Replacing support beams underneath floor board of 1983 Astroglass 178v bass boat

[minimax271]

So what happened was this boat was very mistreated and it took it in hoping to restore it but i have never done this kind of thing before. The boat floor was in horrible shape. The carpet was peeling up, the wood was all rotted into crumbs and pieces. After a long day of ripping all of the bad up i realized the support beams underneath needed to be replaced. The only thing is it looks as though they are fiberglassed onto the bottom of the actual boat.... I do not know how to remove them. Another thing is they support beams go under our boats seats and center console. Any advice on how to remove the support beams and put new ones in would be greatly appreciated.

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: Replacing support beams underneath floor board of 1983 Astroglass 178v bass boat

Well, it sounds like you've got yourself a project on your hands. You need to go to the restoration forum and spend some time reading.

Those 'beams' are called stringers. You're repair is going to go something like this: Remove rubrail. Remove cap (top half of boat). Remove deck (floor). Probably remove old foam. Probably replace transom. Replace stringers. Reinstall new pour foam. Replace deck. Reinstall cap. Reinstall rubrail.

My Checkmate is probably similar to your bass boat construction, you can look at my restoration thread and see what all I had to do. There are certainly plenty of others to learn from in the repair/restoration forum as well.

 

[minimax271]

Re: Replacing support beams underneath floor board of 1983 Astroglass 178v bass boat

Well, it sounds like you've got yourself a project on your hands. You need to go to the restoration forum and spend some time reading.

Those 'beams' are called stringers. You're repair is going to go something like this: Remove rubrail. Remove cap (top half of boat). Remove deck (floor). Probably remove old foam. Probably replace transom. Replace stringers. Reinstall new pour foam. Replace deck. Reinstall cap. Reinstall rubrail.

My Checkmate is probably similar to your bass boat construction, you can look at my restoration thread and see what all I had to do. There are certainly plenty of others to learn from in the repair/restoration forum as well.

How exactly do i remove the cap of the boat? It is not like screwed in. It is all fibherglassed together.

 

[emilime75]

Re: Replacing support beams underneath floor board of 1983 Astroglass 178v bass boat

It's likely to be riveted. Once you remove the rub rail, you'll expose all of the rivets holding the two halves of the boat together. You can drill those out and separate the cap from the hull.

How exactly do i remove the cap of the boat? It is not like screwed in. It is all fibherglassed together.

 

[minimax271]

Re: Replacing support beams underneath floor board of 1983 Astroglass 178v bass boat

It's likely to be riveted. Once you remove the rub rail, you'll expose all of the rivets holding the two halves of the boat together. You can drill those out and separate the cap from the hull.

Thank you. One more thing, wouldn't removing the cap mean i would have to remove the engine?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Replacing support beams underneath floor board of 1983 Astroglass 178v bass boat

Yes, the OUtboard motor would have to come off. You can build a stand for it. Plans are here...
OutBoard Motor Stand

You can use a Tree and a come along, a Motor "Cherry Picker", Rafters, Brute Force, Gantry, Hire a Wrecker Service. Lot's of methods to get it off there.

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: Replacing support beams underneath floor board of 1983 Astroglass 178v bass boat

It's likely to be riveted. Once you remove the rub rail, you'll expose all of the rivets holding the two halves of the boat together. You can drill those out and separate the cap from the hull.

One other item will need to be addressed before separating the cap and hull. More than likely you'll find a structural filler between the forward face of the transom and the rear of the splashwell, it'll probably be a material very similar to bondo. You obviously need to break that bond between the transom and splashwell. In each of my restoration projects I've had to remove the fiberglass on top of the transom to gain access to that, and then I attacked it with either a wood chisel or prybar. Depending on the design of the boat, some people are able to access that area from underneath and run a saws-all blade through it (this obviously calls for great care to be sure you don't cut something you don't want to repair or replace later on).

... took it in hoping to restore it but i have never done this kind of thing before.

Have you started asking yourself what the hell you got yourself into yet?