Re: 66 Starcraft Sunchief Re-Build
OK, I finally got the boat back so it's time to break out the hatchet and get back to work!!!
Here's a shot of the installed outdrive. I still have to tape off the stern and shoot the peices we left attached to the boat and touch up the scratches and dings from the little guy at the mechanic's shop who has to muscle all the stuff around. All in all, they were fairly gentle with it and I have no complaints. Not a really great picture as, of course, it started pouring rain about ten seconds after we hitched the trailer to my truck.
Here's a pic of the newly installed Moeller 12 gal tank. I won't permanently attach it until I get back the jump seats from the upholstry shop so I can make sure it's placed correctly.
Now that I have the boat back, it's time to ramp things up a little. Remember, we have the lake house for two weeks in mid July, and I leave on the 20th this month for a three week trip to British Columbia. Pressure, pressure, pressure!!!
We want to replace the old decrepid, full of holes dash with a new spankin peice of mahogany. Problem is, the danged edges are cut on an angle with the sides of the boat. Guess they were put in before the deck skin was installed and I don't want to detach all the deck stringers in the bow and remove the deck. So first I had to remove all the hardware, controls, and the gunwale rubrail receiver. This came up in the Starcraft forums a few months ago. After you remove the rubrail insert, the receiver is screwed to the dash and rivited along the gunwale. Also there's about 16 thru bolts into metal brackets that also tie into the deck stringers. Removing this dash is not a fun project!!!!
Then you remove the tray attached to the bottom and peel the old canvas off so you can get to the bolt heads counter-sunk in the wood, There are also four bolts on each side up under the gunwale.
Now we've got it all ready to come out. Tomorrow evening, I'll saw it right up the middle and it should drop right out.
I forgot to mention there's a ton of stuff mounted to the back side of the dash-several fuse blocks, etc. and I also marked all the switches with masking tape so I wouldn't be trying to figure out which wires went to what when we re-wire.
Both of the fuse blocks had been totally bypassed by previous repairs except for one. But instead of a fuse, someone had installed a small spring, sort of like the ones you used to see in an old ball point pen???
It's gonna be nice to get all that cleaned up with this re-build.
