'73 Sleek

Follow along with our rebuild! We're working over a 23-foot 1973 Sleekcraft Executive. The mechanical element will be split up into a couple of phases, as will the interior. Feel free to ask questions, make suggestions, submit your work, or offer us free parts! Oh, and baked goods. We gladly accept baked goods too.

[73sleek]

I love the fact that you can find some of the old sales literature on this boat! This thing was big pimpin' back in the day!

[73sleek]

Sunday, March 25, 2014

Today was the day of some serious tear-down. I got nearly all of the components off of the engine, and began making my pile of stuff that needs to visit the solvent tank. 

This engine was filthy! Oil leaks abound, this re-seal job will be a good thing for it, and for the bilge. It was interesting to see that so much care had gone into some of the work by a previous engine mechanic, yet some stuff was so blatantly ignored. Whoever did the job last failed to install intake manifold gaskets, and left a lot of crud behind, where they should have been more detailed. I'm talking about things like not even scraping off the old gasket material before installing a new set. Seriously, who does that?

The seals and gaskets on this thing were well past their prime. The head gaskets were very cheaply made, but thankfully had not failed before. There's a lot of carbonizing on the pistons and valves, probably due to a lack of oil changes and all-or-nothing operation. I'm at a sort of crossroad of whether or not to tear down to that point of cleaning them (which I really didn't want to do a 100% tear-down) or just get the big stuff off and do a chemical cleaning (top clean, Seafoam, etc...) once she's all back together. Anybody have any advice on that?

All in all, the engine's in pretty good shape, especially for being original from 1973. As far as I know, there's not been any major work done to it previously.

[73sleek]

Saturday, March 22, 2014

The day finally came, after much procrastination, to pull the engine for a work-up. The shop crane I bought for the job would reach all the way to the center-line of the engine, so I had to employ the use of the overhead crane at work. Thankfully, I live literally 1/8th of a mile from the shop, so tailgating the engine back was no problem at all.

Once I got the greasy mess out, the disaster of an engine compartment was there in all of it's glory. I have one hell of a time ahead of me degreasing this thing. I'm thinking of replacing the battery trays and glassing them in (like they currently are already), and applying some sort of overall coating to the bay to make clean-up in the future much easier. I was thinking something along the lines of truck bed liner.

You'll notice in the pictures that the fuel tanks are nearly all the way aft. This, as I understand it, was not the original factory configuration. Weight and balance issues have been an issue with this change (namely hole-shot), but last summer I installed a good set of hydraulic trim tabs, which did the trick perfectly. I'll leave the tanks as they are, because the custom seating job by previous owner doesn't really allow for me to send them back mid-ship. 

Got the engine loaded on the tailgate and then set into the carport. Time to tear down!

[73sleek]

We bought our 1973 23-foot Sleekcraft Executive last year, just in time for river season. We took her out a few times, and for having sat in a yard in Bullhead City for 10 years, she ran surprisingly good. This place will be the landing spot for renovation work before the 2014 season.

The interior, while not totally shot, is in need of new carpet, new hull liner in the cabin, and some other basic cosmetic work (paint buff and wax, new wood grain vinyl).

Mechanical work includes pulling the motor (Oldsmobile 350 Rocket) and chasing down all of the oil leaks by replacing all seals and gaskets, inspections on all engine parts inside and out, heavy duty degreasing and steam cleaning, painting back to original block colors, and replacing all engine electrical with a new site-made harness, complete with Deutsch plug for easy pulling in the future. The Jacuzzi YJ pump will be fully inspected and an overhaul plan will be made for next year. The pump will be pulled so that all hull openings can be resealed. The engine bay will be steam cleaned and coated as well.

Electrical work will include a new boat harness, new gauge wiring, new power distribution system, installation of a stereo system, and LED cabin lighting throughout.

Thanks for following, and stay tuned!