86 Bullet floor repair

[bluegrasssboy]

This is my first bass boat and this will be my first floor/carpet work.

I yanked up the carpet on the floor this evening. The (seemingly) small soft spot in from the driver's seat certainly got bigger.

Most of the floor appears ok, with just a couple of almost soft place in it. Has anyone just laid a new floor over the old one instead of cutting it out?

[hydrasports85]

Hello bluegrass, I laid new wood over the old in my 85' hydrasports bass boat. As far as I can tell it has not affected my boats performance any at all. Just make sure that you seal the new wood with a good water sealant.

[darrall]

You can also try laying a fiberglass mat and resin over the soft area. That should do the trick.

Darrall

[bluegrasssboy]

I thought about it, but I thought that over time it would just weaken as well. I'm over 200lbs! I think I'm just going to put in two patches and just mat and resin the entire floor for good measure.

[biothree]

I laid new wood over the old wood in the entire boat. I epoxy resined both sides of the new wood to prevent future rot. I srewed it down and sealed the screw heead with resin. It woked fine. The boat was a little heavier but I could not tell it effected performance.

[bluegrasssboy]

Well, I've got carpet down on the front deck and I've fixed two holes that I cut out in the floor. The treated plywood that I bought at Lowes was a tad thicker than what's in the boat, I used a couple of extra strips of fiberglass mat along the edges to soften the transition. A certain way you look at the carpet, you can make out the patch, other ways you can't. It doesn't bother me so I guess it's ok. It looks 100% better than it did and I don't have to keep reminding myself not to step on those spots any more.
It's been a lot of work. Cutting out the rot, getting eaten up by the fiberglass, framing in for my plywood floor patches, scraping glue, fighting with the new carpet to get it under the lip of the interior structure and keeping wrinkles out etc... It was a lot of work. It's been hot and there's been a lot of sweat that's dripped off my nose! I'm afraid that by the time I get done, I won't want to even look at the boat!





And here's what was on it, I didn't take very many "before" pictures. I'm debating on whether to re-carpet in the same manner and re-install the trim or carpet the whole lids, which will mean fighting with the hinges and the carpets on the corners-which are among my least favorite things to do. I'm undecided about the aluminum plate on the back lid. It's solid as a rock with that on there. I'll probably just put it back once the new carpet is on.

[cajun1977]

[Rollo331]

good job i would strip the carpet off the back lids mount the aluminum under the lid couter sink the screw holes and carpet over them still have the support and the aluminum palte hidden UNDER the lid...i think it would look better

[bluegrasssboy]

Yeah, the plate would look better if you couldn't see it ! It's been slow trying to find time to work on it, but I decided to not just put a carpet insert in and put the metal trim back on the lids. I put the trim back on the front deck and it just has a dated look to it. Two lids down, two to go.

[Josh256v]

That's looking really good. Your pics have gotten me really excited and motivated to get started on my '88 Stratos!

[boostedone]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bluegrasssboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well, I've got carpet down on the front deck and I've fixed two holes that I cut out in the floor. The treated plywood that I bought at Lowes was a tad thicker than what's in the boat, I used a couple of extra strips of fiberglass mat along the edges to soften the transition. A certain way you look at the carpet, you can make out the patch, other ways you can't. It doesn't bother me so I guess it's ok. It looks 100% better than it did and I don't have to keep reminding myself not to step on those spots any more.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Looks real good! But I hope you didnt just put pressure treated wood in there and put enough glass on it to tie it into the boat. Even PT wood wont last long if its not totally encased in resin on both sides and along all the cut lines. For some other reasons PT is a worse choice to use in a repair like this because you dont know what they treated it with and how its going to react with the resin.

[bluegrasssboy]

Yes, that's exactly what I used, PT plywood. No one close had marine pw. I did coat each piece that I used in resin. I brushed it on then let each piece dry before I put it in the boat. As far as a reaction with the resin, I just don't know.

One thing is for sure, I can now step in spots where I couldn't before!

[ProcraftMike]

I used PT wood on my floor repair and that was about 4 years ago now. No problems as of yet. I believe my wood was treated the old method. I think they are PT wood differently now. I know I had found some results on the internet about someone doing some testing with PT and plain wood. The PT wood held up just as well as the regular wood. Again, this test was with the old treatment method.

I think the most important thing is to make sure the wood is completely dry and clean before sealing it up. Wood is porous, so I don't think you will have any problems with the resin soaking in and protecting the wood.

[sowbelly]

Nice job bluegrass! Looks real good tucked under the cap like it should be, just one question, how the hell did you do it?I've got an 84 bullet I'm getting ready for carpet and figured I'd have to butt it up against the cap edge knowing it was'nt going to look good. I've even had it to two different glass repair shops and they said all they could do was butt it, overlap it, or lift the cap. My cap is very tight to the floor, did you use wedges? Did you use glue or contact cement,how did you glue the center down while working it under the cap and console. Had to be a job under the circumstances with out busting something. Again congrates on an excellent looking job

[bluegrasssboy]

Thanks for the "attaboys", but it was a pure PITA getting that carpet down. I used contact cement and that seems to doing fine, although it's just been sitting there and we'll just have to wait and see how it holds over time and use. Getting that carpet under the lip, yeah, that was a real pain. And to be honest it is cut to fit in some areas. All of the corners, "inside" and "outside" corners were too tight for me to get the carpet under. So I had to butt them up. The carpet I used is a marine carpet from Lowes. It's got a black rubber backing that makes it very pliable, which has been a good thing for me. You can bend it very easily, it's not stiff like most carpet. If you'll scroll up, you'll see laying on the back deck is a Stanley brand scraper type tool. It was my best friend.

I unrolled my new carpet on my front porch,(any hard flat surface would work), laid my old carpet over it, got out the wrinkles as best I could and "traced" it with the scissors cutting out the new carpet. ( I did piece one part of the new floor, underneath the console. I just figured it'd make it easier on me not have to fight with getting that much carpet under the console( I was by myself) and plus, it'd be hard to see the seam.)

I thought the long edge at the rod compartment lid would be the best place to start. So I just put the carpet in the boat, lined it up as best I could and went to work getting the carpet under the cap all along the rod compartment. I had plenty of room in the middle, but the corners were real tight. In fact, I couldn't get it underneath the corners. So I just got as much as I could and left it for the time being and tried to get the carpet to lay right. It took a couple of tries as I had a couple of wrinkles at first. At this time, there was no contact cement down. Once I had the carpet under the lip(except the corners) and laying nicely with no wrinkles, I went to the opposite side, the console side, and began to roll the carpet up, towards the rod compartment. When I got there, I lifted the roll up and laid it on the edge of the boat. So the carpet was tucked under that lip and the rest was rolled up laying on the edge. I was staring at the back of the carpet basically. I took the contact cement and brushed about a 12-18" section of the floor, making sure to get the brush as far back inbetween the carpet and the floor to the lid as I could. I also brushed on about the same amount on the back of the carpet. Then I grabbed the roll and pulled the carpet down and back towards me. I took a small straight piece of scrap lumber I had that was about 12" long and used it sort of as a squeegie to work the carpet from the lip towards me. I did that until it was flat and there were no wrinkles. I used a couple of small pieces of plywood to lay on it with some weight added and just left it alone for about 30 mins and went and did something else. I went back, rolled the carpet back until I got the glued part and just did the same thing, brushed another 12-18" on the floor, brushed the carpet back and laid it down and just pulled and "squeegied" it until smooth, laid my boards on it and left it to set up a while. Each time I did this, after the section was set up, I'd get to fighting with the edges. I used another old stiff narrow putty knife to pry up on the lip some and use the other one to jam the carpet underneath it. I did this about 4 times I think. It was the only way I think I personally could have done it. It seemed to work fine and I kept the wrinkles out that way.

I had cut the new carpet so that it had enough to go under the lip of the console support. The section I pieced together under it, of course was cut out from the main piece so the seam where I butted them together fit together perfect. Of the main floor, that was the last section I put in.

So, I'm guessing about 75-80% of the main floor carpet is under the cap. The rest I used scissors on and just kept snipping at the corners until it looked right. No wonder it costs so much to have done. It's a real pain and the next day my finger tips were sore. I wouldn't want to do if for an everyday job.

But it looks good and I'm a wee bit proud of it because it's the first time I've ever tried anything like this.

Let me know if there's anyway else I can be of help to you.

[Ritchie]

HUGE improvement Those lids look great!