Thread:

Biesemeyer floor repair

I have a 1974 Biesemeyer (Mouzer's old boat) and there's some trouble spots on the floor which I knew about before the purchase. Well of course I can't ignore it and need to fix it. I'm a huge fan of doing sh*t myself but the catch is, I know nothing about fiberglass stuff except, I know you mix resin with hardner (or whatever you call it) and it becomes very hard. Add some matting on there before it dries and you have some pretty strong substance... Am I right on this? Throw this stuff on plywood and you can work miracles, am I still on track? Well that's all I know about the stuff which is not enough, I don't think it is anyways.

Okay, now that I have established that I'm completely ignorant on this, can someone please help me out here. I have about a 5' X 1 1/2' of the floor that has issues. About 1 1/2' of it is bare plywood that is completely bare and feels damp and 3 1/2' of it is covered with fiberglass however the fiberglass has seperated from the plywood and can easily be taken off. Mouzer, if your reading this, does this accuratly describe my situation? Feel free to add.

From what I have been told, I need to remove the bad fiberglass and wood and replace it. If this is right, what kind of wood do I use? What kind of resin and matting do I use? And what kind of prep do I do to the floor before I lay the new wood/fiberglass in. Am I even on the right track at all or am I completely lost?

Much help is needed and any bit would be appreciated.

Thanks Sangster, I removed all the loose glass and the wood that was underneath was completely rotten and brittle so I removed all the wood down to the solid glass floor. The wood was so bad that I was able to move most of it by hand, no tools needed for the most part. It appeared that this had been a problem before as it looks like someone has went through what I'm going through now with this boat in the same spot. The glass under all the rotten wood looks really good and solid. The stringers look good and seems to be glassed in well to the solid floor so I'm releaved about that.

This may sound like a stupid question but what use is the wood over the glass bottom? Is the wood needed? I ask this because the flooring in between the stringers looks like its just glass without wood over it, is this normal?

If the wood is needed then here's my stradegy, tell me if my thinking here is wrong. Lightly sand the bare glass floor. Lay resin with matting and sand the surface until it's perfectly flat. Repeat that process if needed. Lay more resin with matting and lay wood in there. Put some weight on the wood until the resin underneath is cured. Apply resin and matting to stringers and onto the wood. Sand and do it again.....Does this sound about right? Keep in mind I have never done this before so I am totally in the dark and am ready for massive critisism.

Got it, thanks man!

Chop Mat?

that what i was gonna do..the glass and wood from the passenger seat back to the transom is delamed..part of the glass was removed and there was bare plywood that was carpeted over and the boat was used that way all last summer from the guy i bought it from....shit..i still miss that boat and i did offer to buy it back 1 week later with a big NO from the new owner..

Sorry Mouzer, and it's still a big NO!!! But I will say that I have been working my arse off on this thing. Three days straight I've been tearing out carpet and wood and chipping out the glue that jeld down the carpet. The whole section that was delaminated had bad wood so that all got torn out. I will most likely pull the engine next weekend to deal with the mess under the engine which is nothing more than carpet glue.

Mouzer do you have any idea why the owner before you was not using the passenger side fuel cell? The fuel line is closed off with a bolt clamped on there. Also, what's the deal with the plumbing. There's 10,000 hoses going every which way with about 10 T's. I'm sure this could be simplified, I'm huge with keeping things simple.

Aside from the floor repair i'd like to get the rest of the floor ie the good parts clean. It was carpeted, which was retarded as I'm starting to see. When I pulled the carpet out of course there was dried glue but there's this green crap all over the floor that is extremely hard to get off. I'm wondering how to get this stuff off, any ideas from anyone. I've sanded, scraped tried paint remover. Scraping was the most successful but I have been scraping for three days straight now and have barely made any progress. Has anyone had experiance with this stuff and successfully got it off?

No matter how you attack it..It's alotta work..By the time you're finished, if not before, you will fully understand the costs & time it takes (keep track of your hours) to have this work done... Carry on.....

I was afraid you were going to say that, looks like steal wool, simple green and a whole lot of elbow grease!

The job is done, I found that course steel wool with simple green was the thing that worked best. It was still tough but it worked.

Hey buddy, i just rebuilt a runner bottom 2 years ago. It was a pain the the A$$ but worth it in the end. Take as many pictures as you can through the entire rebuild. Dont forget to post them on here every week! I see that your in Torrance. I live in westchester, which is pretty close to torrance. Let me know if you need a hand some time.

Andrew