do it myself or pay??

[LilRichard]

Capt Dave- where is the shop, down in your neck of the woods?  I am VERY interested to see what happened... best of luck.

[captdave]

Yes its down here. I'll keep you guys posted, supposed to stop there tonight to check status. Hopefully the floor will be cut so we can get this wrapped up, I need to get back on hte water.

[captdave]

Well the floor is cut and all is good under there, besides the fuel tank and the stringer setup. !st of all the fuel tank is a poly tank but was wedged inbetween the stringers leaving no room for expansion one problem solved. The stringers were all fine. The only thing is they were redone to original design with no bulkheads connecting the 2 main stringers. So first of all we laid 3 layers of mat from front to back to give more strength and will be adding 3 bulkheads to keep boat from twisting. Those will be added when I get new fuel tank in which was just ordered today. All in all she is coming along quite well and should be ready to go in couple of weeks. One good thing to come from this situation is i will have the tower and livewell moved up to more desired location to balance weight better. Also be able to get leaning post installed from old boat, but cant wait to get back out there on the water. Seems like its been forever but no cutting corners here so I will have one less thing to worry about.

[Bygracealone]

Dave, that's great news.  Glad it's all coming together for you.

Pics would be great  :tongue:

Is is typical for these boats to have been built without bulkheads?  Were there only certain years they did things that way?  

Steve

[Shine]

We used 6 full width floor frames, and one full width bulkhead (the transom).  All those frames are bonded to the sole, so you end up with a 1 piece "egg crate" when the sole is epoxied down.



Those original big wide trapezoidal stringers almost act as frames they cover so much area, but they are a big waste of space IMHO.

Here is the bulkhead...



Im glad to hear there was no damage, but from you description of the twisting - something does not seem right  

[captdave]

Well maybe twisting is not the word to use. I think one of the problems with my ride was the weight factor. So I was not able to judge the true ride of the boat. With so much weight in hte rear the bow was just sort of out there along for the ride with out a solid feel. Now with the reinforced hull, bulkheads, and better weight distrubution hopefully we will see what these boats were made to ride like. I'm sorry if my words dont come out right. I'm not a boat builder I leave that to the guys at the shop and help out when I can. I will post picks after my next visit.

[John Jones]

Glad you are getting it worked out Dave.