gas tank

[Jcris]

My 96' Glastron's gas tank is below the deck in an area that is difficult to get to. The previous owner told me he'd had issues with the fuel float that's in the tank. He had to open this area up to repair the float. Well now the float is acting up again so I decided to take a look. I've yet to get it apart enough to take some pic's but I noticed a very strong smell of gas as I began to unscrew the decking/plywood. That seemed odd to me and I'll definitely take a closer look. The distressing thing is the deck over the tank was screwed down with some 2-3" long wood screws. I'm hoping the tank isn't punctured. I'll post some pic's when I get it apart

 

[tpenfield]

Usually, there is a smaller deck plate over the area of the fuel sender. Since you smell gasoline, it is good to expose more of the tank for inspection.

 

[Jcris]

No Title

I took a look and there doesn't appear to be any damage, whew! I'm going to pull the float assembly to inspect while I've got it exposed. The board that covered that area is quite large and made inspection difficult. Not to mention I'll need to replace some carpet. A task I want to do anyway as several areas are looking ratty. Not sure at this point how I want this to go back together. I want to make it easier to get to for any future inspection, Take a look at the pic's and tell me what you think.

 

[Jcris]

I'm curious what is recommended to waterproof this 1/2" plywood decking? What products have you folks used and been satisfied with? The piece that came out looks like CDX ply to me. Probably a replacement piece by the previous owner. What exactly is marine grade plywood anyway? Must be put together with some kind of waterproof glue? If I use something to waterproof a new piece of plywood, is there really any reason to use marine grade. I will opt for ACX so the gluing surface has zero knots. Should be easier to glue too?

 

[Old Ironmaker]

I started a thread a while back about the same thing "What to use for flooring?" Something like that. I'll look for the thread when I can. I was told there isn't really a specific category of "Marine Plywood". Several types of plywood are just fine, I coated the pressure treated plywood on a buddies rebuild last year with a few coats of Spar Varnish on all 6 sides. Some go to extreme lengths like treating all pre drilled screw holes and screws.

edit: for some reason I can't search for recent activity. Telling me must have 5 seconds between posts?

 

[JASinIL2006]

Exterior plywood would be fine. Marine plywood typically has more plies, few/no voids within the plies, and uses an exterior-grade glue (like CDX, ADX, etc.) between plies.

Best waterproofing would be to coat with epoxy or encapsulate with polyester resin and fiberglass. Several coats of the Woodonglass' Old Timer's Wood Sealer Formula (search the forums for it) would probably also be OK.

Personally, I'd avoid pressure treated, mainly because it will leach out chemicals and who knows what boat components they might come into contact with? Not worth the risk, in my book...

Good luck!