82 Bayliner Capri aka Project Boat

Hi Folks! We have purchased an 82 Bayliner Capri - 19' and have found some soft spots around the floor. We are thinking it is mainly due to water being allowed to penetrate the fiberglass where it cracked inside the floor ski compartment. It looks as if the stringer on the port side is wet and rotted at least in that area, and further down at the back by the gas tank, that end of the stringer on that side looks bad too. I have included pics that I hope will show up...

We have a few questions and we would really appreciated any sage advice you can offer.

1. The foam looks wet up by the ski compartment on the port side of the floor as indicated in pics. Can we rip this foam out and use the pink or blue sheets from lowes and if so, do we chop it up? Or do we cut it in strips and place it in the hull?

2. If we find that only one side of the floor needs replacing, will the difference in foam make a difference in tip of the boat?

3. Most importantly: is there a way we should be checking out the transom that doesn't include taking the top of the boat off? How can we inspect it well without taking the whole boat apart?

4. We will need to cut out the seat bases as they are fiberglassed to the floor. We are curious as to how far over we can cut the glass. There is a part of it along the side of the boat that goes over the side hump. We don't understand if this is part of the hull or if it's just more build up of the interior floor.

We are excited to move along with this project as we never do ANYTHING that we can't make into a project. While we are not carpenters or electricians or mechanics, my husband and I have completely remodled our home from the floor joists to the rafters and the plumbing and electrical in between as a team. We figure now that that work is mostly done, why not move our team work to the outdoors! It's great that we found this forum and appreciate that it has given us the courage and optimism to see this project through.
I should also add that we have never owned a boat, but both boated as children on local lakes and at family cottages. The love of boating is there, the knowledge of boating is non-existant!
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Fibber and Molly McGee

Re: 82 Bayliner Capri aka Project Boat

Hello and welcome to iboats. I am currently restoring a 1988 bayliner cobra and found pretty much the same stuff when I started that you guys are finding in your boat. As I started tearing it apart to fix the problem areas I found that almost everything was rotted. But anyhow, I will try to answer your questions the best I can.

About the foam, yes you can use the pink foam at the hardware store. You would want to cut it and shape it to fit the area. But you can almost guarantee that if you found wet foam that far forward in the boat there will be more maybe all of it.

I do not think that the different kinds of foam will make the boat tilt to one side; but if you only repair one side and there is wet foam on the other side that will definitely make the boat tilt. That wet foam gets very heavy.

On checking the transom, what I did was drill a hole in the transom and inspect the shavings that come out. Start low on the transom because if it is rotten that is usually where it starts. When I did this to my transom water actually came out. Here is a picture.



As far as the 4th question goes, I am not sure exactly what you are talking about. Can you take some pictures and post them? I will be checking up to see if I can help you more. There are also a lot of Bayliner projects on here including mine. Take a look it those because there is an enormous amount if info in them. Good luck

Re: 82 Bayliner Capri aka Project Boat

on your fourth question the seat bases are not part of the hull , just more build up of the interior , i used a sawzall to cut them out and they are full of foam and the the wood will stick to it so it makes them hard to get apart. good luck and check out my 88 bayliner capri rebuild

Re: 82 Bayliner Capri aka Project Boat

Thank you, and your project looks amazing.

Re: 82 Bayliner Capri aka Project Boat

Thank you for your help.