1986 StarCraft Islander Resto - Wish me luck!

[baldeaglejones]

Just picked up a 1986 StarCraft Islander and will begin a resto soon. This will be a slow process; part of the agreement when buying the boat was to complete various "Honey-Do" list project befor starting on a new project.

From what I can tell, the hull looks pretty good with the exception of a few dents, the interior will need to be gutted and redone. The paint looks decent so I think I can get away with prepping and painting verses a complete strip to the bare aluminum. A complete repower is in order; I plan to add an offshore bracket and outboard. Any one interested in the one piece that is remaining...not even sure what it is called... The trailer that came with the boat serves the purpose, but will need to be replaced wth a longer, dual axle version.

I am sure I will have lots of questions!! Good thing is, there is a ton of great info on here!!

 

[GA_Boater]

Hey Baldy - Welcome to the Tin Drydock. A great start with posting pics right off the bat. :smile:

Is she a 22 footer? I don't see any reason to strip to bare AL, either. Normal prep should give you a good surface to get new paint to stick. Just dust bare spots with zinc chromate or self-etching primer.

Knock off that Honey-Do list and get on to more important things, like Starcraft rebuilding.

 

[jbcurt00]

A complete repower is in order; I plan to add an offshore bracket and outboard. Any one interested in the one piece that is remaining...not even sure what it is called...!

The OMC gimble housing remaining on the transom may be worth more to someone who's planning to run or keep an OMC I/O running then scrap value of the aluminum. Most @iboats SC forums pull the OMC in favor of a Mercruiser setup......

Nice looking rig. Welcome to the tin-sanity @iboats

 

[baldeaglejones]

Thanks for the warm welcomes! Correct - it is a 22 footer.

 

[baldeaglejones]

Day 1: Boat - 0, Me - 1. I was able to get the transom stripped along with a few other things. I have a new found respect for boat mechanics...lots of stuff in there!

Question - How do I get the old transom out and the new one in? I assume I need to remove the rear "cap"??

 

[baldeaglejones]

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[baldeaglejones]

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[baldeaglejones]

Can't get pics to load and somehow ended up with two blank posts!?!?

 

[kcassells]

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This is what you will end up doing to get to and remove the old transom. Do not remove the skin if you don't have to;

 

[kcassells]

Yup, me too, sorry tried to post with pics, system at iboats is on the fritz.

 

[baldeaglejones]

Thanks for both the notes. I'll try to post pics if the system ever returns to normal....

 

[baldeaglejones]

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[kcassells]

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This is what you will end up doing to get to and remove the old transom. Do not remove the skin if you don't have to; I cannot believe I have spent over 40 mins to post 5 pics and 1 seems to work. Now I can't upload the other pics. Going back out to work on das boot!

 

[kcassells]

Wow...make that 65 min. here's the others but they may or may not come thru. You see, can can take off the back glass on the transom but while all the work is open in the boat you should try to save it.


of course you want to take all the crappy old wood off. Man I am going back to the boat now.

 

[baldeaglejones]

My boat is aluminum, but I think the same will still apply. I guess I could get the old transom out in pieces, but when installing a new transom, I would need to notch it somehow... Luckily, I think the section that needs to come out is a single section.

 

[GA_Boater]

BaldE - The larger model Starcrafts IOs changed the design of the transom over the years. Mainly how the top of the transom wood is covered by the the AL. If you could snap a few pics of the top of the transom it would help. Also, 1973chieftain (I think that's his member name) just posted some pics of how he worked with the AL covering the wood and his solution. I know I'm asking a lot for pics given the state of the forum and I usually would find a link to Chief, but I'm still fighting the improving forum. It is getting better.

 

[jbcurt00]

The current forum glitches have posted pix MIA, but I think I remember how your Islander's rear 'cap' looked over the transom. It's a seamless &/or welded angular cap that must be removed in some fashion to install the new transom. You can remove the old one in several large chunks by cutting it up 1st (Just be careful & don't cut thru the aluminum transom skin).

73Chieftan choose to cut a slot out of the cap just above the transom, allowing him to get the new plywood installed on his recent addition Chieftain. Then when he's got the new transom installed, he'll rivet &/or weld a patch panel back in to cover/replace the damaged area.

One of the Steve's working on a big Islander or Chief choose to cut the cap at the welded corners and once the new wood was in place, had the piece re-welded.

It isn't an easy decision to cut the sheet metal. Read thru some of the other large tin boat builds and you'll see some of the work I mentioned. Sorry but the forum problems w/ pix may make much of those threads less helpful until the pix re-appear. The hunt for the Steve's project I mentioned was unsuccessful, but it's in here, somewhere. If I'm not mistaken, he also had trouble removing the windows & window trim from his cabin area. So if you find posts between he & I discussing that, you're in the right thread.

 

[baldeaglejones]

Thanks! I will snap a few pics tonight and try to post in the morning. I also tried to search for the posts mentioned, but no luck...

 

[baldeaglejones]

Thanks! I will snap a few pics tonight and try to post in the morning. I also tried to search for the posts mentioned, but no luck...

 

[jbcurt00]

1974 24' Chieftan Express project

1972 Chieftain MKIV 25 footer ver 2


But the pix are down, so they may not be of great help