Newbie

[bkreder001]

I am new to this boating thing but I went out and bought a 1986 15 Ft eagle one bass boat with a 40 HP Mercury 402 on it. After reading some of the post I think I have alot of work ahead of me. My question is how do you remove the floor to see if you have anything rotted below it. On some parts of the floor if I knock on it it seems that it is not attached (glued I guess). It feels like paneling on a wall just nailed to the 2x4's. The floor seems to be a thin sheet of fiberglass that is continuous to the sides of the boat. Do I have to cut the floor where it meets the side of the boat? Also one more thing the transome has had multiple sonars and there are holes that have been sealed with some kind of sealant that I am pretty much able to pull off easily so does this mean that the transome might need to be replaced? How do I tell if it does.

 

[sdunt]

Re: Newbie

the least intrusive way to test the transom is to drill holes from the inside, usually down by the drain plug and see if the wood that comes out is light tan and dry or it is wet and black, aka rotten. You only need a small hole, 1/4 inch maximum and make sure you don't drill through the outside skin of the hull.

You could use the same technique on the floor, but there are most likely wooden stringers under the floor that drilling in will not diagnose. So the general recommendation, if you have a soft spot in the floor, is to mark out a nice square area. Set your circular saw to cut only 1/2 inch deep and cut out the floor area.

You would patch the floor section back in by adding blocks on the bottom of the floor and screwing the patch back in place on top of the blocks. Then you sand down all of the fiberglass in the area of the patch and apply 2 to 3 layers of fiberglass clothe and resin over the entire area to seal it.

You can learn allot by searching old posts for rotten transom, etc. Also check out my and many other peoples project blogs on www.shareaproject.com, there's a link in my signature.

Here's my usual resource and reading list:

EDIT: I can't believe you did that. You now hold the record for posting the most forbidden links in one post. Please read Rule #10.