hello everybody, stumbled upon this forum totally by accident, but what a wealth of knowledge there seams to be. Last October I picked up a craigslist special, 16' Starcraft v hull and a load rite trailer for $700. I truthfully had no intentions of modding this thing, but like anything else I got to thinking.
This morning I tore out all the old decking, it really wasn't in that bad of shape, but my ORGINAL plan was just to build a rear deck using existing rear bench and framed out. However I started thinking. Is there any reason I can't remove the middle bench all together? It seems from other threads I've been checking out I can remove one, bench as long as I put the foam insulation back in somewhere else, Essentially giving me a huge open platform.
And if I'm going to go that far as to build a rear deck and remove a bench why am I not doing the same on the front and making a bow platform as well.
My day job is a carpenter/home improvement contractor so fabricating skills are there.
I am aware I'm adding weight to the boat, which brings me to my next question? Is 1/2" plywood suitable? Or is 3/4" the way to go. I have 1 center support and the side if the ribs, concerned about flexing with 1/2.
If anybody has any tips/pictures of there projects, or links to other threads feel free to post em here or whatever. Any help/input is greatly appreciated as I tackle this project.
This morning I tore out all the old decking, it really wasn't in that bad of shape, but my ORGINAL plan was just to build a rear deck using existing rear bench and framed out. However I started thinking. Is there any reason I can't remove the middle bench all together? It seems from other threads I've been checking out I can remove one, bench as long as I put the foam insulation back in somewhere else, Essentially giving me a huge open platform.
And if I'm going to go that far as to build a rear deck and remove a bench why am I not doing the same on the front and making a bow platform as well.
My day job is a carpenter/home improvement contractor so fabricating skills are there.
I am aware I'm adding weight to the boat, which brings me to my next question? Is 1/2" plywood suitable? Or is 3/4" the way to go. I have 1 center support and the side if the ribs, concerned about flexing with 1/2.
If anybody has any tips/pictures of there projects, or links to other threads feel free to post em here or whatever. Any help/input is greatly appreciated as I tackle this project.