boat renovations

[gumper]

I am about to start replacing rear aft deck on my boat. The plywood underneath the teak has softened (rotted) The cost of teak around here is about $40 a board foot (ouch). I was talking to a person that does allot of boat restorations. He suggested using Fir instead of teak. I thought It was strange choice for a deck covering but He brought me to some very old Christ crafts built in the 40's and they had fir decks.They looked very nice. They seem to last a long time. Has any one here ever seen this before? Fir is about $4 a board foot. One tenth the cost of teak. While not as nice as teak It seems to be a good substitute. I also saw some cabin sole done with Fir that looked nice.

A couple of questions

1 If I wanted to stain wood before covering with a varnish should I use water based stain or oil based stain..


2 What material would you recommend for bedding the deck boards
I am interested in hearing from anyone who has used westsystem
with graphite or bedding the deck boards.

3 The current sound proofing looks like it might have asbestos in it. It is original. Does anyone know if it is asbestos ?

4 what material would you use for new sound proofing the bottom of the deck?

If anyone else has done this I would love to see some pics

[Big D]

Gumper, do a search on this forum re the material used for sound proofing under the floor. The conclusion was that asbestos was not used. You may have the same stuff as me, looks like a wood fiber material.

I know I have an article somewhere on laying teak in epoxy, it would probably give you an idea of what to do. I will look for it and scan.

[Big D]

Here ya go gumper. Had a hard copy but it was the pdf file off this site that I printed off. Save the Epoxyworks site, it's a good one from West System, packed with info.

http://www.epoxyworks.com/20/index20.html

[gumper]

Thanks Bid D, I never new West sytem had a E magazine. Sounds like our sound proofing is the same. Our boats are only a year apart. I think I am going to give the epoxy system for laying a deck a try.

I was looking through the different articles on epoxy works and found a article on a boat that was at the same marina as mine this summer. The decks on this boat are cedar but the fir wood I am going to use looks similar.
I talk to the owner of this boat . He built it himself. The wood work and fit and finish on this boat are amazing. The boat is electric as well.

here is a link
http://www.epoxyworks.com/index.html

[alexander38]

that's a good site to bookmark..

[gumper]

The rear deck rebuild is going slow. I replaced all the under structure and have the the ply fitted and screwed down. The wood strips have been milled and will be set in epoxy mixed with graphite by the end of the weekend. The fridge project turned out pretty good. The old cracked baby blue plastic is gone.


[I

[gumper]

sorry about the picture quality. I only used my phone.

[foofer b]

Man what a big job. The fridge looks like new

[gumper]

The fridge turned out better than I thought. still looking for a suitable door switch for the new lights I got for it. I started to lay down the new deck strips today. Going slower than I thought it would. I managed to fit the new holding tank today as well. It is hard to tell but the tank sits below the stringers and does not inter fear with anything.

[gumper]

Well it took a lot longer than thought but the rear deck is done. The boat went in the water today.

[pk]

Aahhh....! It looks wery nice!

[Allen Sr]

Deck looks fantastic! Nice job!

[prowlersfish]

WOW !

[Miss piGGy]

Nice job. I bet that took a few Coronas.

[k9th]

Great job Gumper! That looks better than new and you should be very proud of her. Nothing like the satisfaction of a job well done.