Very old boards I had detached (8)
I believe the answer is:
isolated
'detached' is the definition.
(I know that detached can be written as isolated)
'very old boards i had' is the wordplay.
'very' becomes 'so' (both can mean 'extremely').
'old' becomes 'late' (I've seen this in other clues).
'boards' is an insertion indicator.
'i had' becomes 'i'd' (contraction).
'so'+'late'='solate'
'solate' going within 'id' is 'ISOLATED'.
(Other definitions for isolated that I've seen before include "Alone, set apart" , "Alone, apart, detached" , "Cut off, remote" , "Off the beaten track" , "hard to find" .)