1984 starcraft islander

[matt167]

Pic looks like marine grade which would be Douglas fir, AAX plywood basically. How thick is it? Looks like it’s varnished.

You could use exotic woods like Ockume or Meranti but you don’t need to and that is a stupid expense… simply ABX or better but you could even get away with CDX in a pinch

 

[Gibbles]

^ seeing those two side by side, the big piece of ply the po gave you has the same pattern, so that makes me full of ****.

 

[Neschenbrenner]

How close does the new transom need to be to the inside corners of the boat? As close as i can get it?

 

[Neschenbrenner]

Made a template today following what the boat works today guy does and the wood the previous owner gave me is way off. To small.. Will have to get new.

 

[Gibbles]

Its pretty loose on the corners.
I saw the upper corner on my islander the other day when switching out a vent.

I had at least 1/2in to an inch from the sides of the boat.

I think the important part is just the bolts/ holes have a place to bite.

When making my transoms,
I have always gone for maximum size/tight fit.
I'm sure it's better to clone the orignal vs what i do... lol

 

[Neschenbrenner]

Its pretty loose on the corners.
I saw the upper corner on my islander the other day when switching out a vent.

I had at least 1/2in to an inch from the sides of the boat.

I think the important part is just the bolts/ holes have a place to bite.

When making my transoms,
I have always gone for maximum size/tight fit.
I'm sure it's better to clone the orignal vs what i do... lol

My old transom basically turned to dust when i tried to remove it. lol

 

[Neschenbrenner]

What thickness plywood should I use for the floor?

 

[Neschenbrenner]

Also is there a certain pattern I should use when putting the floor back down? The floor in this boat also crumbled when I took it out so I have no patterns to work off of. Planning on making a run to the plywood store next Friday. How should I calculate how much epoxy I would need to seal everything up?

 

[DWbaseball]

Original floors were 1/2 thickness but most upgrade to 5/8 or 3/4 to eliminate any flex under your step. I used ACX plywood which was described as the next best exterior grade behind marine grade for about 40% of the price.

My method for making template was to mark and measure the width of the boat every foot after I had the stringers installed. I then drew a straight line down the middle of my uncut plywood, and marked every foot on that line. I then took half of each width measurement, and marked that distance out from the center line of the plywood. I then cut each side off of thr floor using those marks and what was left in the middle was my section of floor with custom widths by foot.

 

[MNhunter1]

Google "joggle stick method" if you need to template some of your deck boards. I used it to do a casting deck and the process came out pretty close to perfect. Might not need it for some of the more subtle curves, but it works well when you're dealing with the bow and such.

 

[Gibbles]

note that if you go thicker on the floors the trim will need to be adjusted to go along with it.
I did 3/4in on my floors on the chief, part of that was to support the pedestal seats, but If i were to do it again I would go with 5/8th in.
I would also coat the floors with more epoxy, especially on the bottom of the deck.

 

[Neschenbrenner]

Have the new transom glued up in my garage right now. What should be the layout of the new floor? I didn't take any pictures and mine was mostly rotten.

 

[Gibbles]

Have the new transom glued up in my garage right now. What should be the layout of the new floor? I didn't take any pictures and mine was mostly rotten.

This is what mine looks like (with the carpet still in eww), but it's a different build than yours being a later islander.

https://forums.iboats.com/threads/im-back-with-a-1994-islander-221v.769552/page-9#post-5923412

I need to get another image with the bare wood floors, it looks less Eww and more like I should just replace the damn floors.

 

[Gibbles]

Scratch that, I thought I was replying to a different islander thread.
The other thread is for a much earlier islander with a totally different setup.
Your islander should be a match for mine!

Do some google image searches, I found a bunch of for-sale posts that had detailed flooring images.
That's where I first learned that my islander 100% had vinyl flooring originally.
Marideck from what i have been able to figure out, nautolex has a different backing, marideck has a fuzzy backing like I have found so far on my islander.

If that matters to you and stuff, for me I'm trying to match some of the original stuff that's still there.

 

[Gibbles]

A couple images I saved for mine, there are plenty of forward images as well.

I'll also note that my center flooring section is 3/4in.
the two side sections are 1/2in

There is a aluminum U channel going down the center of both sides of the center.
That holds the middle flooring up, riveted in there.

Many went with pedestal seats and dumped the boxes, but the boxes give me a place to step around (high ground) and also have a ton of storage in there.

Here's a slightly zoomed in image.



I'll have some more images from this weekend, I'm planning to either tackle more on the flooring, or to yank the cylinder heads and swap them for fresh ones.