I have a loose seam in my floor but have not been able to remove the interior side panels. I need to remove them in order to remove the carpet and get to the floor.I have removed the padded side panel and there mounting cleats. The bottom of the interior panels are being held tight in place something.
Try sending a PM to our member - bill.deweese. He rebuilt the wood floor and stringers in his 96 Shabah a while back so he might just have the information you're looking for. Click here to send him a PM.
Good luck and let us know how everything turns out,
WetWilly
The gas tank had to be replaced in my 94 Talari, which may or may not have the same floor arrangement, but I'll tell you what I found. There is a 1/4 inch piece of plywood measuring 33 3/4 in. by 25 in. screwed into the stringers on a 45% angle away from the tank. I can't recall the number of screws, but there were several. Over the 1/4 inch plywood in an identical size 3/4 inch piece of plywood that is fiberglassed onto the 1/4 inch piece. There is a small gap about an eighth to a quarter inch between the piece of wood and the other floor panels surrounding the piece. This is filled with a resin, shredded fiberglass mixture. I would guess that either the fiberglass used to bond the two pieces of wood together or perhaps the filler fiberglass in the gap has loosened and that is why it's squeaking.
I thought about taking all the carpet out, but ended up slitting the gap from the rear and rolling it forward. I will glue it down and put some metal or wooden strips over the gap to cover the cut. It will not be pristine, but we're spending some money on mechanics this year, so I'll consider a recarpet next year. I should have taken pictures because I thought some people may have wanted to see what it looked like, but unfortunately once I got going I didn't want to stop!!
Thanks Tom, That was the problem area. The 1/4" plywood had come loose from the stringer allowing the fill resin to break up. I am going to take pics and post how I made the repair when I am done.
Floor repair is finished. I completly gutted my interior to get the carpet up and out of the way. The lower side panels are attached with blind screws. I could see where the panels were pulled in by the screws had to cut the carpet away from the screw head in order to back the screw out. The problem that started this repair was the floor seams were giving way. When the floor decking started to move the glass around the fuel tank access panel broke up as well. The good news is there was no rot in my floor. The staples that were used to install the braces had just rusted away over the years. I was able to reposition and fasten all the bracing by screwing out from the fuel tank bay to the storage lockers on either side. I used a coated deck screw. I figured staples lasted 15yrs. The deck screws have a 10yr warranty for direct exposure. Being that they will be under the floor out of the weather they should last another 15yrs plus. I also found that the floor around the cooler was in bad shape due to sloppy install. You can see from the picture that there was no bracing, leaving a 3/4 inch gap. The cooler lining had also split in the corners. When I removed the cooler liner I found that it never had any support, it was just screwed to the bay walls. I repaired the liner with fiberglass, once it was painted it looked good as new. I installed supports for the liner to set on before I reinstalled it. I then reglassed the entire floor. Rock solid now.
Excellent writeup and the pictures are awesum too!
I would like to replace our carpet in the near future and the info about the side panels is what I needed to know, thanks! Will do a re-glass at the same time to insure the floor lasts many many more seasons!
Floor
