I just bought a 1979 14’ Malibu. Actually bought the trailer and the boat came with it:smiley: Transom seems very solid, hull is in great shape, but the floor needs to be replaced. I have not removed the rotten flooring yet so I don’t know what to expect underneath. Kind of a neat old skiff with a live well, and dry box. It had a steering wheel, but I plan to power with tiller steering.
I have been surfing the web all day and have a good idea what needs to be done. But a couple of questions come to mind:
Looks like the boat was built with 3/8 plywood floor which seems too thin to me. Should I beef this up?
After I seal and put the plywood in (before glassing) there will be a void between the edge of the plywood and the wall of the boat. Should I fill this in with something or just glass over it?
What should I coat or paint the floor with (non skid) when finished?
Who is a good supplier of resin, etc… in Charleston?
If near Columbia, call or go by Marine Pro. They are in Irmo behind the DMV and all they do is stringer/floor jobs, gel coat, etc. They are good guys and will give advice and may sell you the materials you need. Ask for Steve and tell him Rick referred you from Charlestonfishing.com You will not be disappointed. My boat is sitting there right now about to be painted “Jet Black”.
if i were replacing a floor in a boat right now, I would “drop by” some of the smaller boat manufactures that are struggling now. They wold probably give you a great price on replacing the floor in your boat, or at the very least, give you a good price on materials(resin is dated, they are probably sitting on some thats getting old). Stay away from the bigger manufactures, they’re probnably not set up to do non production work, but try with some of teh smaller baot manufactures around, it might take some digging and asking some questions, but they would probably jump on the extra work with new boat sales liek they are.
Thanks for the info. I am in Summerville, so probably can’t make it to Marine Pro. This boat is really for my two teenage boys. This is a project that we are taking on together. They are ivesting their money, time, and sweat. I just like the challenge, so it will be something we do ourselves. Hopefully it will mean a little more to them and they might take a little better care of it. My baby is a 23’ Keywest and there is no way I am going to turn them loose in it! A few photos:
Deck above anchor locker and right in front is soft.
There is a lot of differing opinions in the above posts and everywhere else on the internet; some right…some wrong. I suggest reading up on small boat building/repair before taking trying to taking a bunch of opinions as good advise. There are some good publications (perodicals and books) out there…the local public library is a good resource as most have some small boat building how to books.
I agree with Top2bottom. If you use resin, I would use epoxy instead of polyester. It is more expensive but stronger and adheres better. Epoxy bonds just fine with marine plywood, I built a whole driftboat with marine ply sandwiched with glass and epoxy resin, as have many others I know. Having said that, you may not need the high quality of marine ply. If it is just to stand on then exterior ply may be fine. I wouldn’t think you would need to thicken it with fumed silica (Cabosil) or microballoons, but you do want to encase it with glass cloth. Also, epoxy resin is susceptible to breakdown from UV so it must be painted or will break down and powder up. For a floor I would consider some of the non-skid paints. You could use the roll-on truck bed liner.
18.5 Baycraft Flats Edition
Johnson 150 Oceanrunner
Wood Driftboat
I believe(?) he was referring to “treated exterior plywood” not “marine plywood”. Treated exterior ply is treated with penta naphtha chloroforminate (or something that sounds like that) same chemical used to treat standard lumber to make it rot and bug resistant (has recently been changed to some other chemical tho) Marine ply is not treated with any chemicals but any and all voids in the layers have been filled. Standard untreated exterior plywood has been used to build many boats by just filling the occasional void that is present on the exposed surfaces for cosmetic purposes.
Russ B.
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
If you would like another alternative, I have a shop in Moncks Corner, and i have some pre made panels, that have already been glassed and gel coated, it is all composite material , no wood. I am sure with the price of resin and glass now it would be cheaper to install. I also have the two part boat foam if you are interested. And despite what alot of people say here, the polyester resin we use is not the same as you buy at West Marine, we call that “hobby resin” ours is HDLP, (high density, low profile) very little shrinkage. If you are interested you can reach me at 843-870-8675
