Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

[swampboy]

Its going from bad to worse. I had removed the motor for re-build and the motor mount bolts just pulled out of the floor and were rusted. I removed a section of the floor where the motor mounts were located and water filled up the open area. The rotted wood smelled like a sewer. The wood is mush. Today I cut out a section of the floor over the center stringer. The foam is saturated and the wood is like mush... Why am I telling you guys all of this??Well I need to have some idea as to how to proceed from here. I may be looking for another boat for my MerCruiser motor and outdrive. No I'm not backing out, just looking at alot of messy work. I used a tool I bought from Harbor freight, but it made a funny noise and stopped working. The wood is so wet that the blade just wouldn't do any cutting. I tried a pry bar and got some more wood out. Any suggestions?? "Be nice" Thanks...

 

[BobsGlasstream]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Swampboy,
You have come to the right place, I was told it's the "Nut's Club" so welcome.
The folks here are great and will give you all the help you will ever need. There are a lot of great threads you can read and pick up a lot of great information.
I won't suggest anyone over another but just use the search feature and you will find what you need.
I'm in the middle of one myself, and It just keeps getting better.
Good Luck and keep us posted.
Bob
P.S. We love pic's and they will assist in helping you.

 

[toocanshan]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

wow!! that sucks....the motor mounts to my knowledge are mounted to your stringers. so if i were you i would start tearing that floor out until you find good wood or you get to the hull of your boat. you did not say too much that would tell me anything about your skills so dont take this personal, but if you do have exp. with some minor power tools and about 2 hundred dollars then this project isnt that far off. exp. with fiberglass comes about 20 min. after you mix up your second batch of resin. lol let us know what you decide and post some pics so we can see whats going on. hope this helps, happy boating TOOCAN

 

[swampboy]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

wow!! that sucks....the motor mounts to my knowledge are mounted to your stringers. so if i were you i would start tearing that floor out until you find good wood or you get to the hull of your boat. you did not say too much that would tell me anything about your skills so dont take this personal, but if you do have exp. with some minor power tools and about 2 hundred dollars then this project isnt that far off. exp. with fiberglass comes about 20 min. after you mix up your second batch of resin. lol let us know what you decide and post some pics so we can see whats going on. hope this helps, happy boating TOOCAN

Thanks for the reply. My problem is..the wood is so wet that the saw blade would just get stuck in all of the mush. There were some areas that the blade would start to cut and then stop. I may just get some type of tool to chip away at the floor. As far as my skills go..where I may not have any experience..I do have the will to keep going until I figure out how to complete the job. After all I'm only 74 years (young) old. I don't "give up", sometimes I just "give out". I'm still enjoying the challange. I have the wife's support and some help with the clean-up. We will have been married for 50 yrs this Dec 4th. Life is good....Thanks Ray

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Let see some pics of this poor rotted thing....

 

[toocanshan]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

wow.. its amazing how you have no idea who your talking to. im only 28 yrs. old. let me tell you the amount of respect i have for a person that can just keep plugging away at something that may baffle them!!! anyway with ages set aside, maybe a diff. tool may do the job better. chipping a complete floor away sounds like a bit of a task. TOOCAN

 

[swampboy]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

wow.. its amazing how you have no idea who your talking to. im only 28 yrs. old. let me tell you the amount of respect i have for a person that can just keep plugging away at something that may baffle them!!! anyway with ages set aside, maybe a diff. tool may do the job better. chipping a complete floor away sounds like a bit of a task. TOOCAN

Thanks for the encouragement. Don't get too concerned about how I decided to take out the old rottened floor. I'm being real careful with a ,"are you ready for this"?? An Electric Chain Saw. Ok I'm real careful not to go into the hull. The stringers are rotten, but I'm only cutting into the 1/2" ply enough to pry it up and out. I stopped cutting just about 2" from where the hull meets the ply floor. I intend to use the old grinding wheel to finish the job. Sorry I don't have any pictures. I tried to download from my camera to the computer, but for some reason it wouldn't work. I will try and figure out some way to get the pic. for my post. Thanks Ray

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Ha! You aren't the first to bust out the electric chainsaw and you probably won't be the last It's actually the preferred tool for rotted transom removal,

 

[swampboy]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Swampboy,
You have come to the right place, I was told it's the "Nut's Club" so welcome.
The folks here are great and will give you all the help you will ever need. There are a lot of great threads you can read and pick up a lot of great information.
I won't suggest anyone over another but just use the search feature and you will find what you need.
I'm in the middle of one myself, and It just keeps getting better.
Good Luck and keep us posted.
Bob
P.S. We love pic's and they will assist in helping you.

Ok got pictures to my computer. Then to my Photo-Bucket. But I can't figure out how to get pic's to the iboat forum?? Help??? How do I do it????Thanks

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

next to every picture in your album will be a couple automatically created links. One of them will be IMG Code. Copy that one into your post.

 

[swampboy]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Swampboy photo bucket not up and running yet.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Ya can't hand type url addys and leave a bunch of letters out and expect it to work, ie, potobucket and .co, etc, etc,

You also can't post a whole album within the iboats 'insert image' function.

Simply size all your pictures when you upload into photobucket at 640 x 480 (in the 'more options' section under the upload button) then copy the 'direct link' url below each picture and paste them in the 'insert image' box that opens when you click on the yellow mountain panorama button at the top of the iboats post box.

DO NOT POST THEM WITHOUT CHOOSING THE 640 X 480 size before you upload them to photobucket OR editing each individual picture that you uploaded before selecting that size.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

http://s567.photobucket.com/albums/ss116/swampboy_bucket/?albumview=slideshow

This one gets you into photobucket but not to your album. See my post above and post the individual pictures right here in this post.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

xxxx

 

[swampboy]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Ya can't hand type url addys and leave a bunch of letters out and expect it to work, ie, potobucket and .co, etc, etc,

You also can't post a whole album within the iboats 'insert image' function.

Ok . I tried the Photobucket web site and my pictures came up. How do I get them to come up thru the iboat forum. You told me what I can't do, now need to know what I can do?? Thanks

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Ok . I tried the Photobucket web site and my pictures came up. How do I get them to come up thru the iboat forum. You told me what I can't do, now need to know what I can do?? Thanks

I changed my post above. Below each picture in photobucket is a 'direct link' url. HiLite it, copy it, then just paste it in the text box that you are typing your post in.

Just beware, if you did not size them at 640 x 480, they will be too big for the area and cause everyone to have to scroll to see the whole picture and read any text in the whole thread....and that is very aggravating.

If you did not declare a size when you uploaded them to photobucket, you can do it for each individual picture using the edit function for that picture. Once you declare a size in the 'more options' button, under the big blue upload button, all future pictures will be that size and that is good for any forum.

 

[swampboy]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

This one gets you into photobucket but not to your album. See my post above and post the individual pictures right here in this post.

Thanks. It works if you put on "MY ALBUM" Then you can view my pictures..by Swampboy..

 

[swampboy]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

This one gets you into photobucket but not to your album. See my post above and post the individual pictures right here in this post.

It works. I tried it and got "My Albums" Thanks.

 

[swampboy]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Well it gets more and more interesting . today I started removing some of the "wetfoam". Lots of water, but then..gasoline odor. What now??? My wife verified the same...gasoline. I took small piece of saturated foam and tried to light it. No flame..Maybe more water than gasoline..Anyway this is really something to find. I'm going to keep at it, but I ask myself" Myself Whats next"?? I'm going to remove the tanks and check them out. There wasn't any gasoline in them when I got the boat. I haven't been able to contact the Previous owner to find out if there were any gasoline spills on the floor. Anyway just thought I would I would pass this info on. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures. I was able to bring them up on my photobucket account,but not on the iboat forum.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Rotted Floor 1966 Gulf Stream

Go back and read my instructions on picture posting. It is simple.

Your gas tank is probably riddled with corrosion pits and some of them may be weeping. When I pulled mine out, I had pits all over the bottom of the tank but no leaks. I filled them all with MarineTex and then covered the whole tank in epoxy.