removing floor and replacing, Any tips? 86 supra

[dshaff24]

Just looking to see if you guys have any tips or tricks you learned on replacing the floor in your older supra's, I have 2 soft spots and I have the interior removed so my next step is to rip up the floor!

One of my concerns is it seems the wood goes under the top half of the hull and another is Did they fiberglass on top of the ply wood? Its 5/8 thick I believe

[mapleleaf]

I'm pretty sure Salty's advice was to leave a lip around the hull so you have an idea of where the new floor should end up.... I guess that would imply you were replacing your stringer's...
Dshaff are you painting your boat????THis is something I'd like to do only I want to make sure it sticks!!~Any thoughts would be great.....

[Okie Boarder]

The PO of my boat replaced the floor without pulling the top cap. He had to cut it loose along the edges to be able to pull it up, leaving a lot that wasn't replaced. I would suggest replacing as much as you can. Cut as far as you can and peel it up. While you're at it, I'd recommend removing a core sample of foam near the main and secondary stringers to look for rot issues. You could even drill into you stringers to see how solid the wood is. If you have soft spots, you have some rot. Since you're going to open up the floor, you should make sure you aren't close to needing a full stringer job.

The PO didn't do a real good job, in my mind, sealing things back up when he did just the floor, so that is something I would pay close attention to. Leave enough of the old floor around the edges to tie back into. Make sure you use marine grade plywood and I'd suggest coating it and glassing it when you put it back so it seals good and waterproofs around the whole surface, especially the edges.

The floor goes up under the dash and playpen seating and yes they did glass over it. Take some pictures as you pull it up and look at things real carefully. You don't want to go to all the trouble to do this right and have to redo it because of stringer and sub-structure rot a year or two from now. You might kick yourself over that.

[AKSupra]

You will save a great deal of $$ by tearing the deck off and foam out.
If you plan to have someone put new stringers in for you (recommended), don't tear out the stringers. Let the repair shop tear those out, put new foam in and new deck on.

Be sure they wrap top and bottom of new deck in matt/resin.

[dshaff24]

I'm pretty sure Salty's advice was to leave a lip around the hull so you have an idea of where the new floor should end up.... I guess that would imply you were replacing your stringer's...
Dshaff are you painting your boat????THis is something I'd like to do only I want to make sure it sticks!!~Any thoughts would be great.....


Well I would leave a lip but the one soft spot in the front is along the lip so ill have no choice but to tear what I can out! As far as stringers go I Tested my motormount bolts and one out of 3 are loose, and it trys to catch something but it doesnt get tight! I watched the motor under throttle with the dog box of and the motor doesn't budge! And just wondering are these bolts just a self tapping bolt? We use to have a jet boat with a 454 and some times under throttle it would click click click, Turned out the motor was lifting because the stringers rotted and the universal joint was causing the noise, Anyway we fabed a stainless stringer cover and bolted it and it lasted till we sold it, I wish I knew if its still working!

Thanks everyone for some input, This boat actaully is going o turn into a big project!

oh and maple we painted a few boats with base coat/ clear coat and have had nothing but good luck with It! In fact to my surprise the last boat show I went to there was 2 different company's there that paint boats for a living and they told me the same thing! All thought I been researching online to see if there is a special paint, I like the paint on the 2005 launch, White top, blue middle and black lower stripe with grey oem stickers so we shall see how it turns out!

[Salty87]

fixing a spot right along the gunnel wall won't be fun or easy....none of it really is though, lol. there's a couple of inches of floor between the wall and the hull. the floor adds stiffness to the hull so you really want the repair to reach all the way to the hull, will also help keep your foam dry by getting a good seal. pulling the topcap is no walk in the park though, depending on your interior trim...you might be able to cut a section of the gunnel wall out and glass it back in, let the interior trim hide it if you can. otherwise, your repair might not hold up if you don't get a good bond between the old glass and new work. a proper fiberglass job requires that you overlap the new glass on top of the old glass for a good 6". if you cut right to the edge and don't have overlap room, the resin won't get a good bond.

time to have fun with the circular saw. set it to 3/4" and cross your fingers that you get lucky. it's all speculation until you open it up and take a look.



I'm pretty sure Salty's advice was to leave a lip around the hull so you have an idea of where the new floor should end up

leaving a lip helps keep a reference of the old floor level, you can rig string lines in the lip too to set your stringer height. if you miss that level by much, the top cap won't fit the same. my new floor ended up about 1/4" higher, i had to grind that off the bottom of the interior walls before it all would go back together right. so, leave the lip at first but you'll end up grinding it off before you're done.