Need advice on floor - high rivet heads

[rcatskills]

Picking up where I stopped last fall & putting new floor down ( epoxy coated 3/4 mply). Used 1" blind rivets as was original to the boat.(Fishmaster 196). a lot of my rivet heads are proud of the surface by about .045" or so. I have vinyl ready to go down but am concerned about the rivet heads poping or at least showing through the vinyl. Any suggestions?
I'm considering putting down a layer of glass cloth and cutting holes so the rivet heads sit in the holes and then epoxy over the whole mess.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Need advice on floor - high rivet heads

The proper procedure is to wrap the decking in vinyl and then install it in the boat with the rivets exposed. This way if you ever need to remove your decking for repairs or modifications you don't have to rip up your nice new vinyl job to get the decking out.

You can see the exposed rivets I used on my deck job in this pic:


If you try to cover over your rivets with vinyl not only will the heads be knots under the vinyl, you'll also trap air around them too... I'm thinking it'll look like wild Turkey crap stirred with a piece of rusty barb wire.

 

[rcatskills]

Re: Need advice on floor - high rivet heads

That does make for a clean look. Unfortunately the rivets are already in and I'm not going to remove them at this point. There is not way to remove this floor with vinyl in place because of how the side of the floor attaches to the stringers ( oval head philips countersunk below flush). I have to find a way to minimize effect on vinyl. I don't mind making the decission that in order to get the floor up it must be destroyed cause I'm never gonna do that again.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Need advice on floor - high rivet heads

I don't mind making the decission that in order to get the floor up it must be destroyed cause I'm never gonna do that again.

I've seen quite a few people think that and then really regret it later.

It's not that big of a deal to drill the heads off the rivets and remove the screws and lift the decking to wrap it in vinyl and then reinstall it using the same holes and new rivets and the same screws.

If you try to lay vinyl on the flat deck installed without wrapping the vinyl over the edges of the decking and around the back of the decking it will curl at the edges over time and keep curling every time you try to glue it back down.

You don't have to take my word for any of this, try it your way and you will see what I'm talking about. I'm just trying to help.

Go to any new aluminum boat dealer and look at the brand new boats will vinyl deck finishes and they'll all have exposed rivets or screws... and for good reason, so they don't have to destroy the decking and deck finish if they need to do warranty work. They just remove the deck with a screw gun or drill, do the work and replace the same decking without having to spend money on new material and installation.

I see this mistake made on this forum a lot and I both grimace and laugh at the same time, every time I see it done... some people just have to learn the hard way and those people are always just like you and won't listen to reason and experience.