Replacing Fuel Tank! repair floor

[jere1972]

Hey guys need some insight, I have descoverd I have a leak in my 96 Key West 2000WA fuel tank, I will have to cut the floor to repair or replace it, I am sick over having to do this, my tank is quite large 80 gallon so about 6' of floor will need to be removed, however I have noticed there is a rectangular ridge (an embossed 1/4" line) in the floor about 72" x 40" that seems to outline the tank, my floor is a 1" high density foam sandwiched between 2 layers of glass, I felt under the floor through a small service port for my tank, where the embossed line is, it appears, the foam recedes at this line for about 1 3/4" then starts again ( like a 1 3/4" wide dip on the under side no foam just 1/4" of glass)it apears it is this way around the whole 72"x40" outline, this is where I plan on cutting along this line, I would hope I can place the piece I cut out back into place, where in lies my problem how to join the cut out floor section back into the rest or the floor and maintain staibility. I hope to post some picks after floor is cut away, But will need some expert advise as to how to rejoin the floor, I do not plan on re-gelcoating I will use some sort of non skid paint, or a roll on material similar to what is put into truck beds which is what I was going to do anyway before my tank prob arose gel coat is pretty worn on floor can see glass

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Replacing Fuel Tank! repair floor

Not to be a party pooper but... When the tank is out, and you inspect the structure below, don't be surprised to find structural problems in need of repair. She's 16 years young but with fuel leaking and possible water intrusion you never know what you'll find once you open em up for inspection. Forum is currently experiencing problems with posting pics so use a photobucket account and then use the IMG tag to copy and paste your pics.

 

[cyclops2]

Re: Replacing Fuel Tank! repair floor

Woodonglass was right on a boat I helped. gas odor wound up fixing a lot more down there. Good thing.

We planed ahead quite a bit before we put the floor panel back.
Basically we epoxied in a complete 8" wide support shelf all around the underside of the cutout. 4" were glued to the boat edge all around. 4" were exposed for the floor panel.

We had blocks supporting the 4" that were still exposed. They allowed use to REALLY coat that exposed 4" ledge when it was time to re-install the cut out floor piece.

Take your time doing .....the gluing in of the 8" ledge.....we used 1/2 hour Epoxy to give us time to slip in extra shims as we bumped the floor piece into place.
Do a couple of NO GLUE in & outs to catch any problem areas. You will do fine.
Almost forgot !! We did leave the supports EPOXIED in place under the 4" edges. Why not ? Time consuming. But really quite simple.

 

[jere1972]

Re: Replacing Fuel Tank! repair floor

thanks for the info, I hope I will not come across any more problems my wife is all ready steaming over the replacement cost of a tank, I did contact Key West boats they stated being a 96 there is no wood in the hulls structure that started in the 95 series of my hulls designs, some wood was used in the cabin area but only carpet covered cosmedic things! I thought of the ledge concept ,but trying to determine how to do this with out using wood, maybe glassed over foam strips, guess I really won't know till I cut the floor, I am more concered on how to blend the top side into the rest of the floor and not looking like disaster or killing the value of the boat, like most I can't shell out the 3-5k to have it professionally done. hopefully once iboats gets their maint done I can get some pics up after floor is cut, and will gratefully accept all recomendations, or I'll link to photobucket, can I use Boat Yard resine on the floor, it seems to be the least expensive, saw some references to resines without was and with wax too. boat Yard seems to be around 20-25 a gallon others were around 40-50 gallon ,

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Replacing Fuel Tank! repair floor

Check out www.uscomposites.com They are in West Palm Beach and hve great products and prices. Their 435 resin is great stuff.
Photobucket is free. Here's how...
Once you have and account click the upload green button. On the upload screen at the bottom of the screen is a Customize your uploads link. Click it and set you pic default size to 640x480. Close out and then upload your pics. Once they are uploaded hover over the pic and you will see four link tags. Use the IMG tag. Click on it and it will say copied. You can now go to iBoats and copy this tag into your iBoats post and the picture will be there. PM me if you need help.

 

[cyclops2]

Re: Replacing Fuel Tank! repair floor

We epoxied all the pre cut strips of 8" wide glass clothon a large piece of plastic on a flat floor. Semi neat is good enough. We stacked the 4 piles on the plastic so we could wet & stack faster. Neatness DOES NOT MATTER !! It will be out of sight. We used a mix that gave use a solid 1/2 hour to wet & stack comfortably.

DO NOT squeeze out all the epoxy. Some is needed. We let it set up for 2 days. Depending on the type of plastic. It my or may not release from the piece. Ours DID NOT release. so we LIGHTY sanded the plastic off where ever we knew there would be support block under it.

Think out the steps & write them DOWN ON PAPER. So much easier NOT TO MISS A STEP when really doing it.
We made the blocks & shims. Stacked them under it . Put matching numbers on the exposed edge to speed up the wedging up of the support plate. DO NOT make any support blocks tighter than a little finger pressure tight.

Another 2 day wait.

We drilled & TAPPED 2 ... 3/8" holes into the floor plate. That gave us a controlled way to lower the plate easily in to the hole.
Dry .....FIT ... the plate into the hole. We had 4 tiny bump ups to grind down. LAST CHANCE to correct the plate in the floor opening. IF you do a major screw up. Redo the setup.

Remember.......Once that plate is glued back in the deck.............You CAN NOT pull it out. The wet epoxy will prevent that.