'64 Glastron Futura

[aleone]

Hi, new to this forum. Just want to introduce my project. I'm sure I'll be posting more specific questions as time goes on.
I picked up this cool boat with trailer for pretty much nothing (and I fully knew what I was getting into). I knew it would give me a good starter education in boat repair.

The first thing I found was the deck is rotted in a couple of locations where the previous owner bolted down a seat. I cut out a portion of the deck and found the plywood to be 1/2" thick. This seems thin as I would have expected 3/4" like in a house. The stringers seem to be fine but I'll know more after I cut out the rest of the deck. They appear to be wrapped in fiberglass.
The transom is soft as well but I haven't investigated thoroughly yet.
As I lifted the deck I pulled out empty bags that appear to have had foam inside at one point. Not sure where it went. Perhaps there was no foam? Anyway, I got rid of them.

Now to start researching.

Drew

 

[Woodonglass]

You'll need to core sample the stringers to find out if they're good. Fiberglass or not, the wood cores could be rotten

 

[CrazyFinn]

Hi, new to this forum. Just want to introduce my project. I'm sure I'll be posting more specific questions as time goes on.
I picked up this cool boat with trailer for pretty much nothing (and I fully knew what I was getting into). I knew it would give me a good starter education in boat repair.

Welcome aboard - and yes, if you listen to the good people here it will give you a good education!

I cut out a portion of the deck and found the plywood to be 1/2" thick. This seems thin as I would have expected 3/4" like in a house.

That sounds typical. No need to make the floor thicker than that, it just adds extra weight to the boat.

The stringers seem to be fine but I'll know more after I cut out the rest of the deck. They appear to be wrapped in fiberglass.
The transom is soft as well but I haven't investigated thoroughly yet.

Stringers are usually wood encased in fiberglass. Usually, with a boat this old, that wood inside the stringers is waterlogged and rotten. So is the wood in the transom. I'm thinking a complete transom and stringer replacement is in your future... Happens with virtually everybody who shows up here!

 

[aleone]

You'll need to core sample the stringers to find out if they're good. Fiberglass or not, the wood cores could be rotten

OK, thanks for the info. I'll be sure to do that.

CrazyFinn: Wow, I'm surprised 1/2" is typical. But, that makes working with it that much easier.

Any thoughts on the bags I found? I didn't think to take a picture. They appeared to be long tubular type bags, but empty. Maybe some remnants of foam but hard to say as they were nasty. I'm interested just out of curiosity.

 

[Woodonglass]

Possible air filled and sealed to aid in flotation. Without pics it's hard to tell.