Following the rebuilds on these forums (some of the work you boys have done is amazing and inspiring) really gave me confidence and the desire to do a rebuild with my 4 sons. Business was doing well so I figured this summer is the time to do it. I wanted to be able to pull the kids on a tube, do some perch and pan fishing while on vacation in Canada and hit lake Erie for some walleye, and I was leaning towards a cuddy cabin because I love taking naps. A Canadian friend who chases salmon on lake Ontario advised me to stick with an aluminum hull with a Mercury engine, he recommended a Starcraft. I searched high and low for a month or so and found a 221 Islander project boat torn down and started to be rebuilt and it was only 12 hours away! We drove up to Wisconsin and my boys and I now own our first boat, or as my mechanic says, "a hull and a box of parts".
The previous owner started the rebuild and then lost heart and the old girl sat in his garage for several years and he already did most of the hard work. He had the hull totally stripped, bead blasted, new transom wood, repainted and new graphics applied. The trailer was repainted, the wheels were in good shape. The engine and stern drive was torn apart, rebuilt by a mercury mechanic and on an engine stand and in boxes. All of the trim, chrome, windows were in boxes. My sons and I were in for one heck of a ride getting this girl back in the water.
Before we picked her up I spoke with a local Mercury mechanic and made sure I had someone to do the engine work and scheduled her in for the engine install (I'm alot of things but a mechanic isn't one).
Picking through the parts and placing some on the boat we realized that we were missing some key parts, the bottom side of the cuddy cabin front window, some of the interior trim, the screen door needed alot of attention. Searching Craigslist while the mechanic was working on our boat I found another boat, a parts boat, same year, same model 35 miles away for less than scrap price.
Surfing the forums and looking at the parts boat made me realize that one of the weakest parts of any boat and the point where people give up on their boat or initiate another rebuild is when the interior wood rots out. I went to a local scrap yard that I do some work and checked on aluminum pricing. They had diamond plate aluminum sheets for $70. He also gave me a killer deal on scrap aluminum so we decided to make the boat a wood free boat. I collected the aluminum, the pop rivets and a sheet metal bender. We are ready to lay down the deck and bulkhead once we get the boat back. I justified the expense by making future rebuilds merely a carpet change out.
After a month of waiting for the mechanic to be ready for her and another month and a half at his shop we got her back a couple of weeks ago. I had him replace any parts that were marginal and the steering / throttle cables. It cost a bit more than I paid for the boat but as he said "you basically have a new boat", so I think it was more than worth the expense.
Two weeks ago we finally got a boat back from the mechanic!!!! 2 weekends with my 4 sons (40+ man/kid hours) of tearing out the old interior, spreading around 2 cans of Gluvit, 500 pop rivets and 20 tubes of marine grade caulk later the deck is finally down. First we laid down a layer of aluminum structure and support, small pieces with various bends for support (I had tons of pics but my dear wife washed the pictures down the drain when she washed my iPhone with my shorts last Monday). We reused the foam from the previous owners deck job and added pool noodles where we could. Under the seat locations, the decking is up to 5 layers thick, solid as a rock, with very little movement when walked on. We are planning to carpet all of the diamond plate, the glare of that stuff is killer.
I will be updating this thread as more of the work is completed.
A quick question for you guys, what is the best way to prep the aluminum to get the carpet to stick?
The previous owner started the rebuild and then lost heart and the old girl sat in his garage for several years and he already did most of the hard work. He had the hull totally stripped, bead blasted, new transom wood, repainted and new graphics applied. The trailer was repainted, the wheels were in good shape. The engine and stern drive was torn apart, rebuilt by a mercury mechanic and on an engine stand and in boxes. All of the trim, chrome, windows were in boxes. My sons and I were in for one heck of a ride getting this girl back in the water.
Before we picked her up I spoke with a local Mercury mechanic and made sure I had someone to do the engine work and scheduled her in for the engine install (I'm alot of things but a mechanic isn't one).
Picking through the parts and placing some on the boat we realized that we were missing some key parts, the bottom side of the cuddy cabin front window, some of the interior trim, the screen door needed alot of attention. Searching Craigslist while the mechanic was working on our boat I found another boat, a parts boat, same year, same model 35 miles away for less than scrap price.
Surfing the forums and looking at the parts boat made me realize that one of the weakest parts of any boat and the point where people give up on their boat or initiate another rebuild is when the interior wood rots out. I went to a local scrap yard that I do some work and checked on aluminum pricing. They had diamond plate aluminum sheets for $70. He also gave me a killer deal on scrap aluminum so we decided to make the boat a wood free boat. I collected the aluminum, the pop rivets and a sheet metal bender. We are ready to lay down the deck and bulkhead once we get the boat back. I justified the expense by making future rebuilds merely a carpet change out.
After a month of waiting for the mechanic to be ready for her and another month and a half at his shop we got her back a couple of weeks ago. I had him replace any parts that were marginal and the steering / throttle cables. It cost a bit more than I paid for the boat but as he said "you basically have a new boat", so I think it was more than worth the expense.
Two weeks ago we finally got a boat back from the mechanic!!!! 2 weekends with my 4 sons (40+ man/kid hours) of tearing out the old interior, spreading around 2 cans of Gluvit, 500 pop rivets and 20 tubes of marine grade caulk later the deck is finally down. First we laid down a layer of aluminum structure and support, small pieces with various bends for support (I had tons of pics but my dear wife washed the pictures down the drain when she washed my iPhone with my shorts last Monday). We reused the foam from the previous owners deck job and added pool noodles where we could. Under the seat locations, the decking is up to 5 layers thick, solid as a rock, with very little movement when walked on. We are planning to carpet all of the diamond plate, the glare of that stuff is killer.
I will be updating this thread as more of the work is completed.
A quick question for you guys, what is the best way to prep the aluminum to get the carpet to stick?
Last edited:
