Replacing the floor of a 1973 invader

[Msking]

I bought a 1973 invader. The floor had carpet glued to the fiberglass floor. Also the driver and passenger seating was directly to the floor. The floor is kinda mushy or soft. I tore the carpet out and now want to fix the floor. I am inclined to lay a 3/4" marine plywood floor then carpet on top of that. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[jigngrub]

The fiberglass on your "floor" is covering rotten plywood which is covering rotten stringers and saturated floatation foam that adds hundreds of pounds of weight to your boat.

Covering all that mess up with new plywood won't help a thing and your boat will continue to rot and gain more water weight.

You may want to consider inclining yourself to become more ambitious and fix your boat properly.

 

[Msking]

Wow! I had no idea. I have no problem doing it right. So do I cut the old mess out?

 

[tpenfield]

Wow! I had no idea. I have no problem doing it right. So do I cut the old mess out?

Yup, lots of threads on the restoration forum about folks doing the same sort of thing. First order of business would be to pull the floor up and see what you have underneath.

 

[jigngrub]

Here's a good thread to give you an idea of what needs to be done:
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...nature-deck-and-stringer-restoration?t=510077

Frisco has a lot of vids on youtube that explain how to fix a rotten fiberglass boat.

There's also a lot of good information in this forum when you read some of the other members restoration threads.

Watch the vids and read the forum and you'll educate yourself on what needs to be done to your boat before you start. When you start keep us updated with pics and any questions you have, you can post it all to this thread.

 

[Rickmerrill]

Welcome to the forum and the dry dock. We do like pictures! Easiest way, since the software upgrade, is to get a free photobucket account, upload pics there, copy the IMG link and paste it right into your text.