kevind
Well-Known Member
Hi Guys,
So starting the year off with a project. Probably not the best time of the year to start it but hope to have it finished by the end of the month. It all started with putting some uhmw strips on top of the carpeted bunks. I noticed a couple of corrosion spots so decided to pull up the wood deck and take a look.
The foam was soaked in water so decided to bite the bullet and pull up the whole thing and remove all the foam that i could.
I cant remove the foam inside the 2 box beams without cutting them open and welding them back so i have left that part alone. Hopefully with out the other foam holding in the water it will have a chance to dry out. With the foam out i started to sand , sand blast and i used a vinyl wheel to get out all the corrosion i could. The hull wasnt bad at all but the deck supports had some pitting from the screws and where the soaked wood was in contact with the aluminum.
I haven't fully finished the sanding yet i'm about 75% there but looking much better now. I will be treating the corrosion with a nice acid etching (aluma bright) if anyone is interested they have it at Lordco but its called lordco liquid blue. After the acid etching i was recommended to coat it with Pettit Alumaprotect epoxy as its a corrosion fighter but am a little leery as most of the corrosion was under the factory paint and hard to see until i sanded it so if anyone has used the stuff i'd love some more info on it. after that id like to epoxy seal the deck and put new marine vinyl floor and put a spacer between the deck and the aluminum. What have people used with the best results in sealing the plywood deck? Anyone put spacers between their deck and aluminum? I was thinking carpet runners or 1" wide strips of aluminum plate 1/8"thick attached to the aluminum with some type of marine sealer that is aluminum friendly. Any ideas would be great also.
I'll post up some more pics of the progress as i finish it but will be away for a week so wont be much progress till the middle of april.
So starting the year off with a project. Probably not the best time of the year to start it but hope to have it finished by the end of the month. It all started with putting some uhmw strips on top of the carpeted bunks. I noticed a couple of corrosion spots so decided to pull up the wood deck and take a look.
The foam was soaked in water so decided to bite the bullet and pull up the whole thing and remove all the foam that i could.
I cant remove the foam inside the 2 box beams without cutting them open and welding them back so i have left that part alone. Hopefully with out the other foam holding in the water it will have a chance to dry out. With the foam out i started to sand , sand blast and i used a vinyl wheel to get out all the corrosion i could. The hull wasnt bad at all but the deck supports had some pitting from the screws and where the soaked wood was in contact with the aluminum.
I haven't fully finished the sanding yet i'm about 75% there but looking much better now. I will be treating the corrosion with a nice acid etching (aluma bright) if anyone is interested they have it at Lordco but its called lordco liquid blue. After the acid etching i was recommended to coat it with Pettit Alumaprotect epoxy as its a corrosion fighter but am a little leery as most of the corrosion was under the factory paint and hard to see until i sanded it so if anyone has used the stuff i'd love some more info on it. after that id like to epoxy seal the deck and put new marine vinyl floor and put a spacer between the deck and the aluminum. What have people used with the best results in sealing the plywood deck? Anyone put spacers between their deck and aluminum? I was thinking carpet runners or 1" wide strips of aluminum plate 1/8"thick attached to the aluminum with some type of marine sealer that is aluminum friendly. Any ideas would be great also.
I'll post up some more pics of the progress as i finish it but will be away for a week so wont be much progress till the middle of april.
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. I ended up caulking all the joints between each vinyl board and from the deck to the aluminum hull. I also used tef gel on all the screws. It should keep the water from getting back under the floor and into the wood deck i hope.
