Deep V Fiberglass hull: Replace plywood floor with aluminum

Aluminum is and has been successfully bonded with a number of adhesives over the years, so blanket statements about how it doesn't work, just flies in the face of reality across several industries.

This isn't real issue here, structure sufficient enough to replace what the plywood and substructure imparted is. A single plate, even a relativity thick one isn't going to work, but if sufficient supporting structure is employed, then yes, it will, though likely at the same weight as plywood and several times the cost.

 

Like is being said if you want to use special glues yes you can stick anything to anything but who wants to use a range of different products to do a simple job that just one product does it all !! and savers a heap of hassles !

 

Agreed Tunnels, there's a few ways to approach this and keeping things simple and affordable just seems the most logical.

 

Its not a silly idea ,just a little complicated and need to be we thought out !!

Id be all for fastening down a sheet of the aluminium with flush screws or twist out fasteners attached onto a wooden /glassed to the hull frame work to support all the edges every where and it would be really practical and extremely very hard wearing that's for sure . and in the case of doing repair work or major cleaning for any part under the floor it could be unscrewed and removed and give almost total access , but as for gluing in permanently to many different products involved !!

 

You would need more local reinforcement and a more substantial wooden support structure, for aluminum plate than plywood, so I can't see how this would be better, from a weight and cost point of view.

 

Checker plate for a floor would be practical and have done that on the tops of centre mounted fuel tanks where space is at a premium height wise just to get that little extra amount of fuel . with fillers , vents , pick ups and gauges mounted in the ends of the tanks .

Made glass tanks with a 50mm wide flange all round the top and glued the aluminium top onto the glass tank was not very wide so didn't have any baffles in the tank just used exsplosafe inside to stop the sloshing of the fuel
http://www.protextech.com/files/Explosafe Sales Sheet 4.pdf
PLus it has a safety feature as well in the case of fire on board your tank wont explode and blow up !!. .

 

Hi Tkcamsoil,

I arrived at the same question regarding a boat I recently bought. I haven't looked inside it yet but I have seen some rebuild threads with badly rotten wood stringers that led me to wonder if aluminum box frame construction might be better.

Did you pursue it any further of did you end up going with wood after all. PM me if you want to discuss offline.

Regards