1980 Chaparral 187 restoration

[e5earley]

Little history first. Picked this boat up a couple of years ago. Traded an old handgun for it actually. 470 Mercruiser had the typical coolant leak from the cam seals. Fixed the leak and got the engine running after a carb rebuild. Pulled the outdrive and replaced bellows, shift cable, gimble bearing, etc. Continued to have some engine issues so splash day never happened.

Fast forward to this year. Removed the cheap bass seat previous owner installed at the helm. Pulled the carpet back and noticed the floor that was installed had no fiberglass on top. Where the floor met the hull, it was tabbed in (loose meaning of the word) with fiberglass drywall tape. So I am now in full rebuild mode.

When I first got the boat I stood on the outdrive and bounced up and down and didn't notice any movement. So hopefully transom is ok. But, after pulling part of the floor up today, I uncovered the original fiberglass covered floor. About all that was left was the fiberglass skin. I was surprised to see that the underside of the old floor did not have any fiberglass. Also the floatation foam was soaked, and the bulkhead was full of water. Probably good that splash day didn't happen.

Now to get all the old floor cut out, foam removed, everything dried out, and start on the stringers. I was needing to replace my oilpan gasket, so engine will come out. That will allow me to check the transom out better.

Pics to come.

 

[e5earley]

Existing floor.








Original fiberglass over original floor.



After cutting out original floor. Soaked foam and holding water.



Assuming I need to remove all the old wood from this edge. Then slide new wood under fiberglass and tab in?
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[e5earley]

Tear out continues. Port side first layer of flooring up.



Bow area tearout.



The elusive search for dry wood has been succesful. It look like there is 6" at the bow I won't have to replace. Little victories.

 

[e5earley]

Starboard stringer completely gone.





This is the piece of stringer I pulled out. Looks like a standard 1x12 cut to fit. I would have thought the glass would have adhered better. It slid right out. Also noticed delamination where it was tabbed into the hull. Is this a bad layup from the factory, or has someone else replaced this stringer before? Not that it really matters at this point.

 

[e5earley]

Question on the best way to tackle this area. I need to obviously replace the stringer. My thoughts were to glass the new stringer to water proof prior to install. Then tab to the hull from the ski locker side and the accessible area where the fuel lines lay. The only area that wouldn't have 1708 completely over the stringer would be the last 12". This would keep me from having to cut out the boxed area under the helm.