Decided to remove floor on the BAJA and see what was under it. UGH!

[scca vette]

Thanks to all the great information on this site I decided to pull the floor up on the boat and see what was under it. With all the talk of heavy wet foam I decided to have a look. Well it was a good news bad news type situation. There was water in the compartment and some of the foam was wet but it was not all water soaked. The good news was short of a couple small boards that make a channel for the fuel fill hose the wood looked decent.

I plan on making some drain holes to keep this from happening again.

My next question is what foam do I use? I have read many threads on here and seems there are a few different ways to do this. What is the difference?

Thanks
Phil

 

[eds3172]

Re: Decided to remove floor on the BAJA and see what was under it. UGH!

I do foam for a living.

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|10918|16458|970853&id=21724

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Decided to remove floor on the BAJA and see what was under it. UGH!

Phil.... you do not appear to be too bad.....

Drain holes are called Limber Holes

In this section we have a few topics that discuss Foam and I would suggest reading through them. http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=288451

We have also discussed (beat to death!!) which flotation to use. Bottles, pool noodles, 2" pink or blue board from a building supply house, and the various grades of 2 part pour in foam.... as overwhelming and confusing as it sounds it is all fairly straight forward.

Let's determine if your stringer's are sound by using "test holes" or "bore holes"..... you may be lucky and just need to improve things below the deck and be ready to seal it all up soon.

 

[scca vette]

Re: Decided to remove floor on the BAJA and see what was under it. UGH!

Phil.... you do not appear to be too bad.....

Drain holes are called Limber Holes

In this section we have a few topics that discuss Foam and I would suggest reading through them. http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=288451

We have also discussed (beat to death!!) which flotation to use. Bottles, pool noodles, 2" pink or blue board from a building supply house, and the various grades of 2 part pour in foam.... as overwhelming and confusing as it sounds it is all fairly straight forward.

Let's determine if your stringer's are sound by using "test holes" or "bore holes"..... you may be lucky and just need to improve things below the deck and be ready to seal it all up soon.

Bob
Thank you for the link, I will read through that thread today. I have drilled about a dozen holes in different areas of the structure and I am actually amazed at how it looked. most was clean dry wood with just a couple areas that had clean but little moist wood.

I have to give credit to IBOATS! If it were not for this forum I would have had NO idea to even check the boat out this close. I have been building cars for years and one will even be in a Corvette magazine in Sept however a boat is a totally different monster and I am not afraid to admit working on this project is like starting all over on learning how to work on something. There is a LOT of very sharp people in this forum when it comes to boats and are willing to help.

Thanks again to the Iboat community!

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Decided to remove floor on the BAJA and see what was under it. UGH!

If it was me......I would fill the spots below deck with rigid foam boards form home depot or lowes (just about and building supply store). They do not absorb water and have room for water to drain

You know you WILL have to scan that and post it on iboats!! Skargo has a 63 (but it's a rag top) and we have MANY Vette owner's here

 

[cedarjunki]

Re: Decided to remove floor on the BAJA and see what was under it. UGH!

if you decide to use pour in foam....check out "us composits" cheapest place i found when i had NO choice since it was a foam cored hull. but i second the foam board!

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Decided to remove floor on the BAJA and see what was under it. UGH!

Since it's obvious that your existing foam was not structural....I agree with Bob and cedar on the foam boards.