1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

Just think how much closer to the ice box you are now....either no more problem spots or lots less getting done...either or, at least dehydration should be a thing of the past

Well, I gave up the drinking many years ago, but, my bride makes awesome brownies! That could really hamper my progress as the kitchen is only steps from the boat now!

 

[snowman48047]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

Wow tight fit! Should be much nicer working on it inside! I also love the idea to remove part of the upper. Your right about getting in and out of it a bunch easier.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

Wow tight fit! Should be much nicer working on it inside! I also love the idea to remove part of the upper. Your right about getting in and out of it a bunch easier.

Thanks for checking in Snowman - yah, I may be able to work on those gunwales over the weekend, though, now with the warm weather there are a lot of other projects that are fighting for first position!

Cheers!

 

[timfives]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

I'm insanely jealous!

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

I'm insanely jealous!

Yah buddy, but you are about 100 steps ahead of me - you'll be on the water fishing while I'll still be prepping for paint. THEN who will be the jealous one!!!

Cheers Buddy!

 

[sprintst]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

The old stuff as a template is a real blessing. You'll be surprised how quickly things will progress with the help of the old stuff as a guide.

I'm almost overconscious when it comes to covering the boat. The memories of all that work are still too vivid.

Nice work on the shoehorning of the boat ino the garage. Someone is definately on your side as there wasn't much space to spare.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

Nice work on the shoehorning of the boat ino the garage. Someone is definately on your side as there wasn't much space to spare.

Yah, even after a couple of days of it being in there I am still dumbfounded that it fit!

Today I think I am going to have to spend some time turning the garage into a "boat shop". You know, cleaning things up, organizing the tools, all of that stuff.

Cheers!

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

So I hauled my little John Deere in to school this week and had my shop students weld on a receiver. I picked up a hitch with the lowest drop I could find, and...

This will be so much easier than messing around with all that furniture dolly business, man that was a pain.

I picked up one of these at Harbor Freight for $9...

...which made this job a whole lot easier...

The rest of the day was spent converting the garage into a boat shop. Lots of cleaning and organizing. And yes, it snowed pretty much all day long!

Happy Sunday Guys!!!

 

[PaulyV]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

JA,
Just catching up on your progress. Great to see she fits in the garage. And that rubrail...The Iboat crew is the best around!!! I luv this place!
Good luck moving forward.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

JA,
Just catching up on your progress. Great to see she fits in the garage. And that rubrail...The Iboat crew is the best around!!! I luv this place!
Good luck moving forward.

Thanks dude! Rock on!

Well, I just finished up cleaning the garage portion of the boat shop, super conducive to getting things done now. My work shop portion is a total disaster, I can't even barely walk in there - another day for that.

Off to church and then family eat fest, sweet!

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

Well, not a whole lot of progress lately but I did get a few things done tonight...

I went through all the ribs and drilled out all the left over rivets from the deck so that was good.

Then I thought I'd take a run at those gunwales. So, I laid out some cut lines...


...all the way around to try keep the blade where it needs to be...

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

...then I started cutting, and I'll be honest, I was pretty nervous. Here is how it all came out...








I swapped back and fourth between the sawzall and angle grinder with a metal cutting blade, worked great. It already feels like a completely different boat. Getting in and out was WAAAY easier even with the gunwale in it's unfinished and floppy state!

 

[sprintst]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

Nice. It does definately change the look of the boat. It's like it was never there.

The blue paint on your boat is bringing back memories. That stuff was under my finger nails for a month

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

Here are my cut lines...




...not too shabby just going freehand on it.

I am really happy with how these gunwales are turning out. I know it doesn't look quite right as it is but I still have yet to do a little tin work, the inner gunwale and trim aluminum in order to finish it all off.

Cheers Fellas!

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

By the way...

Can someone confirm that the stripes along the sides of my boat - paint, right? Not a decal, right? Thanks!

 

[jcupo6]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

I think stainless grab rails would look sweet running down both sides!

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

I think stainless grab rails would look sweet running down both sides!

Yah, maybe. But that might sort of defeat the idea of the sit and swing the legs over idea. I actually have a really nice set of stainless rails off of the Baja too - but those will be up for sale to fund other stuff.

Cheers!

 

[SBTOM]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

looking good. How are you going to handle the return on that sheet metal edge on the gunwales? I'm assuming its going to need some reinforcement...

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

I'm pretty sure that the stripes are painted on your rig...mine are on my '79.

I have to agree that if you could squeeze a stainless rail on each side and still have room to get in the rig easily that would look sweet and be functional.

Plenty of room for downriggers and rod holders on there too

I found this photo of an '86 Islander and the way you cut it looks very similar. Did you know that you were simply following the natural course of Starcraft design evolution?

 

[jasoutside]

Re: 1976 22' Starcraft Islander Rebuild

looking good. How are you going to handle the return on that sheet metal edge on the gunwales? I'm assuming its going to need some reinforcement...

Thanks SB!

Yah, I have a few ideas rolling around in my head at this point. I'll need to chew on things a little bit more to finalize my plans.

For sure I'll be adding aluminum to the gunwale deck in order to bring the width to where it needs to be. I can think of three methods that I could use to accomplish that.

The inner gunwale will likely be epoxied ply covered in some of that pleated vinyl that I mentioned earlier. Or, if I have enough aluminum left from what I removed I may end up using that.

Then I'll probably either use the aluminum corner trim that I removed, or, have one custom made from my local fab shop to finish it off.

Under the gunwale I'll be using epoxied ply to reinforce everything for rod holders and downriggers.

So, plenty of options and decisions to make. I'll just need to take my time and do some careful planning.

Cheers!