Tracker Targa - Replacing Foam in the back corners?

[random_guy]

So you may have noticed another thread of mine where I asked about getting the mouse smell out of the back of my boat. The carpet and everything is fine, but the foam on the rear corners smells terrible and may need to be replaced. I’ve had it open for several days and I don’t seem to be gaining any ground.

So I shot a quick video and posted it to show the setup. I’m reluctant to get the pour in stuff because there are a bunch of ways for a hack like me to screw up a job like that. I think I’d have to close off that area anyway,
because it’s not sealed in the corners above the bilge and under the fill tube for the fuel tank.

Looks like lots of folks talk about using the pink or blue polystyrene sheets, but the detractor seem to be its sensitivity to any petroleum based fluids.

So is there any reason that I couldn’t use a heavy thickness garage bag in the pocket to wrap the stack of sheets? Other suggestions? I called my local Bass Pro today and asked their service folks and I think I caught someone on a bad day. After explaining the stuff to this lady, she started talking about fixing my seats with foam from an old couch or something. She said she’d check around and call me back but I don’t expect to get far with them, so I think I’m on my own.

 

[random_guy]

Not sure why my video link got stripped from the initial post.... But here it is.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Oh you have some work before you. 1st your video helps immensely, I only wish others asking help would take the time and work to do a video similar to yours, if a picture is worth a thousand words a video with narrative is worth 10,000, thank you.

We have done more than a few floors with foam. Big deep V Star Crafts. My suggestion isn't easy but nothing much is today compared to what our 1st responders are going through, including my wife that is going in each and every day including many off days because they are so short staffed. OK rant over, back to your Tracker. This is what I would do. I have helped tear down to the bones 4 /19' tin boats in the last 5 years. Deep V Star Crafts and it ain't easy.

Get yourself a Saws All with a long 6" and 12" flexible wood blades. Cut out the easy to get to chunks. Then get some good sized food serving spoons, the longer the handle the better. Get to a grinder and sharpen them. Start digging 1 spoon full at a time. Hopefully it comes off in big chunks at 1st then the detail work starts by digging into the corners. I would be wearing a good respirator or dust masks at least as that smell has stuff going into your lungs I wouldn't want in mine. Once it's all cleaned out start spraying closed cell insulation into the corners. I don't like stuffing sheets of closed cell into the corners. It may be a good solution but to me it just doesn't sound right. Sorry. Fill only 1/2 the void, it will expand at least twice as much. Trim off any excess. Replace the floor with marine quality plywood and do not let bare wood touch any aluminum but that's a task for a different thread.

The question I have is how did you get the rodent infestation in the 1st place? I always try to get to the root of the problem. You can go through all this work and expense only to have it happen again. You must do something so this doesn't happen again next year. Again that's another question for a different thread. Is it only rodents? Is there a leak as well? There are hundreds if not thousands of different molds. I have smelled molds that hit me at the back of my pallet in old buildings that took hours to get rid of. You may have a leak and mice.

I know it's not easy but good quality work usually is not easy or everyone would be able to do it. I hope this helps. I'm sure others will be along to add their suggestions as well.

 

[random_guy]

Well that’s the spot I didn’t really wanna be in. I’m no stranger to hard work, but even with this coronavirus stuff, time is a limited commodity for me. I don’t own a Sawzall, I’d probably be doing most of the work by hand with a drywall saw. Don’t own a respirator either, and I’m not sure that I’ll be out doing a lot of shopping anytime soon. I may just have to hit it with bleach and live with it for a while. Maybe a fall project if things are less nuts, but then it’ll run into deer season.

As for how they got in, it’s in a farm building that’s “closed” but not rodent proofed. The cover I have does snap down tight, so I’m sure they just crawled under the cover. How exactly they got inside the decking I’m not sure, but it’s all carpeted and not sealed up that well.

Thanks for your time, I’ll be looking back on this post later I’m sure!

 

[Grub54891]

I've used an electric knife to cut foam at times. For me it works pretty good.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Actually a long flexible serated bread knife works well on foam. I have been thinking how mice can reek so badly and I know the smell. We had an old hunt and fish cabin in northern Ontario where old critters came to die. I wouldn't be surprised if you find a few rat skeletons in the corners somewhere. That smell may never come out on it's own. I have been using shaved pieces of Irish Spring soap I put in tupperware containers and sandwich bags with holes cut in them espacially near wiring, mice love chewing on wiring and I put dryer sheets everywhere in my boat. She spends the winter outdoors sometimes shrink wrapped but just covered the last few years. If critters want to get in they will. I don't know if I've been lucky or the stuff I use works. 12 years no mice, rats, rabbits, feril cats or racoons. It's the old urban legend about a guy dying in a brand new Corvette. The cost to get the smell out was more than the cost of a brand new Vette. They did an episode doing the exact same thing on Myth Busters some years ago. They used a pig carcass not a humans of course. Good luck, me thinks you have to dig it all out.

 

[Texasmark]

I didn't follow the above responses. Just that I have a newly purchases 2002 year model boat and the poured in, closed cell, foam looked horrible. I cut off a chunk and put it in a pail of water and it floated like a leaf sailing on a fall pond....surface looks bad but otherwise ok.

Why not get some rattle cans of enamel paint and paint over it to seal it for a low cost first shot. If nothing else the fresh smell of new paint should aid in covering up any previous odor. Then if that doesn't work you haven't really lost anything, just go about your current recommended what to do.