Floor Plate over Gas Tank Soft
 

I've got an 84 V20 outboard. The floor plate over what I assume is the gas tank has gotten soft to the point that I think I want to take it off and see if I can stiffen/reinforce it. Anyone done this before? Any one of pix of what I can expect? Any words of wisdom?

Ken

same boat, same issue
 

Mine's got a little give to it, plan on taking it off and truing it up with some hardwood and fiberglass. won't know until I get it apart, maybe in the fall. Will be following...

Did this about 6 years ago with the help of a friend. I'll look back to see if I have any photos. It helped enormously.

Like Pipe says, pretty easy fix. Pull tank cover, flip it over on some saw horses and remove all of the old core material. Usually pretty delaminated anyway. Right angle grinder with a corse grit flap disc is your best friend for this. I used a piece of 1/2 marine ply for my core. Wellcraft used Balsa ply squares. Make sure u bevel the edges of the ply so the cloth will lay smooth over the edges.

Good thing about this is your glass work is all hidden, so pretty not important. I like epoxy over polyester, more predicable in Florida heat.

Don’t forget a good dust mask when you fire up you grinder on that FG.

Removed the cover over the weekend. Found rotted out angle iron that had been mounted to bottom of the cover 20+ years ago. The existing squares are water saturated primarily due to two inspection covers that had been installed and not caulked around the edges. Also, the former owner boxed off the port/starboard sides with 2x6s and ran 2x2 across to help support the cover.

I'm trying to figure out how the new plywood/fiberglass gets attached to the cover.

How much of the old fiberglass needs to be cut away?

Does the plywood need to be embedded in resin (between the plywood and cover) or does the new fiberglass hold it to a lip that I leave during the cutting?

Thanks

Go to the search feature at the top of the page
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Should take to all of his threads

Go down about five and look at the one titled Replace floor with?


That one has some good info and pics.

Well done, phat! That was like a blast from the past with several names I haven't seen in a long time . . .

Lotta gold buried on this site, just gotta do a little diggin