Getting ready to redo my floor?

[Chaparral Newbie]

I purchased a 1985 19' Chaparral with a 175 hp motor for 350.00. But it needs a new floor and maybe a transom on it. So does anyone know of a good way to remove the old floor? "I've never done this before" I will have a friend helping me but I ready to get it going. Oh the motor runs great already had it checked out and a new water pump installed "the mechanic said the motor is in perfect shape and he said for about 1000 dollars the boat would too. So thats why we are going to just redo the floor could not find another boat to transplant the motor too. So if anyones done this before please give me some tips "I hate fiberglass".

[RD]

First things first,it's a deck and this will be a chore like you have never had to do,I would drill a hole and get the thickness and set my skill saw to where it will just cut through and cut it into sections,the bigger the better so it will hopefully come up in big chunks

[KarstRanger]

When it comes to drilling and cutting fiberglass, be sure to get a decent respirator mask -- it will be $25 well-spent:




I took on the simple task of cutting out a flush mount for some instrumentation, and man, that fiberglass dust gets into Everything. I ended up sucking it up with a shop vac hose next to my jigsaw and router as I cut - much better.

The words you said about possibly needing a transom is a little scary. I take it this is an outboard hanging on a transom that might break away? I wouldn't know where to begin on replacing one, but I have seen threads about it in this forum last year or so.

Let us know how it goes.

=

[wevans]

The very first thing I would do is check around and see how much it would cost to have someone with experiance do the job If you work on your car and it breaks down, ya just pull to the side of the road if you work on your boat and it starts leaking, you usually sink My nephew priced out everything he would have to buy to do his, then got a couple prices from some folks and got it done by a pro for about $300 more than if he had done the job It was done correctly and was one less worry with an older boat

[Sir reel]

Boy... I'll tell ya what.... that wevans is sure a lot smart'r than he looks (don't matter if his wife takes the picture or not) He just gave out some advice that's worth pay'n tention to

[arcadiainc]

Ahhh Not quite the problem as you may think. If you have available a dry tile saw, one that looks like a very small circular saw, use it. Take out any and every thing you can from inside the boat. Set the blade angle about 35 to 45 degrees. You want the bottom edge of the saw to point to the center of the boat. Another way of putting it is to have the beveled edge of the remaining flooring slanted inward. This way when you put in the new flooring the beveled edge will support temporarily the new flooring you set in place. This makes for a much smoother floor once fiber glassed. If you have stringers that need replacing look into laminated beams that can be cut to fit. Use epoxy resin, not polyester resin. For a new transom look into seacast. Just punch in the words seacast and transom and you should get a hit. Good luck!