Dropping in a new floor questions

[iwombat]

Well, my replace the bow benches project has quickly turned into a replace the whole floor project. Yeah, I pretty much knew it would. The floor was still serviceable, but the old carpet was essentially just holding water against the wood in the floor. It was pretty soft and I couldn't see ripping up the carpet and leaving the floor like it was with a new covering. Besides, this way I can check out all the rivets and gluvit the interior.

I'm doing poly resin on 1/2-inch plywood which I'll then glass over and either texture & paint or cover with vinyl (still not sure).

On to the questions.

There's a few things that will be screwed into the floor and not glassed over, such as console pieces, seats, etc.

1) How do you keep water from running down the fasteners and rotting the wood out from the inside? Pre-drill and epoxy, coat fasteners with silicone, or something else entirely?

2) Between the panels is a pretty thin and weak strip of aluminum. I'm thinking of either replacing it with 3-inch aluminum channel (if the scrap yard has some) or, cedar 2x4s. Any drawbacks with using the cedar? How should it be treated?

Thanks, and happy new year.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Dropping in a new floor questions

Any place that you know you will have to mount things, I would double up on the flooring. I did this in my refloor job. I just used scrap blocks of 1/2" plywood resin glued to the under side of the floor. Places like seat brackets, battery mounts etc, etc. Of course you would want to pre-soak the pieces in resin prior to gluing.

This gives the screws some depth to bite. I would pre-drill the holes you need and run screws into them. I then filled them with thinned resin and let it soak in and cure. When it came time to mount the various devices, I squirted some 3m 4200 into the screw holes and ran the screws in. If you plan your screw length right, your screws won't even stick out thru the bottom of your reinforced floor and with the resin treatment and 4200, no water will follow the screws down.

In the case of my seat assemblies, because they create so much leverage, I letted in resin soaked 2 x 8's across the stringers and used 1/4" stainless lags bolts (after hole treatment) to anchor them down into the 2 x's.

Oh, and if I did not mention, I only used stainless screws and lagbolts.

 

[iwombat]

Re: Dropping in a new floor questions

That all sounds like a good plan. Took out another floor section and pulled out the flotation tonight. I have a few odd rivets to replace, and one spot where someone hit a rock or something and patched up the underside.

That last one will take some thinking. It's either remove all the patch work, do a bunch of hammering and re-rivet. Or, just gluvit over it all and let it be. I hate to just let it be, but it may be a bigger job than I'm willing to take on right now. And, it's not really all that bad, but it did pop a few rivets.

Choices, choices.

 

[iwombat]

Re: Dropping in a new floor questions

Well, I did decide I'd better go ahead and fix it right while I've got it all apart. Now, I have to decide how best to do it.

Anyone had any experience with end-capped blind rivets? Seems like that'd be the easiest way to go, but maybe not the best ides structurally.

Barring that, anyone tried this kit?
http://www.rustonmarinetools.com/rivet.html
Or am I wasting my time looking for an easy way out, and I should just rent a pneumatic rivet gun and borrow a friend?

 

[Kajun37]

Re: Dropping in a new floor questions

i'm an aircraft mechanic and and used to buck rivets every day..we use blind rivets(cherry max or huck) on military jets...structually they will hold up to anything a boat can throw at them....i'd just make sure they are sealed.

that manual bucking tool would be fine if you dont have a 100+ to buck....would be great for small jobs or tightening up rivets...you'll still need another person to hold the bucking bar.

 

[iwombat]

Re: Dropping in a new floor questions

I was looking pretty hard at these:

http://www.rivetsinstock.com/rivet61.htm

I think I'd still epoxy up the end in case the side cracked or something, but it looks like they'll do the trick and be tons easier.

 

[iwombat]

Re: Dropping in a new floor questions

I'll see about taking some pictures and posting the details soon.