Help with cockpit floor replacement.

jbrinch88

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Hey guys, well I decided to replace the wood coring on my tank hatches which came out great. I also have about a 1’x1’ soft spot on the starboard cockpit floor closer to the fishbox. Decided to address that this winter as well. I basically cut out the whole non skid pattern with my multi tool which worked great. I assumed the skin would come up no problem since I thought it was delaminated. Well 2 hours later of hammering with 3-4 pry bars and gently separating the wood from the skin to my surprise the wood was still in great shape. The soft spot was due to 3 pieces of the 1/2” squares that delaminated from the upper and lower skin and was laying between the stringers. The rest of the wood and glass were fine.

Need some ideas on how to re assemble. Here’s my plan. Use skin for 1/2” plywood template. Cut out remainder of old wood. Glass a layer of CSM on bottom (stringer side) of new plywood. Fasten new core to stringers with countersunk screws and sealant, and also thickened resin where core lays on stringers. Add thickened resin to outer permiter of new core and put weight on top of core and let cure. Check height of original skin on new core and add layers of mat if necessary. Mount skin to new core with thickened resin and weight and let cure. Bevel all edges of original cut and tab in, fill, fair etc.

Any help or advice is very much appreciated.

Jason