Question about flooring

Hello everyone, I am in need of some help. I want to buy a boat. I see where I can get a rinker with a 150 hp johnson with two trailers for 500$ this is an old boat and it needs some flooring work. Well, the owner told me that it needs to be completely re-floored. The boat is a 19' and looks kind of old, didn't tell me what year it was, but it is a bow rider as well. I wanted to know how hard it would be to conver this to a center console, I am pretty good with tools and also mechanics have worked on cars and worked with fibre glass before. I was also wondering what kind of moeny it would cost to jsut do the floors if the conversion is too hard. I will include a picture of the boat so maybe someone could give me a year also or possibly a model. Thanks a lot

 

that boat will need everything rebuilt
new stringer,s transum and floor
anything 20 years or so old made with a wood core is just about rotten
or not far from it

 

Howdy,

Sounds like you are well prepared to begin a nice project. Labor is expensive in the US, and I don't see the utility of converting a 19' er into a CC. You will save a lot of aggravation if you keep the helm where it is, and replace the floor as is. When you make it nice - and you will still learn a whole bundle in the process - you can trade it in for a CC that needs a new floor! I've been there.

Mike

 

I suggest you pull the floor and look at what needs to be done. Projects like these can be very rewarding. just take it one step at a time. Let me know whats under the floor, and I can help you from there.

 

Pull the floors...

Hey Boatless:
Did you buy the boat ?
If you did, I'd have to agree with Scott about the floors and stringers being replaced. These old fiberglass boats... they would take sometimes any kind of wood to make the stringers and just wrap it (encapsilate) with fiberglass and assume that water will never get in... but it always does.

The wood cores of the stringers are more than likely rotted... powder. To not replace these and re-cover the floor would just give you a boat with a pretty new floor and no structural stability. Ya, the boat probably sails across the water just fine... this time... maybe next time too... but, it's only a matter of time untill the right circumstanses cause the hull to fail. Then everyone gets wet... or worse.

Take a good look at the hull about mid-way down the length of the boat. Can ANY cracks in the glass be seen ? I mean any... even extremely tiny. These cracks would more than likely be vertical. If so, these are stress cracks and definitly indicate that the stringers and keel (if it has one) are gone.

There are many threads here regarding older fiberglass boats and the replacement of stringers. Jimslade focus' a lot in this area too.

As for the year and model of the boat, didn't you say it is a Rinker ? Doesn't it say "Regal" on the side of the boat... wouldn't this be the model ?

You can access this site...
http://www.uscgboating.org/recalls/mic_database.htm

If you type (in the MIC field) the first three letters of your boats HIN it will bring up the boat manufactures info.
Don't know how to ID the year but the manufacturer can.