taking out old foam!!!

check my diary 68 baracuda and you can see mine. It will take you 3 full days to gete it out. A jig saw, pry bar, "GLOVES"...yes i almost took my thumb off!!! No the thin glass just covers the foam. They injected it in that way. oh yea..i have pictures from another member sent me so i could see how to do. i can email you....Let me know....Good luck..

Mark,

once you get the glass off the best way that I found to remove the foam was a flat pry bar (wonder bar). You can use the bar to chip and scrape the foam off the stringers and bottom. It took me two days to do my 16 foot mustang. I can also send some pictures.

Has anyone tried using a foam cutting hot knife? I'll experiment and let you know how it goes.

on these older correct crafts,once you cut through that fiberglass pan,you'll find all that flotation foam will be completely saturated with water.my guess is about 450 lbs of extra weight was removed from the ol barracuda.think about it.hot knives work great on DRY foam.the best tool is a very stiff 2" putty knife lot's of beer & time.it ain't easy,but if u find a better way,please let us know.

        Pumkin is exactly what i thought, as i did this on sunday--It it like carving out 100 pumkins!!!
           any way i progressed from prybar to scraper then get this---a WEED WACKER!!! It did work but was not very fast---SO i got out my 12" cutsaw blade and took it out surgically!!!
          This was the best way --i could fill up a garbage can in 20 minutes--10 cans so far and not done yet--each can weighed about 50 -60 lbs with water soaked foam, i thought this was supposed to be closed cell-i am not to thrilled to put it back in if it works so bad--it was like having a v-8 engine sit in the boat that did not run!!
           This boat was covered since july and in heated space for a month!

Hey Kenny,

I've got the older 16' Mustang with about 5' of beam. Porpoises like crazy and I' wondering if the foam is full of water.

I'm pulling the rear end apart again for about the 3rd time this year (not very hard) and was thinking of digging out the old foam since the exhaust/prop shaft, wet skiiers etc get the boat full of water so I'm sure the old foam is soaking it up!

Did your boat porpoise prior to you removing all the wet foam? Did it stop after you removed the excess weight?

Has anyone here not replaced the foam after they dig out the old waterlogged foam? I'm just wondering if there were any negatives to doing this, like the boat would be louder from basic water noise under the hull, feel less "solid" without the foam, etc. Obviously you'd be giving up some floatation, but is that it?

my 2 pennys worth,if u replace the foam or not.add a sea cock at the through hull pick up.a 3/4" ball valve from home depot is about $10. a blown hose on an inboard engine is no fun and beleave me.boats ain't easy to retrieve from the bottem,if & when you do they're kinda messy!

Gotta Ski....definitely an "outside the box" thinker.

Great post....now how simple and effective is that....pool noodles

Pool noodles? Oh man. Now I have to buy a pool noodle, put it in a pool, and hang weights on it to see how much weight it can float. There just isn't enough time...

I just spent 2 day removing foam from my '68 Barracuda and I am still not done. I must have removed at least three hundred pounds of water ,foam, and flooring . Has anyone checked to see if water(condensation) is entering the cavities on boats that are not refilled with foam? Would it be adviseable to put limber/weep holes in all the compartments before replacing the floor? Barr/68

If you're not going to replace the foam, I would surely provide weep holes. Wooden boats always had them, and no foam. I would do like someone mentioned and caulk in a small tube to prevent the absorbsion of more water throughout the stringers. We've just recently pulled all of the foam from 2 late 60's Nautiques (one just this past weekend) and I really don't want to re-install it. If it's not TOTALLY sealed, you need to allow for air circulation under the floor. We've got a friend with a '65 Nautique which never had foam installed from the factory, and the condition of all the original framing is amazingly good. It simply had 1/2" marine ply screwed to the framing, and it's still there also.

I like the pool noodle idea too! You feel somewhat compelled to put something back in there.

First off I noticed last summer when I bought my boat that it leaned to the driverside enough that the platform on that side was an inch underwater and the passanger side was an inch above water. Is this caused by the foam being wet in that side of the boat? If not what is causing it?

Second is if I take out the old foam what should I be replacing it with? If I dont replace it then could I make "weep" holes like you guys were talking about would they be effective if I put them on the far edges of the boat and had pvc pipe coming up under the side of the boat? That way the floor compartment could vent but no water could actually get in the floor because the whole would be up under that side compartment area.

   all the foam is out!! and i found the engine stringer was rotted as well. I cut out the fiberglass that wrapped it all sides and also another area that was next to stringer that was more foam!!!this area was sopping wet with water 1" deep in bottom of area after foam was out! stringer was so heavy that i thought it was maple, but after 10 days wood was much lighter. I save stringer for pattern it was angled on bottom and cut down some near the stern.
I decided to use either a mud door mat with plastic bristles upside down will allow air and water to pass and last forever, or home depot had that mesh mat called "cobra vent" that is use to vent roofs at the ridge.
   i got 1x6" plastic wood decking and epoxied into a 2x6' to replace stringer. all the foam is out!!

So I put in all new foam and had channels under foam to let any condensation escape. also will ventilate this area. Have decided to sell and is listed on the for sale part of this great site!All the really hard work is done--needs the paint job and mechanicals gone thru---check out the ad for more info------scout