Floor maintenance time

I lifted the fibre glass covering from the foam today. Not as bad as what I was expecting to be honest. The worst bit was the wooden sheet below the seats. I tried to push a screw driver into the wooden spars/supports but they were solid, wet....... but solid.

Thanks for the advice, I'll start digging the foam out tomorrow morning. Tried to hammer a screw driver into the wooden beams but their absolutely solid !

I cut about 1" from the top of the foam and it seems pretty dry, just trying to fool myself into believing there's no disasters ahead.

I removed the foam from under the drivers seat area this morning as this was the worst bit of flooring on initial look.

The top 1/2" - 1" was wet, but the rest of the foam is totally dry. I think i'll just recover everything In fibreglass and put a thin sheet of flooring over the whole floor, seal it all up and get another few seasons out the boat.

Does this sound like a good idea?





Short clip of pressing the foam to check for water:

checking for damp

Graeme,
I happen to agree with Tim.

No, the foam doesn't need to be replaced. Many have gone with no foam boats however, since the foam provided support for the floor, you would need to go heavier than what CC did. 5/8" (you can convert it! ) ply is common.

Graeme,
You may find all the wood to be good just very wet, if it’s been used in sea water or brackish water for some time the salt would stop wood rotting, One of mine was the same floor was gone from rain water but stringer system all good just very wet.

Good luck with it Roger.

I've now found a rotten section on one stringer 😢

Unless I can patch in a repair section it looks like I'll need to get the engine lifted out and do a full stringer job.
Are there any standard drawings for a 1980 stringer or are all stringers different?

If you won’t to ski this year a patch repair is the way forward unless you have lots of spare time between now and spring.
Here in the UK we have some options not readily available in the USA for stringers.
If you go-ahead on a complete rebuild and the old stringers are no good as patterns my cad drawings may help on pre cradle Gen 2 SN bottom of the page, the hull shape is the same just adjust the top of the stringers to your shape with cradle.
The cad drawing can be plotted out full size for a paper templates as some have done.
Good luck with it

gmars70970 wrote: Another question........ I can get my hands on Monothane SA90A Resin. I was thinking of making the extra floor supports i'll need from this. Anybody any experience of using this instead of wood?

Graeme,
I couldn't find much info on the Monothane except it's a Dow product and looks like the product line is used for casting parts. It also looks like heat is required for curing? I suggest sticking with the epoxies, polyesters and polyvinyls for marine use.

8122pbrainard wrote: gmars70970 wrote: Another question........ I can get my hands on Monothane SA90A Resin. I was thinking of making the extra floor supports i'll need from this. Anybody any experience of using this instead of wood? Graeme, I couldn't find much info on the Monothane except it's a Dow product and looks like the product line is used for casting parts. It also looks like heat is required for curing? I suggest sticking with the epoxies, polyesters and polyvinyls for marine use.

I was thinking of making templates up, 2" wide and getting the monothane poured and cured in the ovens at work. Then just fitting into place. I couldn't find much information on a life span etc tho.

8122pbrainard wrote: Making the molds to cast the Monothane would be more work than replacing the stringers! One thing I found out, is the molds need to be air tight. Next is the strength. Have you looked at any of the statistics? Compare it to Douglas Fir. I don't feel a chop system is the way to go. To get the same strength out of it, I understand you need twice the build thickness compared to fiberglass cloths. It's the way cheap boats are made!!! Graeme, "bite the bullet" and do a traditional job on the stringers.

This is exactly the sort of advice I'm looking for!
I'm totally new to working with fibreglass and didn't realise the chop system was different to the traditional method. Since I'm as far into the project I don't want to cut corners for a sub standard refurb.

All advice is appreciated

8122pbrainard wrote: I don't feel a chop system is the way to go. To get the same strength out of it, I understand you need twice the build thickness compared to fiberglass cloths. It's the way cheap boats are made!!! .

Pete

This must put Correct Craft in the "somewhat cheap" category these days since they use a combination of hand layup and chopper gun construction according to info put out by Correct Craft themselves

KenO

gmars70970 wrote: UK1979 Your a star mate! Another question........ I can get my hands on Monothane SA90A Resin. I was thinking of making the extra floor supports i'll need from this. Anybody any experience of using this instead of wood?

A few ideas on stringer material in the UK.

Yes you can go with Douglas fir up in Scotland should be some around home grown... no need to be all planed up straight off the saw is good will give a better key when bonding.

Here in the UK we have Accoya treated wood ( it’s a type of pickling of wood ) that can take glue/epoxies to bond, has a 50 + year warranty against rotting but it’s not cheap soft wood is around the cost of oak.

We also have lots of Jarrah laying around which we plundered from OZ back in the early 20th century most was used as rail way sleepers and come in at 10ft long which is a bit short but you can find longer ones used at points...
The cool thing about this wood is its ability not to rot as the tree sap/wood has a mild antiseptic that rot hates, the down side is its very dense so hard to cut so you would need to have someone with a band resaw to size, should get 2 stringers out of one sleeper @ 11’x6 inches 10ft long ones go for around £25.00 the outside may look bad but its only the frost over many years inside the wood is good.

Composite can be made here too, last I checked Coosa is not here in the UK, but high density foam sheets are,..rule of thumb if an engine bed is on the stringers you need 30 Ib + for core foam do it in two layers so you can run a fibre glass roving /or biaxial cloth down the middle and stagger the foam joints side to side as foam come in around 8x4ft sheets.

I would research the fibreglass system you have at work... I think your Idea of Cloth/biaxial and spray would be just fine you just need to know what you can use with the work system polyester, vinyl , epoxies I’m all for using what’s to hand with a few tweaks.

Keep us posted Roger.

a cherry picker works good for removing the engine... check craigslist and find one for a hundred bucks or so.   you'll need to keep it around to put the engine back in, so find one that is "folding".   the legs come off of these versions and store in the base of the hoist.   You'll need to take the tire off of the trailer to get the engine over the gunnel, so don't forget that part before you start lifting

edit:   I didn't check your location first...   hopefully Scottland has a craigslist of sorts

Eventually got a frame built to remove the engine!!

Are there designated lifting points or can I just sling right round the engine?