Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Ok, just to shed some light onto the reason I bought into the rot bucket, check out this 4.3L 205HP MerCruiser Alpha One. The motor was the only thing that wasn't allowed to go to hell on this boat.

 

[850Merc]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Nice sounding motor you have there, I would think that'll make your Chief scoot pretty good

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Now that's a good one for the Chieftain. The 4.3 looks and sounds good. Nice find.

 

[Pmccraney]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

oh...wow... Nice Find on the power!! There are a lot of parts you can re-use (e.g. cleats, fuel cap, etc...) or sell (seats, chris craft emblems, etc...).

Motor looks and sounds great!

 

[lokonn]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Looks and sounds like quite a score! Congrats.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Yep, ya done good!

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

oh...wow... Nice Find on the power!! There are a lot of parts you can re-use (e.g. cleats, fuel cap, etc...) or sell (seats, chris craft emblems, etc...).

Motor looks and sounds great!

Oh yeah you got that right, also the steering, controls with cables and maybe even the bow tank if it will fit into the layout. This poor old rotten glasser will take on a new life as a bright shinning tin beauty!

 

[pckeen]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Excellent - really nice sounding motor. Look forward to seeing the Chris Craft come apart. Will that be a project for next year?

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

A nicely gift wrapped power plant for the Chief you have gotten your self...
Including a way to get it around, sweet!
You know, if its anything like Jas' glass donors...you should end up with a pretty good pile of booty to use or sell...
Congrats!

 

[rheagler]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

That Chief is gonna fly. Nice score!

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Nice Chieftain project you've got going on here

That 4.3 seems to be a perfect one for this boat. Should be plenty of power and not too bad on fuel.

That hull was in rough shape being used in salt. Not something we deal with around the midwest.

More power to ya for putting in the time to clean it all up.

Looking forward to see how she turns out!

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

That driveline is a beaut!!:thumb:

 

[ShowMeGuy]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

That driveline is a beaut!!:thumb:

Totally Agree = x2

 

[Marrken]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Very inspiring as I am starting a rebuild on a 1963 Chief, Not sure I'm going/need to take mine apart as far as you have, but nice to see ahead of time in case I have to go that route. Not much corrosion on mine being a Midwest freshwater boat, so hopefully I can save a bit of time.

Yours is looking like it is coming along nicely, good to see and very insightful for those of us who are heading down that same trail.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

It's a great feeling having the drive train problem all worked out. I came within about an inch of having a 5.7L MC for her but changed my mind at the last minute for the 4.3. I weighed the options of the extra 55 or so HP vs the fuel consumption and the extra weight. Still I will think about the sound only a V8 can produce that makes people take notice. I even thought about going with through the transom exhaust for that throaty meat eating sound. Anyway where was I.. oh yeah the big 4.3 V6, yep glad I scored her alright!

Slowly but surely stripping the layers back so I can wire wheel off corrosion, lots of pitting and some pin holes to fill up with marine tex. My goal is to get her torn down as far as I can go, every last nut and bolt has to go to eradicate any and all corrosion. The inside of the transom is white and will take several hours and the death of a wire wheel to get clean down to the shine. Nice thing though the inside doesn't have galvanic corrosion pitting like my SN had, only on the outside.

I want this 43 year old Chief to be a family heirloom that stands the test of time for another 43 years.

 

[jvanhees]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Motor sounds great! Nice score!

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Not much here to update, outer sides of the hull are paint free now. A bit of paint stripping on the inner lip of the gunnels is all that's left topside for paint. After that I just need to do the flip and get the paint off the bottom.

Mahogany, one lonely little piece of beautiful mahogany that is the front arch under the bow cap, it's fighting me and won't come out. No screws left, brackets out but she won't hardly budge 1/4 of an inch. Seems they put that piece of wood in before the gunnels. Can't go forward because hull starts getting tighter, can't go back because of gunnels and cant go down because it gets narrower. I don't want to cut it, I want to restore it and put the piece back in. I don't want to take off the outside rubrail because I'm going to flip it to scrape more paint. I really can't believe it's cut that tight and wedged in. Every last thing on this tear down has fought me tooth and nail so I shouldn't be surprised at all.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Yep, you are correct... The bow arch is the 1st piece of the puzzle & all else is built around it

You might be able to trim a 1/4" slice off each end of the dash & have the hull brackets still hold it to the end of the inner gunwale face.

Not sure, but someone has done it that way. May have been LakeLover's Permanent Vacation thread.

Congrats on getting the hull sides done.

 

[lokonn]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

It is amazing how these boats are put together. To get one piece out you have to remove 2 or 3 others. It seems to always make sense once you get it out but, thinking in reverse is not second nature.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

While at work today we had a violent storm that is very rare for our area, as a result a funnel cloud developed and of course it had to go right over my house.

It blew down half my fence, uprooted the neighborhood trees and blew shingles off roofs. The worst of it though is what I saw when I pulled up. The old Chief was off the trailer and slammed into my utility trailer. The tie down straps held for a while as it spun the trailer around nearly 90 degrees. The utility trailer it came up against and a rotten cotton rope on the winch is all that kept the Chief from rolling off across the field and being completely destroyed.

Took a bit of doing but I got the Chief back on the trailer and strapped down again with only a few minor dings and scrapes.