Hourston (Taylor Made) Windshield Frame (re)Finish

ab1752

Crew Member
Hi everyone,

Our Hourston Island Runner has a Taylor Made windshield frame and the finish is failing. I contacted Taylor Made directly and they sent me back to Hourston which isn't going to fly since they (Hourston) appear to be shuttered. I tried some of the other local companies as well but no luck...any suggestions around who might be able to undertake this project? I peeled back the screw gasket on the frame where Taylor Made states the part number of the frame should be but nothing is there. Ideally I would like to replace the frame with the exact same from Taylor Made to keep the boat original.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. The boat is located on the North Shore and is mobile as need be.

Cheers.
 
Take measurements and make a drawing and send it to manufacture. If they still won't help you then your out of luck for keeping it original. Go to AJR marine windows. They built me a windshield to my specs and it looked killer. Got lots of compliments on it.
 
Take measurements and make a drawing and send it to manufacture. If they still won't help you then your out of luck for keeping it original. Go to AJR marine windows. They built me a windshield to my specs and it looked killer. Got lots of compliments on it.
Yeah AJR does great work
 
Why not just refinish the frame that you have??? Get it striped and powder coated or anodized. Good as new...
 
Thanks for the replies...I did contact AJR last year and was told they're not doing windshields any longer. As for refinishing what I have now, that may be an option but some of the frame pieces might not do well after sandblasting. It is an option but I am interested in a stainless frame which Hourston switched to in some of their newer builds. There is another Island Runner laying almost next to mine that I am going to see if I can pull the Taylor Made part number from, and barring that I am going to go the route noted above with doing up drawings to have a new one built based on the existing frame's dimensions. Thanks for the input.
 
Hi everyone,

Our Hourston Island Runner has a Taylor Made windshield frame and the finish is failing. I contacted Taylor Made directly and they sent me back to Hourston which isn't going to fly since they (Hourston) appear to be shuttered. I tried some of the other local companies as well but no luck...any suggestions around who might be able to undertake this project? I peeled back the screw gasket on the frame where Taylor Made states the part number of the frame should be but nothing is there. Ideally I would like to replace the frame with the exact same from Taylor Made to keep the boat original.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. The boat is located on the North Shore and is mobile as need be.

Cheers.
Has Hourston really gone out of business?
 
From what I have heard the buyer for the production side of their lot had to buy everything in order to complete the deal as they exited the boat business. I drive past the shop every day and from all appearances it is a car dealer of sorts now and other than the signs out front there is little of any boat business being done there at all. Their web site is still up but when I tried to connect with Bill Hourston I did not receive any response and there wasn't anyone affiliated with the boat business on site when I stopped by a few months ago.
 
From what I have heard the buyer for the production side of their lot had to buy everything in order to complete the deal as they exited the boat business. I drive past the shop every day and from all appearances it is a car dealer of sorts now and other than the signs out front there is little of any boat business being done there at all. Their web site is still up but when I tried to connect with Bill Hourston I did not receive any response and there wasn't anyone affiliated with the boat business on site when I stopped by a few months ago.

That's a shame. They built great boats and were a real BC institution and an important piece of boating history in this province.
 
Thanks for the replies...I did contact AJR last year and was told they're not doing windshields any longer. As for refinishing what I have now, that may be an option but some of the frame pieces might not do well after sandblasting. It is an option but I am interested in a stainless frame which Hourston switched to in some of their newer builds. There is another Island Runner laying almost next to mine that I am going to see if I can pull the Taylor Made part number from, and barring that I am going to go the route noted above with doing up drawings to have a new one built based on the existing frame's dimensions. Thanks for the input.
Wow, I was going to get them to make me a new windshield this spring.
Not sure where to look now
 
FWIW Taylor Made will do a custom windshield build and I am in contact with them now to see about them building one for our boat. It may be that I have to disassemble mine and send the frame into them so we get a correctly sized replacement but we will see how it goes. For those who may be interested I will update this thread....in parallel I am going to ask around at the boat show to see if there are any service providers who might be able / interested in assisting here too but it seems most are super busy these days, at least over here in Greater Vancouver.
 
FWIW Taylor Made will do a custom windshield build and I am in contact with them now to see about them building one for our boat. It may be that I have to disassemble mine and send the frame into them so we get a correctly sized replacement but we will see how it goes. For those who may be interested I will update this thread....in parallel I am going to ask around at the boat show to see if there are any service providers who might be able / interested in assisting here too but it seems most are super busy these days, at least over here in Greater Vancouver.

Sorry i know this is an old thread but did you ever find a company to do your windshield frame work? I thought the older Hourston windows was manufactured by a company down east? Anyone have any ideas who that might have been...?

I am trying to source out some gaskets and T bolt fasteners for the 26 rebuild, not much luck so far...
 
In my generation, hourston used the generic taylormade euro style system. I'm still going back and forth on it...the older frames they had made locally as far as I could tell. I think ajr windows here in poco had something to do with them so definitely worth touching base, they're still around for sure.
 
In my generation, hourston used the generic taylormade euro style system. I'm still going back and forth on it...the older frames they had made locally as far as I could tell. I think ajr windows here in poco had something to do with them so definitely worth touching base, they're still around for sure.

ok thx ya! ;)
 
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