Re: 73 skeeter new deck and stringers
When i go to foam fill the hull could i do it with the deck off then just shave the excess down with a hot knife?? seen other boats that had been filled after deck and they have all ended up with a belly
I suspect that your foam comment should have ended:
with a belly full of waterlogged foam......... And that you are actually talking about 2-part pour in expanding foam available from most fiberglass suppliers, and not great stuff or other 'shot from a can' foams.
The expanding foam 'tends' to skin over when it expands & cures. Kind of like the crust on bread, it's still dough but has formed a hard exterior shell. Cutting that shell off exposes the inner expanded foam's core, and all the thousands of little pores on the newly exposed face. These pores, filling with water, freezing & thawing over time is what generally degrades both the foam & its ability to provide flotation. And that makes the problem worse during the next freeze/thaw cycle.
The most recent thread using foam that I've followed is Trooper82's Ebko thread. Read thru his thread.. And others, oops has a great hull extension thread that includes an index on page 1, if I remember correctly, he proposed (may have used or linked a reference) using plastic to encapsulate the foam.
There are lots of threads that discuss expanding foam, discuss some alternatives that offer more or less benefits (& pricing), and some very strongly debated threads dedicated to proving expanded foam's merits or lack of merits. There are also threads that attempt to use various methods to encourage space left behind the foam for water to travel under the foam w/ out water-logging it and make it into the bilge. Or to encase it in plastic so it can be removed if need be at a future date, and allow water to find it's way to the bilge. The foam sticks quite well to fiberglass & wooden structures. And in some cases, the boat builder designed the hull & deck thickness based on the rigid, anti-crush properties of the foam binding it's contact areas together, and those areas working as a system in conjunction w/ the foam.
IMHO, the best thing you can do w/ regards to foam & flotation is to spend a lot of time reading as much as you can about expanding foam. It's pros & cons, on iboats & other forums that may show up in a google search for marine expanding foam, and flotation alternatives. Then decide for yourself what best meets your needs, price point, safety & etc.
My 1960 FireFlite came w/ no flotation originally, so any flotation I add will be an improvement....
