Need some flooring ideas

[duckfish]

Gotcha. That is a real nice console.

From a conversation I had just yesterday with my G3 dealer, it may be a good thing you got that one when you did. He was saying G3 will no longer let him get any separate consoles other than to replace an existing one. He has to provide a hull ID# and can only get a replacement of exactly what the boat was sold with?? He just bought a metal break, plasma cutter and TIG welder to start making consoles since he can't buy them from G3. Sounds ridiculous to me.

I'm giving him the console out of my old boat to sell/use.

Hope your floor raising project goes well.

 

[mbweimar]

When I bought this console in 2013 the dealer told me it was the last one he had and they werent making them anymore. Needless to say I ended up paying top dollar for it...around $400!

 

[mbweimar]

If that's a factory weldbilt floor I can guarantee its not .031" thick. If its flexing the foam boards under the floor have cracked. Especially if its a modV hull. What I did was pull up the floor and shim the foam with more foam (glueing in place) until the foam is level to the ribs. You want them exactly level or the foam 1/16 or less below the ribs. Not higher. Rivet floor back on with aluminum rivets. You'll be glad you did it

How thick is the floor in your Weldbilt? I assume its the same thickness, but I may be off on my judgment.

 

[vahunter]

I wanna say the floor is .090". Without good support from the foam it will flex and pop rivets (been there). Ever since I resupported with foam I haven't had any issues.

 

[onthewater102]

You could replace the original aluminum rivets with stainless - you're in for a forearm workout but they won't loosen up on you. By far less expensive than a whole new floor. I had the same problem with the aluminum rivets I used in my build flexing over time and I ended up drilling out the rivets in my TM mount and replacing them with all stainless...no more issues.

 

[mbweimar]

I thought about SS rivets. I found two problems:

First, the boat is used almost exclusively in salt water, so I try to stay away from mixing stainless and aluminum to cut down on galvanic corrosion.

Second, stainless is a lot harder than aluminum so eventually the rivet will loosen up, resulting in the hole getting larger each time you replace the rivet.

Does this sound right, or am I misinformed?

 

[onthewater102]

yeah - the salt water isn't going to let you do that - corrosion is much slower with just fresh water to the point it's pretty much a non-issue for me.

 

[mbweimar]

VA, thanks for the reply. I just now saw it.

I'm thinking I may remove all the foam from under the floor when I replace it. That or somehow elevate the foam off the bottom of the boat, because when I rinse the boat off after being on the flats all day, there wont be anything to under there to hold water. I will replace this positive buoyancy with float pods on the transom and place foam behind the side panels of the boat.

 

[vahunter]

I drew ya a picture. Buy some closed cell blue or pink house insulation foam from lowes/home depot and some adhesive safe for foam. Cut strips about 1" shorter than the distance from rib to rib and 1-1/2" wide. Cut the "shims" to thickness required to support the bottom side of the foam and roughly centering between the strakes while making it sit flush to the ribs. Add a shim every 12" or so. The shims would run bow to stern. Glue to hull or foam board.

You could actually glue the foam blocks to the hull and once dry shave them down with a shurform, heavy sanding block, etc. til you get a 2" (measure the factory foam board thickness) gap between the two ribs. Set factory foam on these blocks and check for flushness and equal support.

Clear as mud?

 

[mbweimar]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, now I get it. Thanks!