Trojan Boat Forum

Hey Guys
We have some soft spots on the roof of our cabin. (1973 Flybridge Express) Has anyone dealt with this? I was thinking we could remove the canvas/paper/old fiber glass, I am not real sure what the material is that is on there. Anyways thought we could expose the studs and put something more solid down. Have threw around a few ideas but wanted to get some advice before I started any crazy projects. Thanks

That looks like the original vinyl over plywood. We did this job on the cockpit roof of my father's old '69 back in the 80's. If it is vinyl like ours was:

• Remove railings and the aluminum trim (if you have it). Be careful - the trim bends very easy, but is most likely to snap when you try to straighten it out again. Don't let it bend. You may have to remove headliner to get to nuts on the railing bolts.

• Remove staples holding the vinyl down.

• CAREFULLY pry the vinyl off from where it was stapled - it will probably be very brittle, and likely to crack on you. If you bugger it, you are getting new vinyl, or ripping it all off and doing a fibreglass / epoxy / paint job after the wood repairs are done.

• Once the plywood under the vinyl is exposed, you can cut out bad sections and/or remove screws and pull it up.

• You may have challenges with thickness of new wood - today's 1/2" or 3/4" ain't what it used to be... so you may be doing some sanding and shaping, or fairing of edges to smooth things out.

• CAREFULLY work the vinyl back over the new wood. Heat helps a bit. (If you bugger it, I would probably rip the whole thing off, replace all ply with new wood, epoxy it to seal really well, and paint. )

• Re-staple

• Reinstall trim and railings.

Good luck!

It is already dry cracking in areas.....What do you think about replacing the plywood and rhino lining it?

If the vinyl is shot, I would fix up the wood and probably go with epoxy and paint. The texture of the rhino lining might be a bit aggressive (at least it is to me) that it would look so inconsistent with the rest of the boat.

Ya I think the Vinyls shot.....is a big deal to just replace all the wood? Does anyone have any photos of what this looks like when you remove the vinyl?

You basically have plywood over a frame, but there may be 2x2s or something around the edges that are more specifically contoured and shaped to give the right shapes for the sides and any overhangs.

Replacing the ply shouldn't be complex (as long as you don't bugger, strip, or snap the screws holding it down...), but any trim pieces that may need to be replaced may need some custom shaping.

Sorry - no pics. Did that job toooo long ago.

Where is the trip you talk about? Around the windows?

Jfreeman1412 wrote:Where is the trip you talk about? Around the windows?

Sorry... realize I may have confused things a bit. A few posts back when I mentioned trim, I was talking about the aluminum 'drip strip' like you probably have around your cockpit roof edge.

In the last post, I was really referring to the edges of the cabin roof area, under the vinyl. To 'splain a bit better ... on our '69 there was an overhang over the side windows (like on your cockpit roof)...

You might be able to make it out a bit in this shot


This overhang was curved, and was made out of a specially shaped piece of wood. Looking at your pics I guess it's not obvious that you have an overhang over the cabin windows, so maybe you don't have the same contours to deal with.

But just the same, there will be some kind of joint and carpentry involved in how the top and sides come together (above the windows, as well as in front of them, plus the forward edge) that you may need to craft something new to keep the same shapes.

going to use this on my decks, replace the rott 1st http://www.nonslipcoating.com/

did you use the duralina stuff? im thinking of it myself

kevin
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