Thanks to everyone here for all the advice on my boat restoration. Here are a few pics of the before and after results:
The Before: I bought this boat fairly inexpensively. I had been looking for 3 to 4 months for a small bass boat (my first). I found this one local to our lake. Here were the original ad pictures. On inspection, the floors were soft, the gel badly oxidized, carpet oily and greasy....But solid transom. And nearly new motor.
So, I got it home and started to rip out the carpet. As I suspected, rotted floors, but thankfully the stringers and foam were dry and perfect. Thank goodness for good drainage:
The casting deck was also delaminating w/ water damage:
So, first order of business was to cut out the rotten floor, re-install new wood and glass it in. Here's the new floor under the driver's console:
Here's the new casting deck built. Used 11-ply marine plywood, epoxied AND glassed.
Removed all the lids and began removing carpet. Lots of scraping and Acetone. Here's the result:
The gel was BADLY oxidized so I did a complete wet sand (1000, 1500, 2000 grit), oxidizer remover (Mequire's) and 3M's Finish-IT followed by heavy Carnuba.
The BEFORE:
The AFTER in various stages:
Used my vibrating bullet polisher to polish all the hardware:
The windshield was badly scratched and dirty. Used my Pinball refinishing kit to polish back into shape. Before and After:
The battery compartment was a mess. So, I rewired it and the rest of the boat. I installed a 3bank charger, master cut-off and thermal protection on the trolling motor. Before and After:
The Pedestal seats were coming apart but I wanted to save them 'cause they had the original logo on them. I don't really have any after pictures, but I was able to re-secure the loose stitching. Before:
The gas tank was grimey all the way 'round. Used Bleechwhite Automotive cleaner to bring back to new:
And finally, recarpeted, put in a new trolling motor plug, and put all the hardware back on. YES, I KNOW I have some pucker in the rod storage locker and it drove me crazy. Since the pics I have cut them open and re-glued them and they look good as new. Also, the driver/passenger seats are just sitting in place and not yet secured:
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