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Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat #12753362 05/13/18 12:57 PM
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Txmedic033 Offline OP
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My floor has some serious soft spots and needs to be replaced. I am pretty sure that my bulkheads will need replacing as well. I might as well replace my 20 year old pitted aluminum fuel tank while I have the boat tore apart as well. Has anyone out there done much fiberglass work before? I am trying to decide if I want to replace the floor with more fiber glassed wood or to replace it with something that will not rot again. Any thoughts or input?

Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12762245 05/20/18 12:46 PM
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I backed into a car wash and damaged my T-top as well as pulling out or stretching all the wires on my boat. I hope that I had enough slack in my motor controls that I did not do any damage to it. I got an estimate for removal of the console, T-top, replacing the floor, and reinstalling all the wiring was just over $8,200. That did not include repairing my T-top or replacing any of the wires. Just reconnecting them. I am confident that I can fix everything correctly and replace all the copper wires with marine wire and still come out well below that amount. I might even add a fresh coat of gel coat to the exterior of the boat and make it look brand new. We will see once I'm done with the floor if I want to do the extra work. I worked on it for 2 hours last night and go everything disconnected and removed the T-top and console. I plan on pulling out all of the old wires tomorrow and to cut out the floor to see how much damage is underneath. I expect that I will have to replace bulkheads and most of the foam. I am hoping the stringers are in good shape. What I can see of them is in excellent shape, but we will see tomorrow.

Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12762274 05/20/18 01:15 PM
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Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12762315 05/20/18 01:48 PM
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I'm working on a similar project but it's my first time so I can't give you any tips or tricks. I have the old floor out, the foam was good. New floor is in the process of getting glasses in. We will be putting hydro turf on top instead of carpet. Then I get to learn how to put new metal flake on the topside.


Originally Posted By: Mudshark
if it is within my reach, I'm going to pet it.
Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12766983 05/23/18 11:00 PM
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Pulled up the center of the floor, but didn't pulled the sides yet because it would expose all the foam and weathermen said that it would rain every day this week. I will be filling up my wife's vehicle a few times until my 78 gallon tank is empty so I can pull it and replace it with a poly tank while I have the floor pulled up. I hope I can find one that will fit because custom poly tanks are expensive! I also have to replace a small portion of my front deck where the seat pedestal is due to rot. The rest of the deck is composite, but the one section was wood so that it would hold screws. I am considering turning the rod box on the starboard side into another storage/fishbox and adding a large storage area in the floor in front of the fuel tank. I'm still undecided. I'm also going to remove the rubrail and deal with any issues I find there and replace it also.

Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12766998 05/23/18 11:06 PM
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Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12769843 05/25/18 11:47 PM
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Pulled the old gas tank and there was about 4" of water/gas mixture under it. It was sitting on a piece of plywood w/o any fiberglass that was completely rotten.



Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12769847 05/25/18 11:50 PM
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I ordered a puny little 52 gallon tank. Would've had to order a custom tank for about a grand if I wanted more than 52 gallons to actually fit in the space provided. I'm gonna miss those extra 26 gallons of gas that I'm giving up, but it will shave 208 lbs off of my load with a full tank plus the weight difference between the old aluminum and the new poly tank.

Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12821449 07/09/18 05:00 PM
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Nice big project you have going. Hope it turns out good for you.


"If you're going through hell keep going." Winston Churchill

Originally Posted by 1ShotNoKills
I open mouth kiss my sisters
Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12822055 07/10/18 12:07 AM
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I spent about 10 hours grinding old wood and fiberglass below the fuel tank to reveal the nice pink fiberglass. I have been swamped with 100+ hour work weeks and haven't been able to start putting it back together until yesterday. The rain prevented me from doing any fiberglass work, but maybe on my next day off I can be productive. I have to build a floor for the new tank that matches the bottom contour of the tank and gives it some clearance from the hull for water drainage and fiberglass it in place, install the tank, replace the carpet in the rod box, and then I can cut up the rest of the floor and replace it. Luckily my stringers and bulkheads are all foam and fiberglass and do not need to be replaced.



Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12841222 07/25/18 02:49 PM
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Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12854931 08/06/18 12:41 PM
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Finally had a little bit of time to work on my boat and got a few things accomplished. Ripped out all of the old carpet in the rod box. The pic doesn't show the size of the box well, but a couple adults could fit in this compartment and still close the lid. The shelf on the right side added to the frustration when I was trying to install the new carpet.



Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12854936 08/06/18 12:47 PM
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I fiber glassed the new floor for the fuel tank that will suspend it about 3" above the hull for clearance and water drainage since the the bulkheads have holes for water drainage should any come in the front that allows it to drain to the bilge area. Unfortunately, the bilge area can also drain forward so I need plenty of clearance to prevent it from becoming stopped up and holding water under the tank. I had to add a couple other boards at an angle to match the bottom contours of the new tank. I forgot to take any other pictures during this process.



This is a pic of the finished fuel tank compartment. I had to add a couple additional bulkheads to keep the tank from sliding front and back. I also added quite a few rubber strips to help with shock absorption and to allow water drainage under the tank if needed. This is the only pic of the new carpet on the rod box since the aforementioned shelf ended up making several wrinkles in the carpet that I refuse to post on the internet.



Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12854946 08/06/18 01:02 PM
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I was off for two days for the first time in almost 3 months so I decided to install the floor finally. Saturday I cut up the remainder of the floor that was covering the foam. I left it in place to prevent the foam from being water logged. Low and behold the foam was completely saturated on the left side and about half of it was on the right. I ended up cutting out 8 contractor grade trash bags of completely saturated foam. According to my TPWD certified catfish scale, I removed a total of 372 lbs of water logged foam. I also spent the better part of a day removing it all. So much for finishing the floor this weekend.




Re: Replacing floor and bulkheads in my bay boat [Re: Txmedic033] #12854967 08/06/18 01:14 PM
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I woke up yesterday morning and realized that I had to make some serious progress or this project will never get done. I went to Lowe's and bought the 1/2" exterior plywood and a couple 40 grit flapper disk for my grinder. I ground all of the gel coat away around the edge of the floor to expose some fresh fiberglass and managed to get dirtier than I have yet on the project. I currently have about 1.5 million tiny pieces of fiberglass embedded in my flesh. I cut the floor and fit it in the boat and then removed it to fiber glass the bottom of the floor. Luckily I remembered to put the gas tank back in before I installed the floor. I screwed and fiberglassed a 2x2 to the bottom of the first floor section that ran the length of the floor so that I could secure the other sections to it as well as the stringers. It will also give something for the foam to attach to when I add it this week. The first coat of polyester resin was mixed to kick off slow and soak into the wood. Then I added a second coat of resin and one layer of 1708 fiberglass for additional strength. I want to make sure that the floor can hold up the abuse of giant fish thrashing around as well as the stress that large beer coolers will be putting on it.




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