Replace floor with??

[Huron Blue]

Originally Posted by RWilson2526

A couple more tips these guys taught me when I did mine was,

cut the holes out after everything is all said and done. And then coat the edges .

Drill some holes in the plywood to let the resin find a place to go instead off squeezing out the edges.

Put some Saran Wrap or some kind of plastic between the access holes and your work table so you don't glue your hatch to the work bench!

Oh and get lots of heavy things ready before hand to set on top of the ply., sand bags, tool boxes cinder blocks. And make sure your work table is perfectly flat, floor works well too

Thanks. Interesting the way the wood was all small pieces. I am thinking of doing 3" strips to allow the resin to form a line all the way up to what will be the cloth / glass bottom.

[SkunkBoat]

Originally Posted by Huron Blue

Thanks. Interesting the way the wood was all small pieces. I am thinking of doing 3" strips to allow the resin to form a line all the way up to what will be the cloth / glass bottom.

That keeps water from one screw hole from wicking thru the entire floor.

[Huron Blue]

Well got the first piece of ply down. Gonna do 8" strips. Then glass over it when I'm done. I did drill some holes and filled them with resin then flipped it and glued it down. getting concerned though it's been 3 hrs and its not setting up! It is only about 60. I ended up firing up the furnace in the garage. Anything for a boat right?!

[smokeonthewater]

A heat lamp or halogen light goes a long way to kick off the resin

[Huron Blue]

Originally Posted by smokeonthewater

A heat lamp or halogen light goes a long way to kick off the resin

Yea I set up a heater under it. It's starting to set up.

[Destroyer]

Strips will work, but the strongest floor will be if you use odd shaped pieces of wood, like a jig saw puzzle made of different sized rectangles. You don't want long longitudinal or vertical seams, since the seams themselves are only resin with no wood and so will be weak points in the floor. Understand I'm being picky here. Like I said, strips will work, just pieces are better.

[Huron Blue]

Originally Posted by Destroyer

Strips will work, but the strongest floor will be if you use odd shaped pieces of wood, like a jig saw puzzle made of different sized rectangles. You don't want long longitudinal or vertical seams, since the seams themselves are only resin with no wood and so will be weak points in the floor. Understand I'm being picky here. Like I said, strips will work, just pieces are better.

I am going to add support in two places. The rib between the stringers I will extent up to support the repaired cover. This is directly under the seat weight so should work great. And another one over the gas tank that is supported on each side with those L brackets to the stringers. I'll resin and cloth the new support as well. It is a bad design I think that there was no support and all the weight is on that lip on the cover the 3/4" wood itself isn't even directly supported it is relying solely on the resin and cloth. For something so effective and so easy I have no idea why they didn't do this. Time and money I guess...

[Huron Blue]

Just about done now I think one of the reasons it's best to do pieces is a sheet of plywood is naturally not perfectly flat. Doing it in pieces helps straighten that out and easier to judge and deal with the resin mixing when your not doing a lot at once. I had an issue once after only a few minutes my resin bucket got too hot to touch and it wasted about 1/2 a gallon! Guess I should have kept it on ice or something? But ever since then I've been a little gun shy of mixing a lot at once.

[reelapeelin]

Nice job, Huron...only thing I would add is bevel the edges where your fabric lays over the ends of your strips...makes it easier for the fabric to lay down and helps prevent air bubbles under it...

I did my '84 cuddy when I first got it and darned if I didn't FORGET the step where you glass it to the underside of the fiberglass and weight it down like you wisely did...duh!

[Huron Blue]

Originally Posted by reelapeelin

Nice job, Huron...only thing I would add is bevel the edges where your fabric lays over the ends of your strips...makes it easier for the fabric to lay down and helps prevent air bubbles under it...

I did my '84 cuddy when I first got it and darned if I didn't FORGET the step where you glass it to the underside of the fiberglass and weight it down like you wisely did...duh!

I did belt sand the edges down a little should have done more it did try and lift the fabric but it eventually got sticky enough to stay down. Man it's solid now!!!

I've have a lot of those WTF did I just do!! Moments myself? ha