I bought a 20 mako for 995.00 in fair shape, I was told the deck and transom were not soft, but after grinding on the deck I found 3 large soft spots.
I have replaced a deck one time on a 16 foot fiberglass boat and it wasnt that hard to do.
My mako like most other boats are polyester the deck has balsa core and ply strips , all the balsa is mush so I decided to replace the deck.
I first cut out the top layer to see what it was like.
I cut a small hole in the sub deck and found water in the foam so I started to remove the compleet deck. I found broken stringers and cracked fiberglass
most of the foam was dry so I put it aside to reuse when I put new foam in, it will fill the space and I wont have to buy as much
I cut out the first of the two stringers, braceing the gunwales to help keep the shape of the hull, found some spruce planks for the new stringers they werent that bad I think 32.00 each ground down to the hull removeing all the plywood and leaving about a 1 inch peice of fioberglass from the stringer for alignment of the new stringer. I made up a batch of bondo and used it to hold and fair in the lumber, remember to first coat the wood with resin and make it kick a little slower so it will absorb some of the resin to protect the wood, then glassed over it with 18 oz wovenroveing with a mat backer
after they were booth in I removed the hull supports so I could start installing new ply wood deck, I will perpair the ply in the same manner, first coat the ply sealing the edges and flat surface befor the cloth.
This is the point where I stoped and will post more pictures when I start work again on the boat.
The transom is solid and the rot stoped just aft of the new stringers, that was sealed and glassed. I have plans on leaving out the useless bait wells and fish box under the deck and install a livewell and fish box above deck
what the boat looked like when I got her
[
I have replaced a deck one time on a 16 foot fiberglass boat and it wasnt that hard to do.
My mako like most other boats are polyester the deck has balsa core and ply strips , all the balsa is mush so I decided to replace the deck.
I first cut out the top layer to see what it was like.
I cut a small hole in the sub deck and found water in the foam so I started to remove the compleet deck. I found broken stringers and cracked fiberglass
most of the foam was dry so I put it aside to reuse when I put new foam in, it will fill the space and I wont have to buy as much
I cut out the first of the two stringers, braceing the gunwales to help keep the shape of the hull, found some spruce planks for the new stringers they werent that bad I think 32.00 each ground down to the hull removeing all the plywood and leaving about a 1 inch peice of fioberglass from the stringer for alignment of the new stringer. I made up a batch of bondo and used it to hold and fair in the lumber, remember to first coat the wood with resin and make it kick a little slower so it will absorb some of the resin to protect the wood, then glassed over it with 18 oz wovenroveing with a mat backer
after they were booth in I removed the hull supports so I could start installing new ply wood deck, I will perpair the ply in the same manner, first coat the ply sealing the edges and flat surface befor the cloth.
This is the point where I stoped and will post more pictures when I start work again on the boat.
The transom is solid and the rot stoped just aft of the new stringers, that was sealed and glassed. I have plans on leaving out the useless bait wells and fish box under the deck and install a livewell and fish box above deck
what the boat looked like when I got her
[
