'92 SeaRay 160LTD - floor repair

[kmmuellr]

New-ish boat owner, and new member here looking for some help.

I bought this sweet, little SeaRay 160LTD a few years back and it has treated my family wonderfully since I've owned it. I just had a new cover made and the seats re-upholstered, and intend to keep it for a long time. Its a perfect boat to complement my in-laws pontoon on our lake!

Last fall before putting it away for the winter (covered in a barn) I noticed that the stern end of the bilge cover was soft, then on one of our outings this spring my daughter broke through! I'd tried to reinforce the support by screwing in a piece of wood temporarily, but as you can see in the pictures that didn't work. It broke. The floor itself isn't soft, its just the support

I know nothing about how you would go about repairing this. Can someone please provide some guidance?

Thanks!
Kevin

 

[Beachcraft170E]

You're going to have to remove the portion that is failing. You can use a small Japanese pull saw , or those handy dandy multi-tools, then saw, chisel, pry and sand off the old rotten part.

You can then cut a piece to fit. Give yourself a good 3-4" inches of material to glue to the underside of the floor, while of course lining up with the supporting lip.

Make sure you clean up the underside of where you will be gluing. You want a nice flat surface, i.e. no glue boogers or wood chunks, etc. If it was me at this point, I would drill and countersink for bolting through the floor and the patch. I would waterproof as good as you could in the holes you drilled, then epoxy on the patch and the bottom of the deck. Get what you can into the holes you drilled, then bolt (stainless steel) and clamp the whole thing together.

 

[kmmuellr]

You're going to have to remove the portion that is failing. You can use a small Japanese pull saw , or those handy dandy multi-tools, then saw, chisel, pry and sand off the old rotten part.

You can then cut a piece to fit. Give yourself a good 3-4" inches of material to glue to the underside of the floor, while of course lining up with the supporting lip.

Make sure you clean up the underside of where you will be gluing. You want a nice flat surface, i.e. no glue boogers or wood chunks, etc. If it was me at this point, I would drill and countersink for bolting through the floor and the patch. I would waterproof as good as you could in the holes you drilled, then epoxy on the patch and the bottom of the deck. Get what you can into the holes you drilled, then bolt (stainless steel) and clamp the whole thing together.

Thanks! This is kind of what I was figuring.

I didn't even think about using my pull saw.

Bummer of the whole thing is that I'll be working upside down, in an enclosed area! What fun!

I suppose this will be winter work in the barn if I can keep the temp up high enough to cure glue and glass.

K