1984 Chaparral 198F

[Chaparral Newbie]

I have recently purchased a 84 Chaparral 198F, I seen a article on this forum with a guy redoing the floor in the exact spot as the one I have to do. I could not find his article again and would like to talk to him about how much it had cost him to redo his floor? Oh I paid 350.00 dollars for the boat and trailer with a 175 mercury and lots of extra parts for the motor it runs perfectly just the floor has some soft spots in it and needs to be fix.

[T Smith]

Newbie,

Welcome to the forum. Hopefully that will sound familiar and someone will chime in. But if not fixing a boat floor is pretty much the same regardless of the boat type and location of the soft spot. If you have any specific questions we could probably get you started.

[RodBow]

Kinda looks familiar...
http://www.bigbendfishing.net/phpbb/vie ... light=soft

[Chaparral Newbie]

Well I found the guy who did the post. But as a matter of fact I do have a couple of general questions. For one how expensive is marine plywood and is that the only way to go? The beams in the floor are ok still just the deck is going bad. And how would you all recommend fixing the problem so it does not happen again?

[RodBow]

sell it to me - I'll give you what you have in it.

[Chaparral Newbie]

Well I'm not going to sell it "sorry" and if I did I could sell just the motor for 1000 easy. I'm the youngest boy of 3 in the family and I finally got a boat and it the fastest and biggest as of now so I got to bloat alittle.

[AJ]

RodBow, that's just what you need, another boat. You don't take the ones you have out enough You just want that 175 for your skiff don't you

[RodBow]

AJ, I thought I'd trade it for a newer trailer (with newer tires)

[T Smith]

Marine plywood would be the ideal way to go if you plan on redoing the entire floor and keeping the boat for a long time. I had a hard time finding it locally you can order it from various places if you google around. If you just have a local soft spot and only want to patch that you could get by with regular plywood if you make sure you encapsulate it with resin and fiberglass real good. Epoxy resin is superior to polyester resin but costs quite a bit more. There are also various structural foams that you can use as a core in place of the wood but they are also pricey. The advantage is they will never rot and weigh less.

So I guess it all just depends on how much you want to spend and how long you plan on having the boat. I see you got the whole package for $350 and you could easily spend more than that putting a new floor in with just materials. A gallon of epoxy resin and hardner will run you about $50.

[Chaparral Newbie]

Thanks I have planned on putting some money into it the rest of the boat and motor are in great shape so I'll try to keep the range of money at about $1000 dollars and that way I'll about $1400 hundred in it it has all the electronics in it too already I'm going to buy a GPS and take out the loran the radio works great along with the depth/fish finder. I had the motor serviced this week and the mechanic said it worth 5 times what I paid for it. The motor come to find out is a 1995 and is in tip top running condition. I have found a local marine plywood dealer but he said he has some stuff he called "Marine tech" he said it is better than marine plywood and is a little cheaper so I'm going to check it out Monday. I had my brother service the the wheel bearings and put 4 new trailer tires on it too so thats all in good shape. I'll post some pictures as soon as the wife downloads them from the camera.

[BAD BEHAVIOR]

Welcome to the forum Newbie. You'll find that tese guys on the forum are some of the kindest people you'll ever meet, hey but what else would you expect from true sportsmen??? As for saving the money with the marine grade plywood, buy pressure treated and coat it with coppertox. Its a green impermeable substance ( when it dries). It goes on a little thinner than poly but last and actually penetrates the wood. Coppertox comes in a silver can and a pint will do one sheet (4x8) both sides. I would suggest going with 5/8 to keep the weight down, though you have enough motor, that shouldnt be an issue. Also, check with your local boat repair guy, Ive often found they can do a professional job for little more than what I would have paid for the materials alone. Also some of them will let you pay as you go,ie. fix one spot at a time. Good luck!!

[Chaparral Newbie]

I'll just look into that today thanks. Both my brothers took their boats out today to fish so I'm itching to get mine going. I check out the other option on the repair today.

[RD]

The only problem with PT plywood is fiberglass doen't stick to it very well,use plain ole AC plywood,thin your resin down with acetone so it will penatrate the wood,2 coats both sides,and then scuff the top side if you are going to glass it

[Chaparral Newbie]

Well my good buddy "the QC for Century boat" came by and looked my boat and we figured it will cost around 1000 to 1200 to fix it. The transom is rotten he says looks like someone tried to do a WEWA fix it up job. He said the motor is worth what I paid but he told me to look and see if I can find a hull to put my motor on it so I'm going to give it a few weeks and see if we find anything. My wife really like this one or at least the configuration. Oh and my older brother informed me that he gonna give me his 16 foot center console boat minus the motor and electronics and the center console. But my wifes hates it because it is to shallow.

[chaparralman]

Is the boat an inboard or an outboard? I just got an 86 198f out board. is there any tips you could give me on restoring that boat? thanks