Hello:
I may be very late to the party regarding this question, but I have completed a full restoration/repair of 1964 Outboard model Sweet 16 which I named "Never Been Kissed".
I first tried to repair the "leaks" and found that that was a fools approach. I decided that I was going in with both feet. The approach that I took was as follows:
1. Remove everything
2. Take too many photos of every step in the process they become very valuable to us back yard mechanics
3. Place tow cross pieces under the deck to hold the hull in form while you perform the next step
4. Separate the deck from the Hull, I used a skill saw and cut the seam apart
5. Mark a 3" line along the floor and the sides of the boat and draw a line under the windshield. This will be your cut line for removing the entire floorboard from the windshield back to the transom. The 3" "tab" will be your tie-in point for the new floor.
6. When you remove the floorboard, you will be amazed how much water has collected over 50 years.
7. With a claw hammer, black trash bags and a vacuum, slow claw away all the spray in foam that you can manually. You will be surprised how many bags of foam and "air" you will create.
8. To do the finish clean up, you will need a multi tool with a scraper and a DA for final clean up on all surfaces. This is an easy but long task.
9. Inspect and remove any water damaged stringers. It is easy to repair this damage when you begin the rebuilding process. 1
0. Send the wood transom to 'Heaven".
11. After cleaning the entire interior of the hull, let the 1960's fiberglass hull dry out. You can use a 24" box fan and/or an infrared heater. You do want to "cook" the moisture away.
12. Optional Built-In Gas Tank: There is a large cavity of space between the two strings for a custom fabricated stainless steel gas tank. The tank will be about 11" wide x ~8' long and tapered from 7" deep at the bow and 4" deep under the motor well. I place the vent line in the front and placed it in front of the windshield. the fuel pick up in the stern and the fill point on the stern quarter deck. Suggestion: make the vent line as big as you can. I used a 3/8 vent line and because of the odd shape tank I would suggest making it at least a 3/4" vent line. The 3/8" vent worked great in operations but the boat was a slow fill. I believe the new tank was around 25 gallons. I then had new "milk carts" storage under the motor well for "stuff". Another suggest for the space would be a ski locker. However, I preferred the gas tank and I would store the water skis between the seats and the side "gutter".
13. On another boat restoration project, I used Coosa marine board. This stuff is 2x the strength of marine plywood at 1/2 the weight. This stuff is perfect for the Sweet 16 floorboard and transom repairs. It will never absorb water.
14. Prior to taking the seat mounting plates out of the floor, I would suggest you make a paper template that locates everything that you mount to the floor. Reason Being: As great as Coosa board is, you can mot screw into it. Either you mount threaded backing plates in-bedded into the Coosa or you thru-bolt. I chose the in-bedded mounting plate approach.
15. I used West Epoxy System 610 for 'gluing" the new floor board to the sides and on top of the stringers.
16. With the deck removed, it is easy to rebuild the transom, the bilge well, transom butt hold, and most importantly the bracket supports for the new transom tie-ins to the hull and the sides of the boat for strength and support of the transom.
The above is long but I have had the fortune to remove and replace 6 classic boats floor boards. 5 were done with marine plywood and the last one was with the Coosa board and the West Epoxy System. By far the later was the easiest, fastest and strongest of all that I had done prior. I also learned from my errors in the process.
If anyone would like more photos and information, feel free to em me at
david.avedesian@newportassociates.net. I would be happy to share the many scars on my back from all the beatings that I have taken over the previous projects.
Have Fun, David
