Does anyone know a site that has information on replacing a floor in a bass boat. I know this is not real homestead related but we will be freezing the fish that we catch out of the bass boat,that is if we can get a new floor put in it. Thanks

-- sherry in Arkansas (chickadee259@yahoo.com), March 23, 2002

Answers

as long as your talking about the flooring,, not the hull,, plywood

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), March 23, 2002.

Mines just plywood, bolted down and glued with silicone. I can think positive and imagine it's marine grade stuff.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), March 23, 2002.

Use marine plywood or cca plywood. Then use a good grade of paint ontop of that. Any how that is how we did it in the Boat factory it used to work in. The guy that owned it was from Champion boats out of flipin ark.

-- dale (dgarr@fidnet.com), March 23, 2002.

Yup, plywood's the winner, hands down -- much preferably marine grade. Expensive but well worth it. I'd use nothing less than 3/4-inch. Anything less will be too flimsy to mount your chairs on. And don't be concerned with the weight, which will be negligible. Boats have incredible buoyancy.

If the ribs under the flooring are gone too, get a contour gauge from a home improvement center and use it to transfer the curvatures of the bottom to pressure-treated 2x4s or 2x6s, depending on how large the boat is, so you can cut them to fit snugly in the bottom of the boat. Then use brass or stainless steel screws to secure the plywood to the ribs. Wouldn't hurt to run a bead of 5200 or some other caulk between the plywood and ribs.

Saw or rout generous openings in the bottom of the center of each rib so water can flow along the bilge to the drain plug in the stern. If you want to get really creative, you can frame in some hinged hatch doors.

You can cover the whole thing with indoor/outdoor carpet and it'll look as good and probably be stronger than the original.

When I lived in Florida, I refurbished a vintage Ranger Cherokee (manufactured in your state) like this and it turned out great.

-- Hank in Oklahoma (hbaker@ipa.net), March 23, 2002.