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1988 Enticer restoration. Advice welcomed.

L

Lawson'sLanding

Member
I have known for a couple years that she needed at least a new floor but didn't have a place to do the work. I finally sold a bunch of junk on Craigslist and made a home for her in the garage. That was last week and these pics are what I have accomplished this weekend. I have an idea how to go about this after reading lots of restoration threads on this sight but still have more questions than answers. I want to finish cleaning the hull and getting an idea of what I have so far. I want to build a new stringer and supports on each side an fully encapsulate all wood in fiberglass and bond and glass them to the hull. I plan to glass the floor on both sides then glass it to the hull.
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By fofittyfoss at 2012-02-19
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By fofittyfoss at 2012-02-19
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By fofittyfoss at 2012-02-19
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By fofittyfoss at 2012-02-19
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By fofittyfoss at 2012-02-19
 
The previous owner had replaced the floor once before but left the factory floor near the transom and under the gas tank. The factory foam was under the tank and prevented water from draining out the back. The replacement floor was not properly glassed and the stringer and supports were not glassed or coated at all. the boat was holding water under the floor. The good thing is the floor was shot and came up easily in two pieces. The bad is the last two feet of factory floor was pretty solin\d as well as the boxes with the flotation foam and they were a pain in the ass to get out. I am very impressed with the core and factory glass work in this boat. The core appears to be perfect except for a couple small spots where the previous ownner cut through the glass when cutting out the old floor.

My first questions are:

1) Should I use plywood for the stringer and floor supports or 1X boards?

2) Pine plywood for the floor or hardwood plywood?

3) What type or weight fiberglass for different steps?

4) Links or suggestions for affordable supplies online or maybe local (Myrtle Beach resident)

More to come, any advice appreciated.
Thanks, Scott
 
Lawson'sLanding said:
The previous owner had replaced the floor once before but left the factory floor near the transom and under the gas tank. The factory foam was under the tank and prevented water from draining out the back. The replacement floor was not properly glassed and the stringer and supports were not glassed or coated at all. the boat was holding water under the floor. The good thing is the floor was shot and came up easily in two pieces. The bad is the last two feet of factory floor was pretty solin\d as well as the boxes with the flotation foam and they were a pain in the ass to get out. I am very impressed with the core and factory glass work in this boat. The core appears to be perfect except for a couple small spots where the previous ownner cut through the glass when cutting out the old floor.

My first questions are:


1) Should I use plywood for the stringer and floor supports or 1X boards?
1/2" ply for the floor, 3/4" ply for the stringer

2) Pine plywood for the floor or hardwood plywood?
Pine will be fine from Lowes or HD.

3) What type or weight fiberglass for different steps?

1708 for the floor and stringers, either polyester resin or Epoxy resin. http://www.mertons.com/Reinforcements/double_stitch.html
http://www.mertons.com/Epoxy/polyester_Resins/index.html
4) Links or suggestions for affordable supplies online or maybe local (Myrtle Beach resident)

www.mertons.com talk to Joe he's great to work with and talk to
Click to expand...
 
Good to see you working on the old girl. What are you going to do about the interior and seats? Looking foreward to seeing it on the waterway in the spring.
Ned
 
Thank's for the reply CMPulse. Going to give Joe a call today. Mateman, as far as the interior goes, I am going to cut some new wood myself and take everything to someone local to recover. There is a guy in Conway that some friends have used. Do you have anyone you recommend?
 
Good luck!

I would get some temporary support under the "dash/front windshield" before you accidently lean on it and end up with a big problem. ;)

HD
 
There is a guy on 544 that does boat upholstry but I havent seen his finished products. Good luck, looking forward to seeing the updated.
 
Hey guy , first off if you plan on using 1708 for your fabric of choice i would not recomend using it with Epoxy considering 17 oz bi ax would be a far better fabric for use with Epoxy systems or anything that does not have a chop or continious strand mat / binder, and as far as getting materials www.uscomposites.com offers great priceing also , and if you can .............try to go with a good marine ply and may i suggest getting a Tyvek suit for starters .
 
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Thanks for the replies. I ordered 8 yards of the fiberglass on Monday from the guy in the first link posted. I ordered 2 gallons of resin but didn't specify what kind and wasn't asked. It was about $26 a gallon if that tells you what kind it is. Here are some more pics of my progress. The first pic is of a tool for my sawzall that has been alot of help. I would recommend this tool to anyone tearing up fiberglass. I noticed what looked like Bondo where the factory floor joined the hull. Is it ok to use Bondo here or is that stuff something different? Should I use the Bondo with glass in it? I am going to run the stringer up the middle but was wondering about floor supports perpindicular to the stringer. I am pretty sure I need them but how many? How far apart? The stringer is going to be about 12' long. I am going to use 3/4" plywood for the stringer and I assume the floor supports. Is this what I should use for the transom knees or should I use something thicker? I have some better pics but I am having trouble with Imageshack right now. Thanks again for the advice.
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Notice the two lines of filler in the bow of the boat like it had a floor in a different spot at one time than the one I just ripped out. What do yall think that is from?
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Joe sent you polyester resin. You can use hull and deck putty or cabosil to embed the stringers and fill in around the perimeter of the floor. The bondo you see is probably left ever when the boat was built. I should have told you about the putty before you ordered from Joe.
 
Hey guy the so called body filler That you mentioned is D B F and to tell you the truth i would recomend using a filler made with Cabosil & resin to fill all voids which actually is a- lot easier to work with , and surely you must know what type of resin you are using at this point . Epoxy / Vinyl / Poly ?
 
Hey Lawsons Landing, I'm not sure which restoration threads you've seen, but my friend Keith and I are restoring a 78 Predictor, it's a very similar resto. We're a bit ahead of you in the process so you may want to check us out if you havn't already, hopefully you will find some usefull info. Good Luck!
here's the link: http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22355

Here's a couple more similar Resto's: http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8438&highlight=stringer

http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289&highlight=stringer
 
The extra line of filler towards he bow is an "upper" floor in front of the front bench. I think this is higher to give a little more foot space for your front passengers. When I did my resto on my Enticer I stopped my main floor just in front of the back support for the bench and started the very front floor that is higer, just behind the front support for the bench. So, when you take the bench seat off, all you see is hull, there is no floor there. I'd also check the transom on this boat too, mine is an '86 and it was rotten.

For support for the floor, I put in supports that are perpendicular to the stringer and are tied into the stringer. I think I half-lapped them, so there is a notch in the stringer where the supports run through. I used 1/2" plywood for the floor and it is plenty strong.
 
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