1983 Nordic Crestliner floor replacement?

72cheyenne

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
31
Hi guys. I am almost ready to glass in my transom and floor in my 1983 Nordic Crestliner. It is a 16ft. Bowrider. I am curious whether I need to glass the underside of the floor or could I use a few coats of oil based paint? Trying to keep cost down a bit but not to just do something that is a bad idea. I have heard it being done both ways. Also I am using polyester resin to glass the floor back in (top side). How many layers of cloth is everyone using? Any help is appreciated. Thanks
Nigel
 

sheboyganjohn

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
753
When I did the Sea Ray I only glassed the underside of the deck where I was installing hatches. All the other sections of deck are in sealed compartments that are now filled with foam. So to answer your question, I would only recommend leaving it bare or with some type of sealer if it will be fully enclosed, not even a small drain hole. It needs to be fully blocked form ever getting water inside All other applications I would seal completely with glass.

Not sure what you are asking by how many layers to glass the floor back in. I used one maybe two (don't recall anymore) layers of 1708 at the hull to deck seam after a fillet of PB to fill in the gap. I then put one layer of CSM over the deck. If you want to make it more bullet proof use two layers of CSM. Cloth alone will not cut it with Poly.
 

Pusher

Lieutenant
Joined
Sep 2, 2014
Messages
1,273
Hi 72cheyenne,

I just did mine last year. I rolled all surfaces of the plywood in poly resin. Once it was dried, I then screwed the boards down in place and rolled over the top with resin, a layer of chop strand, then resin until it was saturated.

A lot of guys will say not to use polyresin because it is a wax based cheaper product but some of us are on a budget. I found a couple of mistakes I'd do different when laying my boards in. First of all make sure any low spots will allows the water to drain to the drain plug, NOT to the back corners. I didn't pay attention to this.... hopefully it doesn't bite me.

Second issue; I have noticed a slight squeak where the two boards butted up. You might want to put cloth between them before covering over with cloth, or maybe even screw a backer board to the bottoms of both boards at the joint to reduce movement between the joints when you walk on them later.

Lastly, I bought Kiwi Grip, which I do like, but it is a pretty solid product when cured. The poly resin will absorb more water than epoxy resins, so it will expand. I ended up with water in the boat about a week after coating the deck and the water seeped into an imperfection in the Kiwi coating. Long story short, the poly resin expanded and blistered some of the Kiwi Grip up. I'd recommend something you're okay purchasing every few years to re-coat the floors with if using epoxy. My low spot was an old in-floor fuel bay which I converted to a fish box so I'll probably use Bilge Coat there and call it a day.

If you haven't bought the fiberglass you may want chop strand. It lays a little easier, uses less resin (I think) and supposedly is stronger than woven mats because chop strand is omni-directional while woven material only goes two directions.

This all comes from someone who doesn't know, but has done it. Take with a grain of salt.

Removing those floors is nasty business isn't it!
 

Pusher

Lieutenant
Joined
Sep 2, 2014
Messages
1,273
Oh, I will mention that I heard you weren't suppossed to coat all 6 surfaces because the wood can't breath the moisture out if it does get wet, but I did it anyway. I also had a slow leak over winter that ended up dumping 26 gallons of water under the floor.... YEAH!!! So I put a polymer fuel fill neck in each bay after shop vacing out the water. Looks a little odd, but I can always open them up in the summer to vent the whole boat....I'm glad I considered the under-floor closed cell foam an "optional" feature.
 

Pusher

Lieutenant
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Sep 2, 2014
Messages
1,273
Might as well throw it in there that they make deck cord that sits in the low spots under your floor boards. The closed cell foam pours over the top of the cord. Afterward you pour a liquid on the cord and it dissolves leaving you with drainage channels at the low points. It's slick stuff but probably out of your budget too.
 

Woodonglass

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Dec 29, 2009
Messages
25,929
I've heard that before about Breathing Plywood. In all my research I'm led to believe it's a myth. It's extremely important that the wood is totally encapsulated with sealer. The Wood, in a fiberglass boat does NOT need to breathe.
 

sheboyganjohn

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
753
Resin is just the bonding agent, it has almost no strength on its own (except epoxy but we don't need to get into splitting hairs for the topic at hand). If you coat wood in resin only, doesn't matter if it is poly or epoxy, it will crack and get water under it. If you have a joint, it must fall on a stringer or you need a butt block board behind it. I like to get them to fall on a stringer and then add a block to the top edge of either side of the stringer to make a nice wide joint support.

As long as the wood is dry when it goes in, fully encapsulated (glass and resin) will keep it dry.
 
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