Rotted wood under sun deck
 

Last fall when I had my boat winterized and I had some stripped wood bolts on the hinges that secure the sundeck to the body.I asked the mechanic if he could look into this and when I picked the boat up he said the wood was rotted out.I had an idea of using heliocoils and switching from wood screws to stainless steel bolts.Think it's worth it or should I try something else? Thanx

I would give some CA glue a try, with the original stainless screws. Use the gap filling or thick glue. Put a generous amount into each hole [one at a time] and quickly turn the screw in. A powered screwdriver would be best otherwise the glue could set up before you get the screw in all the way.

If you dont have a hobby shop near you, you can get the CA glue from the link below. I use it all the time in my other hobby. [RC Model Airplanes] Its real strong stuff!

https://www.balsastore.com/store/pro...hp?cat=28&pg=2

Hope that helps:)

If its too rotten you may have to replace the wood in the back deck. If you think you may be able to get another season just patch it up and make preparations to fix it next winter. I did mine this winter and it wasn't that big of a deal. All I did was remove the vinyl and padding first. I then used the old wood for a pattern. After the deck was built I coated the entire board in poly resin. After the resin was dry I stapled the upholstery back on. I did use SS T-nuts and bolts to bolt it onto the hinges.

If you decide to replace the whole deck and need better detailed instructions just let me know.

HTH

~J

Just wondering, How did the beautiful well kept boat shown in your photo get a rotted out sun deck? :confused:

Hi Paul F-Did'nt know what to make of it.Just before I took it out on its maiden voyage last summer as its new owner,I power washed it at our local car wash.Mine has a power deck lid so I raised it up to get all the water sopped up and the lid came off the hinges.Needless to say I was shocked and a little pissed,but hopefully the advice I got here will solve the problem----LJ

Thanks for the idea.I'll look into it when she comes out of storage in April--LJ

I had the EXACT same problem. It's a big job to replace the entire wood panel. Instead, I removed the deck from the boat, removed the fiberglass panel and the vinyl covering from around the area where the hinges mount. I drilled out the rusted threaded inserts to about 2x the diameter of the bolts. Then I had two pieces machined out of aluminum and "sandwiched" the deck between the hinges and the machined plate and put it back together. It's been 3 yrs and things are still very solid. :wink_thumbup:

See the attached rough dwg...

me too
 

i have the same problem let me know what you do and how it went

Don't let this go without repair, I had the same issue and left it alone for a summer. One day while I was pulling the boat back home without a cover on it after a day on the lake a gust of wind got under the lip of the rear cover and ripped the whole sun deck off the boat. I had to dodge a few tractor trailers on I-15 to save what was left of it.

Sun Deck Problems
 

I had the same problem with my boat two years ago. The vinyle was also shot, so I decided to rebuilt it from scratch - a nice winter job.

First I got a 4 x 8 sheet of marine plywood - maybe hard to find, only one store in Austin, Tx had it. Very heavy, cost me about $100. Then I took all the staples off the plateform, down to the wood. Made a copy and then used a router to make the two pieces exact. Then put on the front part, glued and screwed it together. Then I stained and varnished the entire assembly. I also put in new stainless steel t-nuts. They were about $4 each and needed about 16 of them. Note that one ones on the boat were steel (cheap), when I took it apart, most of it feel apart.

Then I took the old cover and wood plateform down to a vinyl top shop and they bought the vinyl and made and exact copy and put it back together again. ($500)

There was a special jib that I had to make to get the T-nuts into the right location so that it would fit the hinges. Basically, I got a 1" by 3" by 6 ft piece of aluminum and then lined it up with hinges on the boat. Then I lined the aluminum withe t-nuts on the wood deck. When reassembed, it all fit exactly.

So for about $800, it was better than new, better materials, very solid. Works great. What a lot of work. I wished Mariah has used first class materials. They used pressure treated lumber for the decks where they should have used marine plywood and then sealed it.
That is what I did.

By the way, I recovered, but not rebuilt the bench seat and the front seats also.