you may be past this point, although looking at jarrod and your pics, seems like the floor might need more support underneath? (so no one asks why it is a little ..."soft"?)
I am not absolutely certain but given the marks on the inside of the hull it looks like the factory only used two stringers underneath the floor panels. I have looked hi and low for photos that might give some clues....there is not much on the old interwebs.
I walked on the floor boards during the test fitting phase and they seem solid and not flexy. The MDO ply is pretty tough that will probably help with the rigidity. I may add another set of stringers before riveting the floor in place....I will see when I get to that point of the project.
After a little Nautolex installation practice on some scrap material I moved forward and applied Nautolex on the floor panels. For a rookie I think they turned out pretty good.
I installed both rear floor panels with rivets. The floor laid in real nice....the floor curved up the edges just like the original.
With only 2 stringers I was concerned the floor might be springy (soft) but that is not an issue at all. The floor is very rigid....I am super pleased with the results.
I put a seat in the boat just to see how it looks. Due to the narrow hull looks like I will need to design custom seat bases to get them to fit correctly.
I really like the Teal color....it feels old school. We purchase the same Teal vinyl from the seat manufacture for the side panels and seat bases. My paint guy said he can get a mix to match the vinyl
Ok, these Maracaibo's are like potato chips.....you cant just have one. It was a good price so I bought another one. They are really cool little boats....I couldn't pass on the deal.
My plan is to restore it since I have the Cad files needed to replace all the wood parts.
My 2nd Maracaibo had the original floor and seat bases so I was finally able to see how the factory assembled these boats.
Turns out the original floors are only 1/4" thick....kind of lame. I like my floors much better they are a 1/2" and solid as a rock. You can see the seat base were attached directly to the hull via (4) angle brackets. Here again my seats will be mount to the 1/2" floor a more modern approach.
Here are a couple of photos of the original floor and seat bases.....perhaps others trying to restore a Maracaibo will find them photos useful.
One step closer to the finish line, I completed the seat bases and custom dash.
I test fit the dash and found it only needs a few tweaks....the overall fit is excellent. The pocketed part of the dash will have an okoume inlay the rest of the dash will be painted. I was going to use a SS plate but thought the aluminum cowl coupled with a SS plate will shield my GPS speedometer.
The gauges and audio system give it a modern feel. I am going for 2022 on the inside and 1964 on the outside.
One step closer to the finish line, I completed the seat bases and custom dash.
I test fit the dash and found it only needs a few tweaks....the overall fit is excellent. The pocketed part of the dash will have an okoume inlay the rest of the dash will be painted. I was going to use a SS plate but thought the aluminum cowl coupled with a SS plate will shield my GPS speedometer.
The gauges and audio system give it a modern feel. I am going for 2022 on the inside and 1964 on the outside.
I removed the old cable steering system and replaced it with a SeaStar NFB system. For nostalgia sake, I retained the original steering wheel and center hub.
The dash will be painted white, the inserts will be Teal to match the seats and boat paint.
