1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

[ShowMeGuy]

Well, well... here we are.... I picked myself up a big bad chieftain over the weekend.... KAA BAM! It's in rough shape cosmetically as well as the floor and transom. But to my newbie eyes the hull is super smooth and nice... just yuck paint..

Found it out on CL awhile back and found time and got it for what I think was a fair enough deal. No steal, $650. The trailer is in pretty bad shape it was a slow ride home back to Missouri. :| More to come on that when I have more pics to share.

The motor is pretty much wha sold me on the deal. It fired up and sounded super smooth... Too bad I can't just put it in the water and go... but the transom is super soft, the one of the bellows is shot and split completely in too....

My plan of attack is to get the motor and outdrive out ASAP so I can get myself a new transom in, install the motor and align it and put in a rebuild insides of the outdrive back on and see how it runs out....

Then pretty much start redoing all the floors and cabin. I think the inside will be reconditioned first then the outside last, being its going to be mainly a river boat.... I'll pretty it up down the road after I find out it's a good boat.... Anyways.. thats me shooting from the hip.. What do you all think??? Pros/Cons doing inside first vs outside?

 

[1973Chieftain]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

SA-WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET! Nice find there! What year/ size is she? What's her powerplant?

 

[ShowMeGuy]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

SA-WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET! Nice find there! What year/ size is she? What's her powerplant?

This here Tin Can is a 1973 22footer. It has an inline 6 banger. I think it's the mercruiser 165??

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Nice and at a great price!
Yep.. that's the merc 165. Great motor.
Items by order of priority would be.
100% motor and running gear.
Transom
Electrical
Interior
Paint
new trailer..
look fwd to watching.
Welcome aboard

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Chieftain with a running I6 for $650? Sounds like a great deal to me, nice

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

ShowMe - I think you got a great deal. A 165 M/C will push her just fine and It's not bad on gas. Your plan of yanking the motor/outdrive and R/R the transom is good. Get her on the water and decide from that what to do next. Interior first sounds good.

Welcome to Starmada and have fun.

 

[rheagler]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Nice find. I think you've got a good plan going as well. As GA said, get it on the water and go from there!

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

That was exactly my plan with my Jupiter. I got the motor running, took it for a ride or two (sitting on beach chairs) to make sure I was happy with how it ran. Than I tore out the interior and replaced it. Ran it like that for a season and then painted the exterior. Since you have a large boat that you aren't going to be flipping for paint, you can certainly paint it after doing everything else. Congrats on the boat. You got a great hull and the inline 6 is a great motor for it.

 

[ShowMeGuy]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Thanks all! I'm hoping it turns out to be a good deal! I got it home and parked next to the garage, more pics prolly tomorrow night as I plan to start pulling the outdrive housing tomorrow and start looking as where and how to pull the motor. not sure I wanna use the polebarn rafters... Maybe the lean-to rafters.... I'll have to look see, but plan is to have motor out by weekend.... Lofty goals I know.. ***GRIN***

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Thanks all! I'm hoping it turns out to be a good deal! I got it home and parked next to the garage, more pics prolly tomorrow night as I plan to start pulling the outdrive housing tomorrow and start looking as where and how to pull the motor. not sure I wanna use the polebarn rafters... Maybe the lean-to rafters.... I'll have to look see, but plan is to have motor out by weekend.... Lofty goals I know.. ***GRIN***

"Optimism is always the way to go otherwise you never start because you're afraid of what you got yourself into." Some dead philosopher said that I think. On the motor yank - Do you have a pick-up? If you do, rent a engine hoist and put it in the PU bed. You gain about 3 feet to clear the transom. Somebody here did that and it worked out great. Oh yeah - take off the tailgate.

 

[MichaelP]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Congrats on a great deal. I can't believe all these chiefs coming out of the wood work lately. This is turning into a huge movement and I'm glad I got mine already.

 

[ShowMeGuy]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

So I found this idea on good ol Iboats.... Stole the pic... This will be getting used tonight, as I have some spare boards as well as a motorcycle lift.... FREE!!!!!

Wish me luck!

 

[ShowMeGuy]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Well the ol bike lift and wood didn't work out to well.. The boat on the trailer was to high for the amount of lift on the bike lift. Did that stop me????? Pffft Heck no.... I still tore that mamma jamma off there like nobodys bizzness..
KAA CHOW

What is this white stuff???

The gimble bearing felt great to me....... But if I want to replace it are those snap rings or something helping to hold it in?

My shift cable?? I believe...... This is all greek to me, Does this look ok? The end of it looks kinda jerry rigged...

 

[erwinner]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Love your Chieftain!
Can't help with the I/O questions as mine is an OB, but Jas will probably have some hints for ya'.
At least it wasn't a "white leg of despair" (OMC) like his Islander had when he started!

 

[ShowMeGuy]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Ok... while I was flexing and patting myself on the back for getting the drive unit off. I wasn't really set up for pulling the motor so I got to pulling trim and bumper rubber (is that what it's called?) off the stern end of the boat.
It looks like the plywood expanded or swell up and pushed up on the top of the cap piece of AL.

So... I was lookin at the starboard and port side (look at me using all the dang fancy nautical terms) lol.. and well am I going to have to pull off the bow cap and push out the bumper rubber towards the front to be able to bend up that stern cap???

Anyhow.... Just a few pics of the motor.. <Insert VROOM VROOM VROOOM!!!!! here>

 

[ShowMeGuy]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Picture nazi's say split em up..

Cheesy lookin motor mount..... Any thoughts?

Glamour Shot

Big Butt

Tractor & Boat

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Nice job ripping that OD off man. Yah, you have a bunch of corrosion in there. You've got some maintenance catch up to do back there for sure. Head on over to the Merc Forum, those guys are sharp!

For your rear cap, you need not cut it apart, just drill out the rivets holding the side rubrail channels and pry em out a little. Then you can gently pull the transom out of there. I was pretty detailed in the Islander thread on that kinda stuff if you'd like to check it out.

Love the tractors you have there, I believe that's an 8N along with a 9N back there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p7KQsn3STs&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

 

[ShowMeGuy]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

For your rear cap, you need not cut it apart, just drill out the rivets holding the side rubrail channels and pry em out a little. Then you can gently pull the transom out of there. I was pretty detailed in the Islander thread on that kinda stuff if you'd like to check it out.

Oh yeah man.. i've read your thread from start to finish, along with many others on here which is what gave me the courage to attempt to tackle this
I'll have to check but that there isn't any rivets on the top of that rail... maybe you mean drill out or remove from the inside? The screws on the rear cap were under the rub rail... I had to drill a few of heads off......

Yeah buddy!! a fellow antique tractor guy!! woot woot! yeah that on pullin the boat is a 1947 Ford 2N, the others are a 1955 740 tricycle and a 1955 861....

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Whoops! I should have said machine screws, not rivets, sorry bout that.

Antique tractor and antique boats buddy

 

[ShowMeGuy]

Re: 1973 Starcraft Chieftain owner.. SKEWWWWWIE!

Well another productive night here in the ShowMeState I'd have to say... Especiallly being I've never done anything with a boat before cept float on one..
Pull the motor, surprisingly I wasn't to nervous, even with the redneck engineering feat found here on Iboats.

Followed by a quick celebration ride in the rough seas of the Foley Polebarn! I hear it can be pretty dangerous, drinkin and barn driving... :facepalm: No peeing over the side!!!! lol