

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

One other question. I noticed that I had a plastic coolant reservoir jug just loose in the bottom of the engine compartment. Upon further investigation, it is actually hooked up. Should this be bolted somewhere? Not sure where it goes, but I figure it should probably be bolted up, and should it have a lid? Do these engines work with antifreeze, or are they water cooled? I'm a bit confused here.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

Hmmm where to start.

Well for one yes its water cooled and no it doesn't have antifreeze, pumps from the lake water.

Second, yes you can pull up the deck (floor) and see the condition of the stringer system underneath. If the retore is only 10 years old and in this bad of shape, it wasn't a very good glass / restore job that's for sure. When you get parts of the deck up post some more pictures of the condition on the rest of the wood.

Don't know about the plastic jug you mention.....sorry not an inboard guy.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

Cadwelder said:

Hmmm where to start.

Well for one yes its water cooled and no it doesn't have antifreeze, pumps from the lake water.

Second, yes you can pull up the deck (floor) and see the condition of the stringer system underneath. If the retore is only 10 years old and in this bad of shape, it wasn't a very good glass / restore job that's for sure. When you get parts of the deck up post some more pictures of the condition on the rest of the wood.

Don't know about the plastic jug you mention.....sorry not an inboard guy.

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I should have mentioned, that the motor is a Mercruiser 140HP. While I was looking at the entine, I noticed what looked like a radiator cap on top. I opened it, and saw green antifreeze inside it. But I know that it also has the water pump in the outdrive too. That's why I was wondering what the deal was. Maybe someone can enlighten us on this particular engine.

The fiberglass on the floor was not enough to keep water out. That is apparent by the way the drivers seat had stripped and come off multiple times. I'll get some pics up soon.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

So here's some pictures.

First ... here's the boat itself. The hull is in good shape.


Here's everything removed with just the deck showing.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

Here is the coolant reservoir I was referring to. It's on the front right corner of the engine. Engine is a Mercruiser (470 written on the engine, title says 170HP). I don't know much about it.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

Here's a picture of the floor. This is the corner of the ski compartment. You can see that the sides of the ski compartment are rotted bad, and also see the condition of the floor. I believe I'm going to rip the floor all up and replace it.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

ttexastim said:

I don't know much about it.

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Unfortunately you aren't going to be real pleased when you learn more. I think you should take the time at this point to get the motor running and ready to go because if you have find major issues, you may want to consider scrapping it. You don't want to be dumping money into a rotted hull AND a 470.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

ezmobee said:

Unfortunately you aren't going to be real pleased when you learn more. I think you should take the time at this point to get the motor running and ready to go because if you have find major issues, you may want to consider scrapping it. You don't want to be dumping money into a rotted hull AND a 470.

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The boat is fully functional. Engine fires right up and purrs like a kitten. That was the reason I bought the boat. As it stands, the engine runs great, outdrive and gears work great, steering is new, and electrical is now working. I just need to get the interior pretty again.

Re: Need help with 1984 inboard cheetah 170hp boat.

Good to hear. Carry on!