Re: Rough and ready '74 Starcraft Chieftan 18' rebuild
Holy your really ripping her down lol. I was reading most of your post last night before I passed out and I guess your gonna be keeping the Cuddy Cabin with replacing the windows. My one son did have a good Idea and it was to either put a seat out front mounted behind the hatch or turn it into a bow rider for one up front I thought it was interesting from him and thought I'd just throw it your way.
I'm not sure if I'm gonna go crazy and do a complete rip down this year or not due to the cost of everything I'm thinking to do just enough to get her in the water then start a rip down next year.
I do really love the chieftains.
Well have fun and all the best.
Vic
Thanks man. Fortunately it's just the front cuddy windshield that I have to replace. And, yeah, if I didn't have to do all this tear-down I'd just use it for a season. Mine came partially demo-ed.
Holly cow I turned my back for a moment and your almost done. Hull looks to be in excellent shape. If your going with Rustoleum check out there Royal Blue real nice dark blue.
Yeah, I don't know about that (the bolded). I have a lot of carpentry in my near future, but it should be fun. The hull is surprisingly sound...I'll post some pics below of the leak test. Spoiler: no leakers
I am in fact going to go with Rustoleum. I know I'll get heckled or admonished for this, but I might use high output rattle cans for the base color (gloss white), then roll and tip the navy blue, which I'll get from the royal blue with a tiny amount of black added. I'm still working that out in my brain-pan.
I thought it was a two piece W/S. But it's one piece with a bend in the middle, right? Would a two piece with a sealed inside and outside divider strip work? Just thinking out loud - Can you smell the smoke?
Ha ha...it's such an obtuse angle that I'm thinking I can pull it off. The guy at the glass shop recommended a hair dryer, which, while it'll take a lot longer, almost eliminates the danger of waves/bubbles.
chemicalwire,
you may think this is the dumbest idea ever but................
My buddy had a 22' Chieftain that we were going to restore (another buddy has it now and the current plan is rip the cabin off and make a CC out of it) and it had a pretty well destroyed front window. We had it out on the water once or twice with no window there and we decided that we liked the breeze it offered and determined that the cabin would probably get pretty hot with only those little side windows openable. We were thinking of fabbing up a way to replace the front plexi with two RV windows. There's always a pile of them on ebay like this
New Black Kinro 24x22 RV Crank Window camper Trailer 24 x 22 " | eBay With a little thought and some aluminum it shouldn't be too tough to pull off. Might look silly or maybe kinda cool. Anyway, just an idea.
Nope, that's an awesome idea. BUT, I already dropped the cash on plexi. I think that setup would look really cool...totally customized and functional. Oh well. I'm going to put some of that removable tint on all the cabin windows, as I've already had that thought about the heat issue. I also need to get some stick-on window handles for the side sliders...they're a PITA to get open without the long gone latches.
Did a leak test after work today, and not a single leaker. I'm wicked psyched about this. Gluvit (maybe Coat-it for $25 from amazon) and the hull is set.
I did fill it a bit more than this:
...and for you guys with garages/shops/barns/warehouse spaces, just take a moment to be thankful for your bounty of boat building comfort. The 8x12 shed gets really small really fast, and I've organized this twice in the past week:
I really appreciate all the help, guys. I'm getting pretty excited now with the weather turning for the better.
Oh, yeah, here's an ebay score that I'm also excited about (yeah, they're manuals, but $200 for the pair, plus I got some cheap swivel mounts...those things are stupid expensive):
EDIT: And my wife got me a very nice pair of binoculars for my birthday, which are a kind of underrated boating accessory.
