My Chieftan project

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: My Chieftan project

Finally getting some work done on the Chief. Spent a morning cleaning the hull then applying the Coat-It. Just a word of advice, do not use the cheapy brushes to apply as it will destroy them......cheap plastic handle broke off and left me scrambling to find a stronger brush in the garage. The rest of the application went without a problem. Mixed it up in 3 batches so I didn't have to rush the job. Leak test before application before the coating revealed no leaks but now have the confidence all is sealed.

Dropped the transom in, it was made with the CCA Aluminum safe plywood and sealed. Fit was nice and tight....solid. The spacer plate on the right is off the old transom, will make the new one after I test fit the outdrive.



This is the new cabin walls made of Mahogany. Test fit them in and only a some minor trimming needed.



Still a lot of work ahead but at least some progress is being made. If all goes well I hope to have her finished for my annual pilgrimage to Frankfort / Traverse City in mid August for some Salmon fishing.

Had a chance to inspect the donor boat, outdrive in great condition, no metal in the gear lube and it was nice and clean. Tilt and Trim functioning as expected. Starter arrived for the motor but they forgot to include the mounting bolts, now waiting on them to fire the engine. So for the $380 I payed for the donor I believe it is well worth it.

 

[tgp***]

Re: My Chieftan project

Nice! Great job on that transom. And good pick up on the donor boat. I've done well at selling boat parts on CL. Its making my Holiday almost free at this point, just my labor.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: My Chieftan project

Mahogany plywood looks great

Donor deal sounds great

Best of luck hitting the August 'S'

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: My Chieftan project

Mahogany plywood looks great

Thanks, but it is not plywood, rather solid 3/4" mahogany that was cut into strips, ran through a machine at a woodshop to put the edge cuts.



The slats were not glued together but held together with another slat screwed in across the back thus allowing for some expansion and contraction.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: My Chieftan project

Nice woodworking, really great!

In the cross grain screw holes of the back braces, did you elongated the holes to allow the panels to move w/ changes in humidity?

 

[jasoutside]

Re: My Chieftan project

If all goes well I hope to have her finished for my annual pilgrimage to Frankfort / Traverse City in mid August for some Salmon

I was just recently thinking how cool it'd be to hit the big lake in August. Maybe I'll see ya out there buddy!

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: My Chieftan project

Got some more work done this week. Cut and fitted all the floor boards, they are now ready to be sealed before installation. The next task was removing the vinyl that was covering the outside of the cabin. Oh my, not a job I would like to do again. They used plenty adhesive to hold it on. Took almost a full can of MEK to get all that gunk off. Would pour a little on some fine steel wool and work a small area at a time...man that is some potent stuff. Once completed put a light sanding to it. She is almost ready for some paint.

 

[1970 Chieftain V]

Re: My Chieftan project

Very nice job so far. Can't wait to see it all done. My 1970 Chieftain is the same color. Well it used to be. Again, Very nice project.

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: My Chieftan project

:laugh: I hear ya, that color will also be a use to be....haven't decided on the color scheme yet but it certainly won't be crappy yellow/brown/tan, or whatever it is. Gonna try to get the flooring epoxy coated this weekend. Getting to the point of getting some paint on, and then start the install.

JB - Thanks for the compliments. No the back slats are not elongated. I guess the point was to try to keep some rigidity in the structure. My only concern at this point is if there will be squeaking while on the water with this set up. Not sure, maybe a small bead of silicone down the slats was in order.....???

Jas, plans are made for the trip, the salmon should be snapping. Tentatively planning the week before Labor Day. Fish should be staged and ready to strike.

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: My Chieftan project

Been a very productive week and got some work done on the boat. Mixed up some epoxy and covered the floor boards, topside and bottoms. I went with 1/2" marine plywood for the flooring. Applying the epoxy went for the most part pretty good, one batch got a little too reactive and hardened prematurely so thankfully I was doing it in small batches.

Yesterday I drilled out the old rivets in the floor support beams and installed new rivets.



Once completed, started to lay the floor boards and rivet them in. Used a sharpie to mark the side of the boat where the stringers were so I could identify where to drill for the rivets. 3/16" rivets were used.



Finished the flooring project today. Although not a difficult task it was time consuming. Used nearly 150 rivets between the supports and the floor install. I think a pneumatic rivet gun should have been in order for this task as I think I have a permanent dent in my thumb from squeezing the rivet gun umpteen times. Overall, I am very satisfied with the outcome.

 

[64osby]

Re: My Chieftan project

Looks great, nice work.

Is there flotation foam?

 

[1970 Chieftain V]

Re: My Chieftan project

Some thing to look out for is the top cap. I had to take the rub strip off and then the metal rub strip holder and redo the rivets holding the top cap onto the gunnels. The rivet heads had sheared off. Be sure to use structural rivets and not the home depot pop rivets. The floors look great!

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: My Chieftan project

Yes indeed, flotation is in and under the flooring. Jason, I removed the cap when I removed the transom. I do recall that all the rivets were still solid in the gunwales and in the rub rail when I drilled them out. I have a fastener supply store locally where I will look for the structural rivets, thanks for the tip. I won't reinstall the cap till after I have the motor and drive all back in.


Dismantled the old console as it was well rotted and started tackling the wiring disaster. From this pic you can see there sure was a lot of splicing and dicing that had been done previously.



Tested some of the components to see if they worked or not, the original double horn is still in great shape and works beautifully so that will go back on the boat. The bilge pump on the other hand was well seized up. Will install 2 new ones as better to be safe when out on the Great Lakes. I had removed the head from the old engine this winter, cleaned and checked it over, rebuilt the carb and had not ran it since so I wheeled it over to the boat and hooked up the harness and fired it up. Engine ran nice and smooth and I was quite surprised that all the instruments actually worked!! Another surprise was that on the back side of the clusters was that a date wrote on the back side dated 3-15-1972. So this leads me to believe this boat was a 72?



Have not yet had the time to pull the engine in the donor boat yet to see how it runs....so much to do so little time.

 

[dozerII]

Re: My Chieftan project

Project is coming along real nice WW. It's amazing how messed up the wiring can get after a few different owners and many years.

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: My Chieftan project

Thanks Dozer, I am highly motivated to get this done but not sure if I will make the deadline I set. I certainly relate on the wiring issues as I see it all the time at work working on golf course equipment. Seems people can't figure wiring issues or relays and safety switches so they start butchering on the wiring and make a hell of a mess of it. Thankfully I have a wire tracer with toner (power probe) so I can find the problems and correct them. What bothered me most about the boat was that the PO did not have a working bilge pump in the boat........Safety first!!!!!!

 

[classiccat]

Re: My Chieftan project

Coming along great WnW!

my SS had more leaks than a pasta strainer yet the bilge pump was nonoperational due to faulty wiring :der:

good deal on the engine!!!

 

[CraigBarnard]

Re: My Chieftan project

Looking good!

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: My Chieftan project

Started dissecting the donor boat. Very interesting to say the least. Took the outdrive off and water came out of the gimbal channel. To note: outdrive gasket was good and sealed so no water leaked in there. Looking at the back of the boat I examine where the water line was ...... (black box)

From the pic it seems the boat was partially submerged in the stern, way over where it normally would have sat in the water. Hmm,,,. must of been left in lake with no auto bilge.

So water in the bellow resulted in some rusting in the u-joints, but at least it is superficial and the shaft rotates freely.


But on the other hand the gimbal bearing is shot.....seized up. Note the mouse nest in the lower hole.....wonder how that got there


Otherwise, the leg is in good shape so I guess I can't complain for a cheap ebay purchase. Next on the agenda is to pull the engine out of it......my sawzall is anxious to start cutting away some fiberglass to free the engine.

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: My Chieftan project

Dissection of the donor boat continued. Engine unbuttoned and on it way out of the hull. Grandson assisted the dis-assembly as we all know kids love to tear things apart.



Dashboard cut out and flooring over tank removed. This hull is in sad shape. All wood and floatation foam is completely saturated and rotted. The shovel was easily inserted into a 4 x 4 over top of the tank. Makes you want to go out and buy a glass boat Surprisingly the only thing that I have found that was not rotted out was the transom ? ? ? Interesting.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: My Chieftan project

That's a big mess, how bout we just throw that thing away ok?:thumb: