Sole and Foam

We did a cost comparison between using the expanding foam versus using foam insulation. Using the pink foam insulation cut about 60% of the cost of materials for the foam. We did buy a minimal amount of the expanding foam to fill in any voids left over from the pink foam. Here are some links to the foam being referred to here:

Pink Insulation Foam

Expanding Foam

The pink foam was very easy to work with. We used a table saw to cut most of it into pieces, any smaller cuts we got by using a hand saw. The photo on the left shows the pieces stacked up, and the right photo shows the pink foam in place before the sole was screwed in.

The idea here is to fill the voids with as much of the pink foam insulation as we can and then we'll pour in the expanding foam as needed after we have the decking on. As you can see, we did a pretty good job of filling here, this will enable us to have completely filled the hull with flotation foam with a minimal amount of the expanding foam (which is costly). More on this later.

In order to securely mount the chair pedestals to the sole, we had to provide some solid backing to the underside of the decking wood. We used some fir for that cut to fit in the grooves we build into the stringers. Here is a shot of the driver's chair mount point. Once these pieces of wood were sized up, we coated both sides with epoxy resin. Then set them in where you see this one for both the driver's side and the passenger's side.

After cutting the 1/2" thick MDO plywood we coated the underside of each board and then mounted each with stainless steel deck screws. For each screw we drilled the screw in, then completely unscrewed the screw so that we could pour a dab of epoxy resin in the resulting hole. Finally we would then screw the same screw back in and wipe the resin away. The point of this was to ensure we didn't create points of penetration on each screw point. We also sketched the lines of stringers and ribs with pencil on the top of the boards so that we could essentially see the framework below. Here is the result:

We then began securing the seams and tabbing the sides to the hull.

Once that portion cured we were able to step on enough of the sole that we could then put the last supporting component in which is really the riser of the bench seat.

At this point, we have the entire sole (commonly referred to as the deck) screwed down and are now ready to pour the expandable foam in. This was an interesting step, unfortunately we didn't take any photos of this step but I can explain it verbally. We used a large hole saw, the kind you put in your drill, and cut out a 3" diameter hole. We were sure to keep the plug that came out. Then we mixed the foam and immediately poured the solution into the sub floor through the hole we just cut. About 20 minutes later when the expansion completed we then cut the portions that were protruding from the hole. Making sure to remove enough of the foam to allow for the plug to fit back in, we then used fiberglass to seal the hole up.

Next check out the painting of the bilge and subsequent building of the battery trays.