18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

[GA_Boater]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

How long before the rutting season starts, Gib.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Prob near the end of this month, into Oct.

Pretty much once it starts cooling down, and the water temps start to drop the fish get busy.

And man I blew the entire summer working on this thing :lol:

 

[Yeonik]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

While we're in review, is there a possession limit?

I had to clean up coffee from that one. Thanks!

Gibbles, that's looking awesome. I really gotta stop reading these starchief rebuilds before one comes home with me!

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Elevate the aluminum slider track off the deck w/ a few rips off a dollar store cutting board. 1/4"+/- tall by the width of the track.

5200 & a couple rivets in each end to hold the cutting board block to the channel, and an occasional thru screw holding the track/block assembly to the deck... You can countersink the both the block & the channel so the rivets & screw heads are all flush.

Cutting board would make a good slider for the bottom of the sliding panel/doors too....

5200 may not grab the cutting board very well, but I don't think that much does. At least not much available for DIY projects.

Great idea, thanks!

I actually have a small block of pure teflon (it's almost a plastic), I forget the details, but a place I worked for years ago... we did plastic "welding", we used these blocks and shaped them as a "welding" head to form the hot plastic as it fused to the plastic parts we were fusing together... after time they would wear down and they would toss these expensive things away.
I grabbed two dead ones tossed into the garbage, one is lost, the other served time as a dirt bike chain guide until I nabbed it after gutting the bike, and reshaped and utilized for leather work (molding).

I could cut off some strips from the little tool, and not damage it (currently I use it for forming holsters), but the only way to hold it on would be wih some small nails or screws... I have never seen anything that would stick to the stuff... that would make the door glide like greased silk against anything...

but using a cutting board would give me some room for error, I'll never get another block of the teflon, at the time I heard a 4"x4"block was about $600. :faint2:

 

[Grandad]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

And man I blew the entire summer working on this thing :lol:

Ah, but this is only year 2. There's more years of boat building fun to come. It never ends. - Grandad

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Ah, but this is only year 2. There's more years of boat building fun to come. It never ends. - Grandad

yeah... I'll aways be keeping my eyes open for a newer chief or islander, complete with V hull, and V5 ribs if I'm lucky.

yeah... one day I'll upgrade... Hopefully with this boat still on the water.

And with that thought in my head... this is how I think it would work out...
I would love to stay with OB since I can scrounge them up, but if I could take the time and build up a nice 4.3... :watermelon:
But then I would need a complete set of tools for a mercruiser drive, or atleast find a place to rent them...
Most of the ones I see for sale cheap have that white leg of death, so conversion of the hole like Jas did...
so scrounging FG boats would start... I/O parts boats are hard to get cheap, unless your fast... real fast.

Yup I need to get started on that boat shed/garage soon, and I'll need think engine hoist while planning the structure... :lol:

Yup one day... haha
But who knows, maybe I'll find one with everything I need.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

And last night I cut the remaining brackets to mount the bulkheads/consoles to the boat.

Ran them on the buffer wheel for a nice polish, but I rushed drilling the holes, while I measured them to keep the spacing consistant, I did not do the same to position them dead center... I'll regret that later I'm sure :lol:

Raining today, once it breaks a little I'll jump in the boat with some 5200 and a tape measure and start mounting.

 

[dozerII]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Hey Chris, been trying to catch up after two weeks away on holidays without computer access, so many thread to watch. Great progress and looking real good. hope you an get her on the water before old Jack Frost arrives.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Yeah I'm hoping, but lady luck kicked me in the... well you know

good news is even though I drained my savings, the welder did a fanstastic job, it should be stronger than it ever was

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Allright, last weekend I finished up the front/side supporting bunks

Orig they had a really weird shape to support the shape of the hull.

I did not go as complex, but decided to shape it up to support the outside edges more... got it carpeted and bolted them down last weekend.

This weekend I need to build a bracket to tie down the front of the center bunk.

Orig they had a bolt going down through the bunk, but in order to make that work I would need to fully remove the tongue in order to get a nut on the end of the bolt...

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Dug through the aluminum parts I have piled up in the backyard, left overs are mostly for the front cabin...

Found when I pushed my engine cart thing out of the way, I mangled the front floor trim pieces I was hoping to re-use, but no big deal. easy to make new ones.

I found the mounts for the front benches, and found some pieces that look like a supporting structure... I can't figure out for the life of me where they go...
It' clear they were from the cabin due to the blue and white household paint a prev owner used up there... :facepalm:

Thumbing through the pictures I took during the teardown hoping they were in the shot somewhere...

Pictures soon... Hopefully someone has a clue

And a late fall splash is starting to look unlikely, there is talk of an early winter this year...
I'll still shoot for a basic run of the engine in a nearby lake, but I went ahead and prepped the Chrysler and the Jet's mercs for the winter.

And while running out the Jet's 650 I decided to pull the sparkplugs one by one for fun, noticed that #3 does not appear to be firing... so either an issue with the dist or hopefully just the sparkplug wire.

Explains the power and top speed issues while running the 17p prop...

I also hooked up and tested the electric downrigger, works perfect and sounds great

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

meh, I figured out where the pieces went, I have to pull the benches up...

Makes alot more sense when I have all of the pieces in!

And yesterday I finally figured out a way to tie down the front windshield with out making new trim pieces (biggest thing holding me up), I ended up slathering on a half tube of 5200 and using rivets to mount the windshield down...

I might actually make it on the lake in the next few weeks before the snow hits

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

And these are the pieces I was wondering about...

And I painted the front area white... nautolex will go down soon.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

In Utah, 'before the snow flies' means in about 3wks, correct?

Congrats on figuring out the cabin parts & pieces unaided

Looking forward to the pix.........

Esp @ the windshield 5200 detailing....

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Yeah... the windshield was more of a "well this will keep the windshield from blowing off on the way to the lake" kinda idea.

once the 5200 settles I'll un tarp the boat for more pictures.

I know it wont be pretty, but heck that front windshield lacks plenty of pretty...

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Well I have not even touched the boat other than climbing on in looking for tools

To much going on to even try and splash the boat this year.

After getting the truck back from the welder, I took it in to get aligned... noticed some texture on the passenger side frame/well

Drives nice and straight now

And I found out the texture is a split cv boot... I bought a 2piece kit to get the truck back together in a hurry, came with a package of cv grease....
boot kit did not fit as well as it should of, so I ended up taping the ends with camo tape! :lol:
And that's actually holding up...

I was getting ready to replace that cv + I need to replace the cv on the transfer case for the front axle (has a univeral for the axle end, but a cv for the transfer case end), but then guess what went out again?!
heater core... :facepalm:
Lasted one year...

Glad I cleaned the garage the week before, I had just found the heater core bypass from last year.

my FIL bought a new car but still kept his taco, so I have been driving that for the past week.

Yesterday I got the heater core changed out, but before hooking it up I flushed my cooling system, and filled with fresh anti freeze.

Noidea what the heck could of caused it, but I did use some antifreeze left in the garage from the prev owners, so I decide I better flush and replace with new just incase...

Next weekend I look into the cv's

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

And I finally got my self a bottom feeder friendly table saw, so stoked about it.

Found one that kept my attention, listed for $10 with a "new" blade but listed as broken.

Cleaned the couches, change trays around the house, and the dryer tray and found 10$ worth of change :lol:

After striking out on a few other cheap deals (no answer and no call backs) I decided what the heck, blade alone is worth more than $10.

Took a look at it, pretty darn clean, motor felt good turning and no play.

The guy said he used it last year with no problems, but this year it just would not turn on, so he bought a new table saw.

So I gave him a hand full of change and took it away.

Got it home, and I figured out the issue in under 5min.

in the switch box one of the connectors was totally off of the breaker... almost like someone moved it off and shoved it to the side

plugged it in, flipped the switch, and it kicked on nice and smooth. Score!

Blade on the thing is nice and sharp, looks like it made a few cuts, but still tons of life left.

Will be very handy on making the trim pieces, I also have a $5 router table I had rebuilt the motor a few weeks ago (10$ worth of parts), and cleaned (remembering my old "how to rebuild a starter motor" lessons in autoshop class), new bushings, brushes, cleaned, ect. :watermelon:

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Gibbles - :loco: Don't forget under the seats in the car/truck. Natural change stealers. You coulda got the Deluxe version with two blades. :laugh:

 

[Gibbles]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Too true! :lol:

truck is back and running, once the Z is back as it should be it's house project time....

With the new fancy table saw, chop saw, router, and scroll saw I have been collecting it's time to start building things the wife wants. :facepalm:

Also I have been watching a good 1940's singer sweing machine, 85$ and pretty clean.

I might head on over there and offer 40-50$, good for sewing vinyl...

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 18' Starcraft Starchief OB Rebuild

Also I have been watching a good 1940's singer sweing machine, 85$ and pretty clean. I might head on over there and offer 40-50$, good for sewing vinyl...

Which 40's Singer?

Include vintage Morris machines in your search. Many good ones out there for the guy who wants to sew his own vinyl

I haven't heard how it's going lately, he moved mid-resto, but this is an iboater's Morris:

And it's supposed to be up to the task....