Boat remodeling question- removing seats, installing floor

[Mankato-Ice-Man]

I have an early 70's 16' Crestliner boat with bench seats. I would like to remove the bench seats and install a floor.

Wondering what affect this will have on the structural integrety of the boat?

Anything I should do or not do?

Any tips and advice is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeremy

[WCT]

There is a fellow, Jim Randolph Jr. in St. Peter who does that type of work as a sideline. He is a letter carrier now but previously worked at the Alumacraft plant. He redid my old Lund several years ago and it came out great and has held up very well. I'm sure his number is in the phone book. Good luck. Old Sneller

[Steve Bakken]

The main thing with removing support is that the additional flex will eventually cause leaky rivets. We do dozens of these each year at the shop and they work out just fine. The key is to get creative with replacing the support with somethin else. We often install rod lockers or livewells and attach them to the side. This keeps everything good and stiff.

Also do NOT use green treated plywood. The chemicals are corrosive and will literally eat away the aluminum where it contacts the wood. We always use BC grade plywood and just treat it with a resin to prevent the water from soaking into it. This will help it last indefinitely.

[hovermn]

Quote:

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Also do NOT use green treated plywood. The chemicals are corrosive and will literally eat away the aluminum where it contacts the wood. We always use BC grade plywood and just treat it with a resin to prevent the water from soaking into it. This will help it last indefinitely.

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Great info and topic. I was just thinking about doing this myself. I don't have a boat, but when the time comes, if it has benches, it's good to know that they can be replaced with a floor.

Any recommendations on how to attach the floor to the hull? bolts? Glue? Rivets/what kind?

Thanks!

[Mankato-Ice-Man]

Thanks for the info.

I was a little worried about what to do with the sides and a friend suggested the rod lockers and such as well.

I am also worried about floatation. Currently its all under the bench. Obviously I wouldnt want it under the floor.

One thought I had was to only remove the middle bench and put a floor in between the back bench and the front one and then a little bit of 2 tiered deck from the front bench forward with storage underneith to put my battery and anchor and such.

maybe I should just sell the thing and buy a boat that is set up the way I want. (hint-hint hovermn. ha ha)

[Steve Bakken]

What we do is use stainless machine screws and run them into the ribs along the bottom of the boat. As for floatation, you want to -at minimum- replace the foam that came out, cubic foot for foot. Usually this can be accomplished by injecting the expandable foam under the floor. Just make sure that you provide releif holes or it will litterally push your floor right up through the screws. Also make sure you use closed-cell foam, the regular stuff like they have at Menards will absorb and hold water.

[Troublehook]

"One thought I had was to only remove the middle bench and put a floor in between the back bench and the front one and then a little bit of 2 tiered deck from the front bench forward with storage underneith to put my battery and anchor and such."

thats exactly what i want to do with my boat. If you do that, please show some pics. I think It would be pretty awsome.