How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

[jbcurt00]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

May be time to take a short break from the demo & assess what your options are.....

If you decide to proceed, you must always remember that the boat resto needs to be treated the same way you'd eat an elephant.....

1 bite at a time.

Sometimes very small, other times very large, usually regular, manageable bites. But over time, it can be done.

As to the amount the boat (as a partially demo'd project) is worth, it is worth what you can get, and that will vary wildly day to day & depending on your location. There's more work involved, but the parts & pieces may be worth more out (off) of the boat. Particularly the motor & outdrive.

I'd never owned a boat before a year ago, that is certainly not the case now. And although I really want to be boating, not working on a boat, I am willing to take the time, effort & money necessary to rehab the boats & motors scattered about. And no matter what I spend on any 1 boat, which won't be at either extreme: total bottom feeder or high end custom, I will have a boat that is significantly better then almost every boat in the marketplace at that price point.

Will I ever recoup the money I've spent? Extremely unlikely. I'm ok w/ that.

If you have the funds available to buy a water-ready boat, even knowing what you know now about boats, their construction and how to look for signs that things are not as they seem, you may still end up buying a boat & then looking into a bilge, finding wet foam & a soft transom. Nature of putting boats in the water & using them.

If you do move forward, the redone boat will last much longer then you'd ever own it....

And buck up, this won't be the last time you look at the boat & think: Carp, what was I thinking....

Hope some of that ^^^ helped.....

 

[kaw550]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Thanks for the pep talk

I will post up the pictures tomorrow night. I think I will be okay as long as the stringers are good....

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

I think I will be okay as long as the stringers are good....

Not to ruin your newly re-bouy'd spirit, but I wouldn't expect it to go that way.

Cliche' but true: plan for the worst, hope for the best

Could have been written w/ a pending fiberglass boat demo in mind.....

 

[JASinIL2006]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

kaw550, I can completely understand where you're at. I bought our boat last Spring, found a rotten transom this summer, and since August, I've pulled the engine, sterndrive and transom assembly. I've removed the deck and wet foam, cut out the rotten transom core and I'm now grinding away bad glass to install the new transom. Never done ANY of this before.

You CAN do this! Just as others have said, don't think too much about all that has to be done. Just focus on the next task and be sure to ask all the questions you need to. Also, there are many, many threads on this board that detail what you're facing. Find two or three that make sense and use them as guides. You can do this! Good luck!

Jim

 

[kaw550]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

I have made some progress. Since Friday I spent about 8 hours cutting pulling and scrapping. I cut out the rear seat, the rest of the floor in center of the boat and two sections from the engine compartment. I do still have some cutting to do where the seat frame meets the hull.

From about the center of the boat toward the bow, the hull tapers toward the front. I have cut the plywood out to the hull on both sides. In this section the floor ties in to a more horizontal part of the hull. From about the center back the floor ties into more of a vertical section of the hull. In this section I left about 2" of plywood on each side. Is that too much of a lip? All of the tabbing would be flat and not at an angle. Is that okay?

Same for the rear two sections. I cut a square out of each side. I left about an 1 1/2 border.

Will dropping in new panels be okay? Do the new panels have to go all the way to the fiberglass?

I attached 3 pics. One facing forward, one facing the right side and one of the right rear engine compartment. I will try to get some more pictures in the next day or so.

Overall, it was dryer than expected. There was some rot in the rear seat base that I did not expect. I drilled four spots in the stringers and they have come out dry. I still need to check one area that I ma concerned about.

(I still have to finish checking the stringers)

 

[krakatoa]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Typically yes just fiberglass. Most boats will have them floor resting on the Chine or some other radi.



Its best if they can be resting on a stringer or bulkhead. But if you have to scab in a piece of ply ..you would Cleat around the seam with plywood underside making support for the new piece.



Only if you need to replace whatever is under the deck in those areas. Stringers/bulkheads. It might be better to cut solid sections out if it makes your new piece a square/rectangle instead of a trapizoid. Better fit basically.



As its been stated .. Look and inspect as much as you can before you repair your deck.



Actually this is not totally accurate.

YD.

Right there is no such order when rot wood coming up, thats depends where water came in first..

 

[kaw550]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Am I okay with what I cut out assuming the stingers check out okay?
I still need to do some cleaning. Forgot to pull the filter out of the wet dry vac before I sucked up the water. I need a new filter before I can finish cleaning.

 

[kaw550]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Bumping back up....

 

[mrdjflores]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

just check those stringers real good....and while your near the back of the boat, i'd suggest your drill some core samples of the transom, near the bottom...

 

[kaw550]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Well I found some rot one one of the stringers where a bulkhead was mounted.
I was concerned because the bulkhead was shot. Sure enough, there is basically hole in the stringer.

It needs to be fixed. Can I repair instead of replace? Could sister a stringer along side of it? With the center of the floor out I have a 6' opening to work with.

My intentions have shifted from restore to repair.

 

[ricohman]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

You sound very much like my buddy did this summer when we sampled the stringers and transom in his boat.
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance
I think you are in the bargaining stage. My good friend went through the depression in September and now has a Bayliner project for the winter. He is doing it as mentioned above, a little at a time. He says he is enjoying it now.
He will have nearly 2K in reapirs when done but he will have a very solid boat that should outlast him.

 

[anthonysjo]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

KAW550, you are a little bit ahead of me as I just bought a 95 FW 240 Horizon. Everything seemed to be pretty solid but I have found some rot and now I am trying to figure out how much. Tomorrow I am doing core samples and depending how that goes I will either have a good or bad day. ricohman I love the stages I think I am still in denial. I would probably be in a little better frame of mind but I don't really have the space to take this project on right now so it should make for some fun if I end up with a real project.

 

[MishaMarvelous]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Kaw550, I feel your pain. I purchased a 21' bow rider in June thinking it was water ready. Boy was I wrong. I was in your same shoes some months ago. I ended up tearing out the entire deck, stringers, bulk heads, and one motor mount. The only good things were the transom (thank god) and one motor mount. Everything else was rotted. I gotta start my build thread one of these days. I have a bunch of pics.
Anyways, what I'm trying to say is most people on here will recommend a full deck rebuild if you care about the boat. If you are putting this much time in as it is, it's not that much more to do everything. I'll be fiberglassing my new deck in next week. The stringers are a ***** to get lined up. I've seen some guys gut the wood out of the fiberglass and use this special solution to fill it. I forgot the name though.
Also, dry rot is a fungus and you have to make sure it is killed if you decide to keep some of your stringers/bulkheads. My advice, read as many deck rebuild threads as your eyes can take. You'll soak up a lot of knowledge and tweak it to your liken. In the end you're gonna have a killer boat.

 

[kaw550]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Are you sure depression is not before bargaining?
I thought I would get at least one person who would say they made a safe effective repair....


I like the boat but I have had it 12 years and had been considering a replacement in a year or two. It doesn't make sense to dump a huge about of time and money into it but I wont put it back in the water if it is not safe.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

I read the entire thread and did not find where you core sampled the stringers of transom. Without core samples there is no way to know for sure that your stringers are not wet and rotting. It is 100% OK to remove parts of stringers and sister in replacement sections but it only makes sense if it's less than 50% of the stringer and ALL of the wet wood has been removed. New stringers will cost Approx.
$200 in materials and 2 days of work. If you want to be SAFE then core sample them and let us know what the shavings look like. Then you can get the absolute best advice possible.

 

[mrdjflores]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

if your already in it this far, and are already suspecting stringer repair....for peace of mind safety...replace it all...stringers, transom, deck and foam

 

[kaw550]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Your right. I looked back through and i did not post the results of the core tests. I drilled 10 holes in the stringers and two into the transome. The only rot i found was in the last picture. You can actually see the rot in through the fiberglass. I did decide to replace a second bulkehead.

When you say 50%a are you referring to the length or height of the stringer?

Hard to tell from the picture but it is the bottom half of the stringer. Its about 2"wide wide.

Can i replace about 8 to 10" of the stringer and then sister a 4' stringer along side of it


At $200 the cost is not an issue but there is a lot of structures that would have to be cut out.

 

[boat1010]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Hard to tell from your pictures but do not know if you will have to replace the back wall, the one that is the back rest for the seat and the engine compartment. When I did the work on my bayliner that was something that I had to replace also. So I went a step farther and made a fold down wall so I could get to the engine compartment to do work. Just something to think about. Mine is a 89 Arriva. It took lots of time and some money but I thought it was well worth it in the end. It came out pretty good and the self pride in doing it myself. Best of luck.. I guess the thing that made me do all the work was after I was done I knew I would have a solid floor and knew I didn't have the money to get a newer boat.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

When you say 50% are you referring to the length or height of the stringer?

At $200 the cost is not an issue but there is a lot of structures that would have to be cut out.

If 50% is rotten, does it matter if it's the length or the height?

As a portion of the structural support system for your boat, I don't think I'd want it to be 95% not rotten. 97.5% not rotten would not be sufficient for my piece of mind, and the longevity & safety of my rebuilt boat.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: How far do I go with floor repair on my 98 baliner?

Well I found some rot one one of the stringers where a bulkhead was mounted.
I was concerned because the bulkhead was shot. Sure enough, there is basically hole in the stringer.

It needs to be fixed. Can I repair instead of replace? Could sister a stringer along side of it? With the center of the floor out I have a 6' opening to work with.

My intentions have shifted from restore to repair.

As long as there is good wood to sister to with ample length .. yes you can sister your stringer in with extra glassing.

Yes it can be done IMO.

YD.