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87 Playmate GT ended up being a rot box

GTStang

GTStang

Member
So I bought a beautiful(on the outside apparently) 87 Playmate GT about a year ago. Everything seemed fine until I went to put it way for the fall and felt a real soft spot in the floor. Well just a little digging and the pedestal for the seat, and floor moving forward is completely rotted out and maybe more. So as I dig into I'm trying to figure out what is original checkmate, what is maybe shitty fix someone before me did etc..,

So the floor is just plywood and where it meets the hull has like an inch wide white substance that when I cut is very powdery, it is some type of filler. Also the plywood floor was only tabbed to the hull and the fiberglass did not completely cover the floor. Anyone know if this was how Checkmate did it from the factory?

Finally as I have started to yank up the rotted floor I'm noticing the hull is very thin and flexy in the center. I'm wonder if there was wood glassed in along the keel for structure? If so mine is all rotted and gone but I see some remnants that suggested maybe there was but not sure.

Any information or help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Sounds factory to me.. They used filler putty do blend the floor to hull, then tabbed in. Ive ran into several spots on floors that looked to have never had full glass over.. What your feeling flex on the hull is probably rotten balsa core.. Most also had a single strip of wood running down the keel to support the floor.. The same filler putty was used everywhere, floors, stringers, transom. etc..
 
Dug some more and there was def a stringer along the keel at one point that is not longer there.

Here is a pic of the strip of filler where the hull and wood floor meet:
image11.jpeg

This is the chunk of the filler/white stuff:
image3.jpeg

How far into the disaster I've dug:
image0 (3).jpeg
 
yep looks all factory.. actually if you have to redo it all, the more rotten the better, comes out easier lol.. You can take a hammer and tap on the hull, if it sounds hollow and moves it most definitely needs core..
 
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