1974 24' Chieftan Express project

[jasoutside]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

It was tough to see it go, that is a heckava nice motor!

(I forgot to tell ya when you were here, I swapped the gear oil for ya too. So, carb, water pump, spark, gear oil, she's a clamp on and go!:thumb

But, with the change up in the fleet (big and small), I have a little different plan for trolling and emergency propulsion.

 

[1973Chieftain]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

It's been a busy couple of weeks, I just got back to the Chief today. My wife and I decided to list our house for sale and move... There's always a top of work involved! But we found a new house we like with 2 barns... A 30x40 and a 45x105 . The large one is for my Admiral and her horses, but the first thing she said about the 30x40 was it looked like a very nice boat shop!

On the Chief, I started stripping all of the stuff off in order to remove the transom. It's a bit more complicated then the previous ones I've done. The transom is all the way to the gunnel, and in about a 1" channel on the bottom. And there's no way to remove anything from the top to access it. So I pulled the rub rail off the stern planning on cutting the gunnel on either side and bending the gunnel up and forward. But I found the gunnel and transom are welded together! A PO at some point put regular steel bolts in :facepalm:

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

Hmmm, looks about like my office:

less then 25% doing 100% of the work :facepalm:

1st welded seam I've seen. but StevenSmith had trouble getting the transom wood out as well. I think he ended up cutting the weird shaped gunwale riser, that wraps across the top of the transom gunwale, to remove the part of it over the transom, then welded the corner back together after the transom was replaced

Yep in this pic you can see the folded riser sticking up off the transom gunwale:

And here's a pix of the riser/gunwale piece covering the transom plywood removed:

He's moved the thread around a bit, but you could dig a bit if you want to find details of why & how he cut it apart. And since it's now all painted, you should be able to find info about the put back & welding of the piece removed.

Congrats on the pending SC hanger

 

[Watermann]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

I would use a non-ferrous circular saw blade to rip right through those welds. Using the circular saw you can cut straight and adjust for depth. Not to mention cut the piece of gunnel easily too.

 

[barato2]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

cutting wheel on a die grinder would work too, altho cutting aluminum will go through wheels in a hurry. doubt that weld is factory. "Tin Boat CSI", that's us....give us badges and there would be some previous owners behind bars or hangin.

 

[1973Chieftain]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

I tried a grinder to see how it would work.... very slow work. I'm thinking of trying a sawzall with a metal blade, I had not thought of the circular saw. They may not be factory, most of the bolts holding the rub rail on were regular steel and poorly installed.

Speaking of POs, I've scrapped 2 rotten glassers in the past couple of weeks too. Selling the parts should turn a nice profit to roll into the Chief. On one of them, the po removed the engine head cover (the piece covering the cylinders and has the 140hp sticker on it) the. Just set a 120 HP cover on top. First cylinder has 3" of water in it, the next two are rusty, and the 4th is just fine. Leaving the cylinders mostly uncovered in MI? Duh!

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

"Tin Boat CSI", that's us....give us badges and there would be some previous owners behind bars or hangin.

Come on B, it's a boat forum: Gonna have to be keel haulin' them PO's :lol:

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

Nice bolt! That really held up over the years. :facepalm: I had plenty too. Fortunately for me, my tinny is 8" shorter, so not as many as your gonna find.

 

[1973Chieftain]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

I just went dumpster diving so to speak in a 1985 19' bow rider (one of the scrap glassers) and removed what I thought was a few feet of carpet rolled up in the bottom of the boat partially covered in ice. SCORE!!!!!!! 29' OF BRAND NEW MARINE CARPET! Sweeeeeeeeet!!! Still on the bolt too! It has a kinda rubbery look to the back side. Gonna look nice re purposed for the Chief's deck!

 

[Watermann]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

I've cut a bunch of aluminum with my table saw using a non-ferrous metal blade to make the hull stiffeners and new brackets. You have no idea how well these blades work until you try one. A sawsall blade or jigsaw will turn into a butter knife in about 6 inches if your lucky and be ruined. A grinder is a joke too compared to these blades. They're worth every penny when it comes to ripping through aluminum like butter.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

Yah, I'm seeing that my Sportfisherman has the same setup at the stern too. It seems to me that Starcraft slid the transom in place then added in the gunwales/stern decking/cabin afterward. Makes for a challenge when all we want to do is remove the transom without pulling the whole entire cap off. Rats.

 

[barato2]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

A sawsall blade or jigsaw will turn into a butter knife in about 6 inches if your lucky and be ruined.

you said a mouthful there. i go through jigsaw blades so fast that i find myself using a block of scrap 3/4" ply next to the cut line, to shim the saw up so that it's using a different portion of the blade and thus get a little more life out of it. gonna have to look into one of those.

 

[1973Chieftain]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

Waterman, you were spot on with the blade! I wend to H.D. and bought a ferrous metal blade for my circular saw (they didn't have any for aluminum) for $11. Below is after one cut. Very easy!

My plan had been to bend the metal forward to open enough space for the transom to come up. However, the aluminum is rather thick so I'm not sure if that will work well. My other idea was to cut about a 1.25" strip off completely. After the new transom is in, I would tuck a piece of aluminum in under the rub rail piece and rivet it in on the forward side. Ideas?

 

[Watermann]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

Yeah man like buttah! Unless I have to make a fancy curved cut, you won't see me in the jigsaw blade isle any more. The non-ferrous blades are over 40 bones...

 

[1973Chieftain]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

I saw Dewalt makes one for about $15, Amazon and H.D. have them online, just not in stores I guess.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

Waterman, you were spot on with the blade! I wend to H.D. and bought a ferrous metal blade for my circular saw (they didn't have any for aluminum) for $11. Below is after one cut. Very easy!

My plan had been to bend the metal forward to open enough space for the transom to come up. However, the aluminum is rather thick so I'm not sure if that will work well. My other idea was to cut about a 1.25" strip off completely. After the new transom is in, I would tuck a piece of aluminum in under the rub rail piece and rivet it in on the forward side. Ideas?
View attachment 226019

Yah, some of these bigger boats have this challenging set up to pull the transom. It's built out pretty strong but to get at the transom is no doubt a bear.

I've thought just a little on this. I was kinda thinking that I might make a cut at the bend, then take it into a pro to weld it back together with a really nice straight bead. Bout right here...

I dunno though, I still need to stew on it for a bit.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

And this cut line ^^^ also intersects w/ the folded under & riveted corner so there's some rivets that can be drilled out, and then used as alignment holes for using a few Clecos

Correct:

Just forward of that cleat ^^^^

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

Yup, that's kinda what I was thinking JB ^^^^.

I don't know if that's the best route to take yet as I don't fully understand how all the pieces come together back there. I still need to dig around on mine but I see riveted stuff and welded stuff all over the place under neath. Great structure but it'll be challenging to pull apart, put back together, AND have it look good, ya know.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

Did SteveSmith ever post up how he took his apart & then put it back together? The 24ft'r he just painted white, with the super dark tinted cabin windows?

 

[Watermann]

Re: 1974 24' Chieftan Express project

I would disassemble the entire transom cap and gunnels if that's what it take to get to everything.