99 Larson 186 SEI Ski-n-Fish Re-Deck Project

[chevymaher]

I ground all the old tab out till it was the original shape of the hull. I got some before and afters if that helps.

 

[tpenfield]

Images are not showing up in post #18 for some reason. Maybe you can go back and edit the post to get them to show :noidea:

 

[QuickPuppy]

Strange, they are showing up in the forum on my computer but not on my iPad or phone. I'll try posting again...

 

[QuickPuppy]

Looks like they may be working now.

I found another rebuild post from Lawrenceoverlook. Jim, looks like you and WOG jumped in on it at some point. He had the same 1999 that I have and he found the same strange rectangle cutouts in the bottom of the fuel tank stringers. He also had waterlogged foam in his. No idea if he ever did anything with his boat or not... his posts stopped at two pages back in 2013.

Jim, I didn't seem to see in any of your pictures... did you somehow pull out the rear bench seat on yours? On my boat, I have been able to pull out the plywood that makes up the back of the bottom of the bench but the rest (fiberglass) appears to be part of the cap of the boat. It would definitely make life easier if I could get that out of the way.

 

[QuickPuppy]

This area...

 

[Sunken Ship]

I ground all the old tab out till it was the original shape of the hull. I got some before and afters if that helps.

This is what I did on an old boat.

I used raw bleach on a washcloth and wiped my seats down...worked wonders.

 

[Sunken Ship]

For the under dash kick panels: Run a philips head screwdriver around on the carpet listening for a metallic sound. There are about 5 screws. Two near the bottom. But it depends on who was putting screws in on that day.

Rear Seat: Remove seat bottoms (3). 2. Grey/Gray felt cover plate (wooden) has screws (look closely) on each edge (sides) of this piece. Shoudl be two on each side going straight down, few running along the front and a few running along the back. Again, who was building the boat that day for how may...going to vary a bit. 3. The front piece vertical making up the front has aluminum brackets on each side with two screws. 4. Then on the inside of this area it has screws going into the deck.

This describes how mine was built. Hope this helps.

 

[QuickPuppy]

SS- thanks for the replies... I don't think I have any pics of the interior after I cleaned it up. It really looks pretty good. The previous owner had reupholstered most of the vinyl so it didn't take a whole lot to get it looking new again. Starbrite mold and mildew remover took care of the side panels. I should've tried the bleach first. It probably would've worked just as well and cost 1000x less.

For the kick panels, did those screws go into an angle bracket on the back side? What are they screwed into?

I hope that is how the rear bench comes out. Mine sure appears to be a part of the cap.

I think the exterior is going to clean up nicely too... I made one compounding pass on the front half here just to see what it may look like when I'm done.

 

[Sunken Ship]

Kick panels screws on mine are straight in. They go into the fiberglass deck.

Hull sure shined up nicely. Meguiars Marine wax will add an additional level of shine after buffing.

 

[QuickPuppy]

Finally had a chance to work on it again today. Figured out the kick panels... 3 screws took me a half hour to find. Should make it easier to get the rotted deck out a bit further forward.





Also got the rear bench vertical support boards out. I think I can remove the decking under the seat now and slide new plywood in place. (The whole bench floats about an inch above the deck as it is part of the cap.)


Also removed, drained and cleaned out the fuel tank. There was only about three gallons in it but it didn't look so good. Lots of oily scum under the tank in the bilge. The hose barb on the pickup tube snapped in half when I tried to get the hose off. Also will need a new gasket for the fuel gauge. It looked half gone.

 

[Woodonglass]

You want to be careful using Full strength bleach on vinyl It has some real negative effects One is it will destroy the threads in the seams and two it removes the protective film on the vinyl which will promote cracking and making the vinyl brittle I’d highly recommend products made for cleaning vinyl. 303 Products are some of the best

 

[QuickPuppy]

I ground all the old tab out till it was the original shape of the hull. I got some before and afters if that helps.

Before and afters would be great!

 

[chevymaher]

No Title

Okay in alot of these pics you see where the wood is gone. And the tabbing was as short as I dared cut it to get the wood out. I am a newby and I was deathly afraid of cutting through the hull. I would cut the wood back a little. Then clean the foam out so I could feel under it and get a idea where it was.

One shot you can see where I was grinding it out. There are 2 shots of the same place as a before and after. Just mirror images of each other.

In the final shot is the hull completed. You can see the tabbing was still on the hull but it was feathered to the shape of the hull where it attached.The white lines in the keel best illustrate this. I just ground till it was solid (pink) glass as they say in other threads.

 

[kcassells]

Look into this tool in electric. Get you into any tight spots. Also Harbor Freight has a variety of blade to use at a great $. Just saw 1 on ebay for 54 bucks. Battery unit won't keep up with the work.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RIDGID-R28602-JobMax-4-Amp-Multi-Tool-with-Tool-Free-Head/322849078626

 

[JASinIL2006]

Those oscillating tools are really handy, and you'll be surprised all the uses you can find for them...

I think at some point you're going to want to grind off the lip of the tabbing from the old deck. Were you planning to leave it there as a reference mark or something? If so, I think it will make putting in the new deck more difficult. Getting good measurements for the level of the deck from some point of reference (e.g., top of the gunwales) would serve the same purpose.

Also, while it's a hassle, accidentally sawing a hole in the hull isn't a big deal, it just causes a bit more work. Happens all the time in these restorations. It's best to avoid doing that, of course, if you can...

 

[QuickPuppy]

Thanks guys... I have one of those tools... yep they are certainly handy for tight spots.

Anyone happen to know if there is a check valve (spring and ball) in the fuel pickup fitting? The hose barb snapped when I tried to get the hose off. When I unscrewed the rest of the fitting, I found a spring inside but no ball valve. I have no idea what the spring by itself might do.

 

[chevymaher]

Mine had a check ball in there.

 

[QuickPuppy]

Yep... called Moeller Marine (the company that made the tank) and it is an anti-siphon valve. Found it, a fuel sender gasket, and the steering cable on Amazon.

Found some more rotten decking under the rear bench and towards the stern. Pulled out more foam that looked dry until I got down to fiberglass. Same issue on the starboard side as on the port side with the cutouts in the bottom of the stringers. Wet foam in there too. John at Larson suggested drilling 1/4” holes diagonally through the tops of the stringers down to the hull, and tenting the boat with a dehumidifier in it for awhile. Looking for a cheap dehumidifier now.

 

[kcassells]

Yep... called Moeller Marine (the company that made the tank) and it is an anti-siphon valve. Found it, a fuel sender gasket, and the steering cable on Amazon.

Found some more rotten decking under the rear bench and towards the stern. Pulled out more foam that looked dry until I got down to fiberglass. Same issue on the starboard side as on the port side with the cutouts in the bottom of the stringers. Wet foam in there too. John at Larson suggested drilling 1/4” holes diagonally through the tops of the stringers down to the hull, and tenting the boat with a dehumidifier in it for awhile. Looking for a cheap dehumidifier now.

Yup alittle late but found this: page 100

http://www.uscgboating.org/assets/1/AssetManager/ABYC.1002.01.pdf

 

[JASinIL2006]

Found some more rotten decking under the rear bench and towards the stern. Pulled out more foam that looked dry until I got down to fiberglass. Same issue on the starboard side as on the port side with the cutouts in the bottom of the stringers. Wet foam in there too. John at Larson suggested drilling 1/4? holes diagonally through the tops of the stringers down to the hull, and tenting the boat with a dehumidifier in it for awhile. Looking for a cheap dehumidifier now.

I don't believe any number of holes you drill into your stringers will be enough to dry out that foam. You can turn your stringers into swiss cheese and run a bunch of dehumidifiers for months and I don't believe the foam will dry out.

Even worse, once foam is saturated, the closed cells have already been compromised and it's never going to function as foam again; it has essentially become open cell foam, aka a sponge. In your case, a sponge soaked with water...

I think you really have two choices at this point. One would be to just leave the foam inside the stringers wet and try to seal it in there so the moisture doesn't get out and compromise any new wood you install. (I don't like this option, personally.)

The other path would be to cut the tops off the stingers, maybe in sections, and scoop out the wet foam, to eventually be replaced with new foam or left open. I cut the rear part of my stringer/motor mount units so I could get at the transom and then I just glassed the sections back in after I fixed the transom. Worked fine, but the stringers are made of really thick fiberglass, so the seams where the stringers were cut would need to be really heavily glassed to make sure the stringer is strong enough.

I would cut an opening in the top of one of the stringers about a foot long. I'd take off the top of the stringer and maybe an inch of the side of the stringer. I'd then get in there and scoop out wet foam as far as I could reach. In this case, I'd use a wire brush cup on a drill, preferably with some sort of flexible extender, and scour out foam as far as you can reach. Then cut an access hole farther down the stringer, just far enough that you can reach back and scour out the foam until you reach the part you clear from the first hole. Keep going until all the wet foam is out. Then glass the stringer sections back in with several layers of 1708, drill some holes and refill with foam.