Restoration project - 1965 AlumaCraft Maracaibo

[Rad Racer]

Here's a couple of photos I found that show the curved floor bottom.

 

[kcassells]

I despise people like you cause you are too SMART! And have the coolest tools!
Excellent work says I! Dam good. Next you want to poly every inch of the ply prior to setting it in. All edges all cuts need sealed.
Best would be to glass it prior to setting then recut the grooves and poly again so it does the flex cuts you made.
Will last till your grandchildren's children. Set in place the glass the top.
It may be an argued point to the value of glassing the bottom but sealing the heck out of it will last at least 2 generations.
Utters may say seal it no glass cause you are on a light boat.
Cool build!
How do you plan to secure the deck?
Then there is the ole' timers recipe to seal wood.

 

[kcassells]

I had a buddy on another forum who owned a cnc machine. Boy the work and cuts were beautiful!

 

[Rad Racer]

Too Smart...you have mistaken me for someone else.

My plan is to seal the ply with the ole' timers formula I read about. Not sure I want to mess with glass at this time. Besides now that I have the CAD file its easy to replace the floor if/when necessary.

The floor will be attached with pop rivets just like the original. I am planning to cover the floor with SeaDeck or OrthoDek EVA. It's spendy but looks great.

Yes, cnc equipment make jobs like this go quickly. Fortunately my shop is outfitted with all the equipment necessary for this project.

 

[Wildey]

Nice job RR.
Question: do you plan to put the ply on top of the I beam as shown in your pic ? If so, it will span above the ribs, for the most part, and be quite springy with no support underneath.
If the ply went into the channel of the I beam, with appropriate size dado cuts to match the thickness of the flanges, and the proper thickness of plywood was used to fill the voids the floor would be setting solidly on the ribs.
Just wondering ...........
My CAD skills are lacking .. (as well as my software)
I really like that little boat !

 

[Wildey]

just noticed, looks like there were secondary stringer / spacers across the ribs to support the floor while being fastened to the top of the beam.

 

[Rad Racer]

Yup, exactly your exactly right. From what I can tell it looks like there was a stringer on each side of the I beam. (Yellow highlight in the photo). The ply on the outer edge was riveted directly to the rib. This arrangement provided for a flat floor in the center part of the boat.

 

[Wildey]

Cool ! Cary on, make it purdy.
Cheers !

 

[jarrod42]

This is my 1965 Alumacraft

 

[jarrod42]

In the process of polishing

 

[jarrod42]

I used diamond plate for the floor

 

[Rad Racer]

Nice aluminum floor install......should last forever.

 

[Rad Racer]

Nice job polishing the boat. Are you planning to add a little paint or just keep it shiny?

 

[jarrod42]

Nice job polishing the boat. Are you planning to add a little paint or just keep it shiny?

My original idea was to keep it polished but I do like the look of the paint on the Maracaibo.

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[jarrod42]

I am going to paint the dash and stripe up the middle for now.

 

[Rad Racer]

Good idea to add a little paint...it'll look nice.

 

[Rad Racer]

Remaking the floor boards. I originally used CDX ply I got from my local lumber yard but found it had some serious delamination problems....basically junk ply. I returned the remaining sheets and exchanged it for MDO plywood. The MDO is much higher quality and it was only $10 more per sheet.

 

[Rad Racer]

Now I am making headway.....the floor lays in really nice.

 

[Rad Racer]

Finally moving forward again...work keeps getting in the way of my project.

After making a bunch of measurements, and a few adjustments, I cut a card board template to test the fit of front floor of the boat.
Now that all looks good, I can cut the MDO with reasonable certainty it will fit.

 

[Rad Racer]

I gave the hull good buffing to remove years of oxide buildup before starting the floor installation and reassembly process.