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Posts: 516
Location: Kildeer, IL | WARNING!! If you find even one carpenter ant in your boat, spray it with ant killer immediately. Don't wait to see if they make it through a trip/winter/weekend. I decided to wait, and it cost me a summer of fishing.
I went fishing this spring, and while boating through some rough water, my drivers seat screws pulled out of the floor. I knew right away that this meant that my floor was rotted. I also knew that my summer fishing trips were not going to happen. I have two small boys, and it is very tough to find time to work on projects like this.
Well, I finally started working on the boat in late August. The first item of business was to find out how bad the floor rot was. I started pulling the floor up with a crow bar, and everywhere I pulled up was wet and full of dead carpenter ants. I thought to myself, oh #*#* this is bad. I decided to check the transom for wetness. If the transom was wet, I was getting a new boat. To my bad luck, the transom was dry as could be. So I continued pulling up the floor. It wasn't until I got past the floor drain and middle seat (working from the back) that I started to hit dry wood. The bunks were also water logged. Luckily, all of the stringers were still encased in fiberglass and dry as a bone. The stringers may have been dry, but all of the flotation foam was water logged.
Anyway, I pulled up all of the boards, cut new boards to size, and fiberglassed everything into place. Then I recarpeted the boat. $1000 later, and my boat is back in business. The worst part about this whole ordeal is that my boat is exactly like it was when I started (minus the rotting wood). No improvements, it's not worth any more money, and it's not easier to fish out of. It's exactly like it use to be.
Here are some pics for you to enjoy.
Edited by setme31 12/6/2007 8:43 AM
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| "exactly like it used to be" with new carpet and a new floor looks pretty good to me considering it's a 1987!
nice work, thanks for sharing the pictures.
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Posts: 5874
| You do great work!
There must have been some wet wood to originally attract the ants. Had you noticed them just once, or see them frequently, and just never figured they wood(NPI) cause the damage we see? | |
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Posts: 516
Location: Kildeer, IL | I saw the ants multiple times, but I always assumed they were just hanging out on the boat because I stored it outside. I never imagined that they lived in the boat. They made a home inside of the floatation foam.
Here is a shot of what the wood looked like once you got under the fiberglass. The second shot is what it looked like once the floor was removed. This is not sawdust. It is what the ants chewed up.
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Posts: 670
Location: Otsego, MN | Wow nice job, my very unskilled self would have just bought a new boat. Congrats on your "new" boat.
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Posts: 227
Location: Maple Grove | Really nice work. Wish I had the knowledge, skills, and time. Looks great. | |
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Posts: 1636
| Good work. I bet it was fun too. | |
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Posts: 476
Location: St. John, Indiana | very nice!!! | |
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Posts: 99
Location: North Coventry, PA | Very nice work... Boat looks the same but it is much safer and solid now..good job! | |
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Posts: 32939
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Nice work! Hopefully, she will last another twenty years.
9 out of 9 times the rot started from someone moving a seat, putting in another base, or one way or another breaking the fiberglass seal on the floor or side tank without properly sealing the 'break' during installation. Seal (if you haven't already) anything you used a screw or bolt to mount through on your new work with silicone sealant by removing the screw/bolt and gooping up the hole, then coat the /screw/bolt and refasten. Carefully seal endgrain with silicone wherever you install seat bases, etc. I'd do that everywhere in the boat just to be sure, actually. The ants didn't actually cause this, they just took advantage of the soft wood and took up residence.
If the transom had been bad, it isn't all that hard to replace if you are good with woodworking.
Even a small hole from a sonar, trim switch, etc. that were not sealed or were removed without sealing can allow rot to get going over the years.
There's a very good chance I sold that boat when it was new! As an observation, actually the boat IS worth more than when you started, because you can prove to a prospective buyer you just went through the entire core of the boat and it's all as good as new. | |
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Posts: 516
Location: Kildeer, IL | Yea, fixing this boat up was a lot of fun. It really helps you understand your boat, and where everything is.
It's not tough at all, it just takes a lot of time. Every time you put a coat of resin on, you have to wait another day before you can work with the wood again. So some days, I would only put in 15 minutes of work. I thought fiberglassing the floor would be tough, but it is not bad at all. It's a lot like mudding drywall.
The floatation foam is really cool to work with. It's like Great Stuff on a much bigger scale. My tuffy hardly had any foam in the floor. It was just a couple of clumps. The side bunks were completely full, but the floor hardly had any in it. The floor is full now, so my boat should be quieter and a little more sturdy.
A big bonus was the old carpet in my boat. Since it was so old, it came up without any effort. Plus it came up fully intact. This is very important, because when you go to cut your new carpet, you have a perfect template. I just cut everything a little proud, and then trimmed it to fit after it was glued down.
If you have any questions, let me know.
Scott
Scott | |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | huge endeavor, but, you still have a boat, brother!
Good work! | |
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