Aft Deck Project

[dodgeem]

I've finished with the floor install on my 75 f-36...or at least I have the plywood down and subfloor rebuilt. I also need to rebuild the walls below the gunwales, has anyone done anything they really liked or that made it easy to maintain and looked really nice? It appears what I took out was 3/8 plywood with some sort of formica over it.

Thanks,
Brian

[Bob Giaier]

I re-did my floor last year as well as inner panels you are referring to. I remade my inner panels from 1/4" plywood. I used Hydratech construction grade mohagany faced plywood, so the surface was very smooth showing no grain lines. I West Systemed (epoxied) both sides and then applied Durabak white gloss (non skid of course) paint. I also painted the aft deck with the Durabak tan skid paint, boardered with the white gloss. It looked great for a while, but then it began to stain from rain and sun with just one summer. I would choose a better paint if you elect to do the same.

Also, I used poster foam board to make patterns of the inner panels, that I then traced on the plywood. Hope that helps.

[wowzer52]

My cockpit side panels are plywood covered with the same white material as the side panels on the flybridge. However, I took the rear panel out and painted the fiberglass with "NO-SKID", grey tinted to white that matches the cockpit deck. Two coats.

[jon_e_quest]

1/4" marine ply covered in Nautolex white vinyl for OEM look. WEST epoxied the bottom 1/3 of the ply before covering to increase life.

[prowlersfish]

I would cover it 100% with west

[alexander38]

Seal it all if you still can.

[wowzer52]

Here is my plywood deck. There is a slight contour across the back of the deck for water runoff to the corners and a small trough along the very back to the scuppers. There are wood 1"x1" strips attached to the floor for the side panels to attach to. I did not replace the back panel. Instead, I painted it with "No-Skid" to match the deck. I figured if I didn't like it I could always put the panel back up. The floor was primed and sealed and three coats of polyurethane then I taped off the edges to keep them smooth, again for runoff, then two coats of "No-Skid" tinted with eight tubes of white tint and two quarts of high quality white latex house paint (factory recommended) to two gallons of "No-Skid" mixed in a 5 gallon bucket. It took alot of tinting to turn the grey "No-Skid" to white, close anyway. I applied the "No-Skid" with a textured roller in two directions. After a week of drying I used stainless piano hinge and aluminum carpet trim for the hatch. Having one hatch is OK for access to the rudder shafts and pumps but I may still cut in another hatch for better access to the storage between the fuel tanks. It has been working well but this tinted white "No-Skid" really shows the dirt, as you can see. One of my buddies that has an F-32 said he likes my deck better than his fiberglass deck. The heavy "No-Skid" paint also helped some with the noise when cruising. Of course an area rug on the back deck is also nice for cruising.

[jon_e_quest]

As a follow-up to my earlier post, while epoxying the entire panel seems like good advise, the 30 year old panels I replaced had rotted only one inch along the bottom edge, the resullt of water being trapped by the vinyl where it wrapped around one inch behind the panel. Because I don't plan to own my 35 year old boat another 30 years from now, completely epoxying these relatively inexpensive panels seemed a bit extreme.

I also own a 1962 Chris Craft Cavalier, a boat built almost entirely out of plywood. Again, the only rot in the entire boat was where vinyl wrapped around the cockpit panels along their bottom edges and trapped water.

Plywood almost always rots along it's edge where water can more easily do it's bidding. You'll never see rot start in the middle of a panel unless you penetrate the surface and allow water to soak into the interior. But that holds true for any wood in the boat, epoxied or not, i.e. drilling/screwing into the deck core, stringers, bulkheads, and so forth.

...My two cents.

[prowlersfish]

Remeber the ply wood used when the boat was made was marine plywood and will hold up much better . so coating with epoxy is a must unless you want to do it again in a few years

[jon_e_quest]

One reminder on Exterior vs. Marine grade plywood. Both use the same waterproof glues and wood species as specified by the American Plywood Association, except the inner and outer plies of marine rated plywood are of a higher quality, and the inner plies are jointed where more than one piece is used. Also, the inner plies of Marine plywood are virtually void-free, important where the sheet will be bent into shape.

Of course, Marine ply should always be used where structural integreity is important such as in the hull and deck, but true exterior grade plywood is an acceptible alternative for non-structural marine applications for use in the cabin and for cockpit trim where there is no hard bending of the panel. Naturally, filling and sealing is highly recommended with all types of plywood for longevity (Trojan and others did not always do this).

Personally, I always use Marine plywood. The added cost is worth the peace of mind I get with using Marine ply.

[prowlersfish]

Not true the glue is all they have in common not wood species .most ply wood is pine , marine is not ,

[wowzer52]

The plywood coming out of Weyerhauser here where I live and work is Douglas fir.

[jon_e_quest]

Not true the glue is all they have in common not wood species .most ply wood is pine , marine is not ,

Should have noted that I was talking about Exterior-grade vs. Marine-grade Douglas Fir, used by Trojan for their cockpit trim panels. The trim panels in both my F-26 and F-36 are Pine ply and not Mahogany, Teak, etc.

According to the A.P.A., there are two types of Douglas Fir ply, Exterior-grade and Interior-grade. A further expasion of the Exterior-grade panel is Marine-grade plywood.

Sorry for the confusion.

[prowlersfish]

I forgot about the Junk they call marine plywood now.

[jon_e_quest]

Also, Trojan's so-called 'teak' decking comprised 1/4" solid teak strips laminated to 1/4" douglas fir plywood...