14’ Lund deluxe floor replacement conundrum

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Tangooscar

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Hi Folks,

Dave here. Glad to have found this forum. I have done a lot of searching and can’t seem to find the exact answer I’m looking for.

I just purchased a late 80’s (I think?) Lund S-14 DLX boat with a 2000 Johnson 25hp 3 cylinder.

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Unfortunately, the boat is showing it’s age and there are a few things I’d like to do to spruce it up.

First on the list is the seats and the floor. I intend to get marine grade plywood, cut it to size and re do all of the seat tops. I’m not hung up on that part.

Where I am hung up is on the floor. It’s rotten and needs to be replaced. I started pulling it up today.

There are four sections of the boat. In front of the first bench there is no carpet. The middle two sections have carpet over wood flooring which is only one sheet of wood, which the middle two walk through benches are screwed down onto. The back section with the battery has no carpet.

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So, if it were just as simple as pulling the old floor up, prepping a sheet of marine plywood and gluing on carpet, I wouldn’t need to make this post. I am struggling to figure out how I’m going to replace the floor plywood/carpet when the two middle seats are sitting on top of the wood. Although taking it out may be easy, I do not know how to get the new wood in, as the seats are riveted into the side of the boat, and happen to be below the water line.

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What is my best course of action? Drill out the rivets and replace with SS hardware? New rivets? Cut the wood in two pieces?

Thanks for any and all thoughts,

Dave
 
Does the decking wood go all the way up to the bow, or just up to the front bench?

I would pull up all the carpet first, remove the bench seat top wood by drilling out the rivets to the brackets going through the wood. Then I would slide the wooden bench seats out to reuse as a template for my new benches.

Now to the floor. Since the carpet is all pulled up you can locate the seams and try to see if you can slide the plywood under the bench seats. If you can’t lift the center sheet out over the back sheet, then you will have to cut the wood using the edge of the benches as a guide.

When you put the new wood in, plan your seams to be in between bench seats for ease of installation. Make sure to seal the seams before adding carpet.
 
The wood only goes in the middle two sections, and from the factory it is only one sheet. My goal is to only have one sheet, but I’m afraid this may not work.
 
Marine plywood is not needed, just use exterior grade ply. They use same glue. Just seal it up well all sides before install.

If you have to cut existing floor out, you might want to try an oscillating power tool, It can get into the corners. Once you have the old pc dug out, you can formulate a plan to install new. I would not remove center seats unless there is no other way.
 
Could be time to earn a new skill. Bucking rivets is not hard only takes is a few hand tools or air hammer. Practice on some scrap aluminum. You can also use all aluminum closed end pop rivets sealed with some 3m5200. Stainless steel nuts and bolts would work.
 
Exterior grade plywood is all you need. Be sure to seal the plywood and never use pressure treated wood.
 
I did a story that I posted on the TinBoat website in 2017, "The Life of a 1981 Lund". You should be able to use search to find the story. It is the restoration of a 16' Lund Pike Dlx. It has picture f the process, that might help. I replaced the whole front floor in one piece. PM have any specific questions. I got a little carried away, but it is a great fishing rig.

Fish On....
 
Seamless is great for cosmetic reasons. But if you put the floor in sections it might pay off in the long run. You will thank yourself down the road if you ever have to pull it up for some reason. Say you want to run some wires. You can just remove the screws in that section and not have to go through all of the hassle with the seat boxes again. My floor has a two seams. One is obviously to fit a piece under the rear corner boxed in areas. The other seam is in the middle of the deck and is probably there because of the standard width of plywood sheets. I hardly notice the seam.

So in my case, if say I needed to get to those seat bases, I could just unscrew the one section instead of having to remove the entire floor. Easy peasy.

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