This is my boat, went to replace some cushions and what follows is a project alot bigger than I first thought, but I am happy to know when I am done it will be a nice boat that I fixed myself. I am learning alot.

rotted cushions

This is a pic of my son and I showing the relative condition of the interior. I knew it need work like cushions, carpet, trim, and such. It had a weak spot in the floor under the driver seat, (where my sons feet are at) this weak spot and the cushions were the ONLY indication that something was not right. a simple fix just a piece of plywood, or so I thought

This pic was taken from inside the cabin, you can see the floor is rotted, I took a hammer and gouged out the hole in the pic pretty easily

A pic showing the waterlogged foam, engine, and my kids legs

Here you can see what I ended up doing, after finding out to my own horror, all the wood that was inside was rotted badly, most of the foam was waterlogged, one stringer was all that was left that had no rot. Surprisingly, the engine bed and transom are pretty solid, i've drilled a few test holes, and can only find strong dry wood, however where the engine mounting bolts go thru, they are stripped out. I suspect that there is some rot starting under there, I have plans to rebuild this area as well, however at a later date. I will concentrate on the rest of the boat first. I have built the forward section in such a way as to make the engine bed and transom easily serviceable in the future.

This is a forward view of hull after I ripped it apart, I have elected to leave the Port side stringer in place. There was NO fiberglass at all on this stringer or the starboard one, as well as no resin at all to seal it from the elements. The inboard stringers had fiberglass only on the outside, it appears that when it was built that Sea Ray built the floor and framing system, set it place and the sprayed the fiberglass on with a chopper gun, I will be totally glassing in by hand all wood that I can see, inside and outside.

Here I am fitting in the new stringers, you can see on the left of the pic the original Port side stringer, that I will be reusing as well as some of the original foam that I am going to reuse as well. Both stringer and foam are in like new condition, so why not? However it will be glassed in, it wasn't from the factory.

Scabbed stringer, this stage the stringers were being encapsulated with THINNED polyester resin. It was thinned with STYRENE to about rubbing alchol consistancy, and then just painted on, At this point I wanted the wood to soakup as much resin as it could so I tried to keep it as wet as I could for as long as I could. Later in the project I had to make a design change, and it was then I learned the value to this step, the wood actually soaked up alot, and I had to remove a piece of wood to make room for the fuel tank. The wood ripped apart from itself before the poly resin even thought about coming off.

Two piece stringer, Home Depot didn't have 12 foot plywood, so I had to make my own.

Here you can see how I had to scab two pieces to make the complete stringer, on the right side inboard stringer the scab is on the inside which is where it should be. If you look closely, forward on the lefthand inboard stringer the scab is on the outside, where it is not supposed to be. This was an error on my part, I will have to live with it. When it is done nobody will notice any different. I could have changed it at this point, but due to lack of funds I opted not to. It won't adversly affect anything, it will just make it more difficult when I goto put the cabin doors on. Also I have made a running design change to the fuel tank divider in the middle. I was going to bring it all the way up level with the floor, but I decided to duplicate what was originally there. As well as I didn't have enough room for the tank. Measure twice, and cut once. Yeah right :)

Here you can see the new designand I am starting to glass to the wood. Also originally Sea Ray had fastend the wood pieces together with a staple gun. I have opted to use 2x2s and deck screws to hold them together. I am using polyester resin for the whole job. also I am using biaxial fiberglass cloth, of the thickest I could find to attach stingers to hull, and woven fiberglass cloth to cover the rest. I only used one layer of each type of fiberglass is way stronger than original. I know this because there is more fiberglass now than when built by Sea Ray. Also there was a bad camera angle, all this struture is pretty square I assure you.

this is what I used to attach stringers to hull

this is what I used to cover everything else

Here I am starting to pour foam, I used 2 part 2lb foam in these areas.
I use a paint mixer the kind that goes in a drill to mix the foam. The area you can see is approx. 3 1/2 x 1 1/2x 1 1/2 of area. I used about 1/2 gallon each of part a and part b to fill this spot. I will be filling the rest of it after the lid is on because I want it to expand and bond with the lid. I will need to bore holes in the lid to do so, and will be using a 2" hole saw for this purpose, so I have a plug already made to put in the hole as the foam expands. Also I mixed the foam right ion the boat due to the fact I had only 30 seconds or so before it started to expand. Note the 2x2 thats not been treated to resin yet. Sticks out like a sore thumb.

Here you can see the starboar side lid is on. This pic was taken as I was about to start glassing the lid to the hull side. Also you can see the holes that I bored to pour the foam in. The top has been glassed already, and I would have like to have bored the holes and foamed first, that way i could have glassed over them, but I ran out of foam, and I had fiberglass and resin to cover the top and I wanted to continue work. I will have to buy more foam. Oh well i just bored thru the glass, and glued the plugs in with resin. Oh well I am going to carpet this boat so I won't be able to see it anyways. Also I glassed the lid with the biaxial cloth, which I found out quick takes ALOT of resin to wet out, and it really isn't needed for strength, so I will be glassing in the other side with matting. Like I said I am learning alot. Which is good.

This is the type of hole I used to pour the rest of the foam into, I can use the plug that was created by the hole saw, to put back in place as the foam expands.

Here you can see where the foam has achieved good expanision and bonding with the lid, as evidenced by the foam protruding through the seem around the hole, also the plug has popped out about 1/16 of an inch, no problem, as I will just sand it smooth and glass over it.

Here you can see my design change I talked about earlier. This is the divider between the stringers that will make up the compartment for the fuel tank. Also you can see that directly in front of this divider, is where my forward bilge pump will be. This is the only place where the bare hull is easily accessable below the water line. The floor portion forward of this space is the cabin floor. I won't be able to see this area when done, without removing the removable center floor section. It will be hidden by the step to the cabin.

here is another view of forward bilge pump area. Also you can see the handholes in stringers for access under the pedestal seats. I wrestled with cutting these holes for several weeks, I do not like the idea of them being in the stringers, however there wasn't another way to have access, and it was built like that from Sea Ray and lasted 20 years so oh well. At least I can see the hull under there (no foam) the space is about 2ft x 1 1/2 feet so i can keep and eye on things under there if need be.

Here I am pretty much done with the floors, I am still trying to decide what to do with the center section, this is kinda what it looked like before. I plan to use new wood for the center, I just don't know how I want to configure it yet

here is a shot of the original partition or cabin wall. It put it here for measurement and a test fit. I will use it for a template for the new piece. Originally it was just screwed to the floor and to the upper deck. I am contemplating glassing this piece in as well. At least to the hull side. Maybe to the top as well. I have circled the area I would like to Glass in

Here is the inside view of the same weak a$$ wannabe bulkhead

Here the new bulkhead piece is in place. Its attathed to the hull side as well as the top deck. The oroginal piece was not attched to the hull at all, it was just screwed to the floor. This is much, much stronger than it was when new. this pic is of the other side than the ones above. I am very pleased how this turned out.

this is a crusty pic, but it shows the type of EPOXY based sealer (black stuff)I used to cover EVERYTHING as the first line of defense against (gasp) ROT I chose the color black because I am putting carpet on the floor only, and not the inside of the hull sides.

Ok here its starting to come back together, as far as the way its laid out and everything. At this point I can almost use the boat. New seats and cabin door, as well as redoing the helm/dash area are coming soon as budget allows.

OK originally, this view would have shown a seat and sunlounge over the engine compartment.(the pic at the top) I was originally going to duplicate what was there, however after looking at many, many different kinds of boats since starting this project, I decided to build another floor over the engine. Its only about a foot higher than the main floor, so I can still stand there with my pole in hand, be able to walk around, and still have about 1 1/2 feet of hull side to keep from falling over. This area will be carpeted as well. Also if you look close, you can see that I painted my carbuerator RED. I had to rebuild it (did it myself) it was easy to do. I painted it red because I wanted it that way. No real reason, i had some red paint around and thought Aww what the heck.

This is kinda what its going to look like when finished. it will also be coated with the black epoxy sealer, and carpet. Lots more to go.