'74 Chieftain 21' I/O is home, the rebuild begins !

[FrankenCub]

Thanks Dave. I read through your rebuild a couple times which gave me a lot of info and confidence. I'm liking this old boat more all the time I work on it. I started out wanting to keep her just as Starcraft shipped her but I am finding some improvements that I kinda like. I've had a few of these engines in cars and trucks, never had any problems with them. Plenty of torque and very reliable. I haven't ran this one yet but pretty confident it will be fine.

Where the sink was supposed to be someone put a cobbed together cabinet. Might not have been so bad if it was built nice, but it wasn't. All the literature I seen does show a fridge on the starboard side. Mine didn't even have the cabinet there any more. Don't think I want a fridge back in it but will be putting a cabinet back there with a nice counter top on it. Thinking good storage for fishing tackle. Not sure yet though, will be using it to camp on too so might want the space for other storage. Still a bit undecided about a sink back in it but it would be nice to have, especially for the wife and washing fish slime off hands lol.
I'll PM you about it.

The lighting is going to be updated too, LED lights throughout. I was going to paint over the spar on all the ply but I really like how it looks so I think I'm going to leave it as is. Just something warm feeling about wood. I don't think I'm even going to upholster the side panels either. I think the spar'd wood will go well with a light vinyl decking surface and seating upholstery. Still milling about on how I want to build a dog house though. I'm thinking having it split, one half fastened to the deck and the other half raising with lift shocks. I want to be able to access the engine without having to drag it out into the deck area so I can still have room to move about. Would need to be fairly thin material so it would be light enough.


Got a bit more accomplished. Loving the decent weather

 

[Watermann]

That's great the weather is cooperating for you.

The spar sure does make everything wood look better, that's all I put on my Chief's mahogany bow supports. It was a bummer that the transom cover arch was roached out and I had to toss it.

 

[FrankenCub]

My transom cover arch was bad too, one side scabbed together with 1/8" steel plate. The bow support and transom cover arch are now 3/4" marine ply. I thought about using some hardwood but I had scraps of the marine ply so went with it.
I lucked out today, was supposed to have thunder storms but they missed us. Crossin my fingers this weekend is nice too so I can get the first two sections of deck cut and spar'd. At some point I need to get the cabin windscreen down to the glass shop to have some plexi cut to match. Kinda dreading how much that's gonna cost. No way I'd trust my skills to cut it. I'm a bit too crude with soft materials lol.

 

[FrankenCub]

Well looks like I have a forced time out with the Chief. Once again I wasn't smart enough to wear safety glasses and got a piece of aluminum in my eye. Wife had an appt with one of her Dr's to talk about when she will start radiation and chemo so while we were there the optometrist at the hospital snuck me in to remove the metal. She picked it out with a hypo and then had to grind some of the surrounding area to clean any containments out. Man I feel like a dumb ass, I know better but didn't want the hassle of the safety glasses on. Never again. Three times a charm I guess. Glad it was from the Chief though, the last two times it was steel. You'd be surprised how fast steel will rust in your eye.
Guess I'll have some catching up to do in a few days, the bright white background hurts too much even with my eye covered. Be good, boys lol.

 

[Watermann]

Talk about some bad happenings, glad your eye wasn't too badly damaged and well wishes to the admiral for her battle.

 

[cj8mule]

Thanks Dave. I read through your rebuild a couple times which gave me a lot of info and confidence. I'm liking this old boat more all the time I work on it. I started out wanting to keep her just as Starcraft shipped her but I am finding some improvements that I kinda like. I've had a few of these engines in cars and trucks, never had any problems with them. Plenty of torque and very reliable. I haven't ran this one yet but pretty confident it will be fine.

Where the sink was supposed to be someone put a cobbed together cabinet. Might not have been so bad if it was built nice, but it wasn't. All the literature I seen does show a fridge on the starboard side. Mine didn't even have the cabinet there any more. Don't think I want a fridge back in it but will be putting a cabinet back there with a nice counter top on it. Thinking good storage for fishing tackle. Not sure yet though, will be using it to camp on too so might want the space for other storage. Still a bit undecided about a sink back in it but it would be nice to have, especially for the wife and washing fish slime off hands lol.
I'll PM you about it.

You're welcome.

There are some before pictures on the first few pages of my build thread that'll show where the sink and fridge were located. The space where the cabinet/fridge was makes a great space for the fishing cooler.

I'm working with wood right now and get fussed at for not wearing goggles.... my Admiral would have my ss if I got an aluminum shard in my eye.

 

[FrankenCub]

Talk about some bad happenings, glad your eye wasn't too badly damaged and well wishes to the admiral for her battle.

Thanks, it's much appreciated. The eye feels much better today but a bit scratchy yet. We're at the hospital now, lots of appointments and a couple ct scans. Met with the radiation oncologist a little while ago. She'll be getting intense radiation and chemo 5x week for 6-7 weeks in hopes to get rid of it. That's if it hasn't spread, if it has he said there's nothing they can do. So, they are doing two 3D ct scans today to make sure it hasn't spread. Going to be a hard road with a lot of side effects.

You're welcome.

There are some before pictures on the first few pages of my build thread that'll show where the sink and fridge were located. The space where the cabinet/fridge was makes a great space for the fishing cooler.

I'm working with wood right now and get fussed at for not wearing goggles.... my Admiral would have my ss if I got an aluminum shard in my eye.

I'll take another look at your build thread, for a better look. The fishing cooler sounds like a good idea.
My wife had a fit last night lol, I had all I could take and had to work on the Chief some. Then she had a fit about me not wearing safety glasses lol. I wasn't doing anything but bolting down the new front engine mount so didn't see any any need for them. This is the third time I've gotten a piece of metal in my eye, same friggin eye too. Last two were steel though which rusted almost immediately. For now on any sawing or anything, I'm wearing those glasses.

 

[oldhaven]

At my age, the glasses I need to see anything up close takes care of that for me. Beware of paint stripper too.

My wife has gone through that twice and is ten years out now from the last one. Medicine has progressed so much even since then. My advice as a husband who has been there and felt kind of helpless through most of it is to be there at every opportunity and appointment you can. It means a lot to them.

Ron

 

[FrankenCub]

Good point with chemical strippers, they're nasty. I rarely use them however, only for furniture, I don't have the patience and usually end up using media blasting. Then I'm covered in a tyvek suit and hood with fresh air respiration. Always worked on cars and such so always had rust removal to contend with.

You're right bout the helpless feeling. She's very strong willed, to the point of being arrogant at times lol, but seeing what just the thought of this does to her is quite bothering to me. I will definitely be with her at every move supporting her, I don't work any more due to an MVA in '06 so I have unlimited time to give her. Most of her family was taken by cancer so that weighs on her mind. Will keep pushing her to stay positive.

 

[FrankenCub]

Got some more time in on the Chief finally, before the rain put an end to it. The first section of deck is ready to fasten down but still lacking flotation. The local guy selling reclaimed foam boards only has the Poly ISO at the moment and I'm not sure that would work. Gas tank is set in place and ready to go.
I'm missing piece of the wood helm, it fell to mulch when taking it apart. Any idea of a rough measurement for how tall this piece should be ? Can see in the picture which one is MIA. I'm hoping to build a new one this weekend if the weather cooperates.

 

[FrankenCub]

A couple updates. My wife has been in the hospital since last Wednesday because her chemo is a 96 hour straight drip and doing radiation in the mornings. She's on her final bag of the chemo for this 96 hour run and will be coming home tomorrow night. So far so good. Has another 96 hour run in 3 weeks and will be still getting radiation 4 days a week for 5 or 6 more weeks yet. So far she isn't getting any side effects which is good, but this is only her fourth day so...

She wanted me to take the day off from sitting at the hospital with her today seems the weather was going to be nice and get some work done on the Chief (thanks dear, I needed that). I scored 4 sheets of 2" foam board from Craigslist for $20 YAY Flotation is done ! Got the rear two sections of deck riveted down, boy does that feel good. Then I sat back in the cabin all proud of my work and low and behold, I forgot to install the gas line on that new tank under the deck....doh :facepalm:
I'll be damned if I'm gonna pull a section of deck up to do it so guess I'll get one of those small square deck plates that the center comes out and install it where I can get to the fuel pick up. Probably be good to have one there for future access anyway lol. Need to order two more sheets of 1/2"ply and hopefully I can get both sides of the cabin bulkhead out of one sheet of 3/4". Need to lay them up and get some measurements, it looks like it will be really close.
I guessed at the measurement of the helm piece that I was missing and got that all put together, looks like it will work good, just need to open the holes a bit more so the gauges fit better and slop a few coats of spar on it.

 

[Watermann]

Nice progress FC, decking looks to have been done well with some good fit.

Fuel line yeah ole Murphy has come to visit the Starmada this week. Now that's a bunch of rivets there holding the deck down, I would work around that too without using a drill. My visit wasn't so bad, just mixed marine tex at the wrong ratio so I had to remove it and start over.

 

[FrankenCub]

Nice progress FC, decking looks to have been done well with some good fit.

Fuel line yeah ole Murphy has come to visit the Starmada this week. Now that's a bunch of rivets there holding the deck down, I would work around that too without using a drill. My visit wasn't so bad, just mixed marine tex at the wrong ratio so I had to remove it and start over.

Thanks Watermann, I've tried to take my time with it. I'm not a very good carpenter lol. Me and soft materials don't usually mix well. I love the look of the wood, except for the damn little nats forever sealed in the spar. Oh well, it'll be covered with vinyl so they don't matter.
lmao for sure, NO DRILLS ALLOWED !!! I have a Dremal Rotary saw that I can set the depth on, drill plunge and cut. At least this and your Marine Tex blunders are easy fixes, I could think of a lot worse things we could have done :lol:

 

[Watermann]

I believe Spar is Meth of the bug world as one after the other sink into it to their slow and certain death. I think the gnats getting in my beer ticks me off more though. :lol: