I bought a 1991 Ebbtide Dynatrak 180 SS with a 150 4-cylinder Mercury outboard from my brother, '93 and his wife, DVM '02. The engine runs and glugs beautifully. Sounds like a Harley.

There were a few spots in the floor that were obviously rotted. I decided to try my hand at a DIY floor replacement. Now that I'm able to easily add photos to TA, I'll show you what I did/am doing. As I begin this thread, it's not quite completed.

Because I couldn't fit the necessary tool (circular saw) Far enough under the consoles, I and the existing floor in that part of the boat was very solid, I choose to cut only about 54" forward from the rear edge of the floor.

We found, as we expected, that the back ends of the stringers were also rotted. However, I was unwilling to completely cut them out, partly because all the fiber glass encasing them was solid, and partly because I didn't want to deal with all that demo fiber glass, or the Complete wrapping of new stringers in fiber glass.

So, I took Trex decking boards and mounted them alongside the inner stringers, in the storage well. Although Trex isn't" structural," neither would have the other option, weather-treated 1x6's. These would support the floor and bolster the sub-floor.

Meanwhile, I disassembled the storage well cover, and sanded it. Then, coated it with exterior polyurethane.

And then today we shimmed the floor, glued it to the stringers, and weighed it down with some rocks, and left it to dry.

We were able to Salvage the old floor in single piece, so we used it to trace out the new floor on a large piece of half inch weather treated ground contact plywood. It requires me to join another piece of plywood to reach the length of the 54" floor. I probably should have thought ahead and cut it at 48", to avoid having a joint of two panels.

I sanded and coated it with a weather proofing stain that I found on clearance at Home Depot. It had been tinted, and returned from the customer, and marked down from $34 to $9.00.
My son and I then wrapped the entire floor board with fiberglass and coated it with resin. Then we sanded it, and reapplied resin to the areas that we had sanded through. We did this until we got it smooth and level.

Then we coated it with 2 to 3 more layers of the weatherproofing paint.

Cool. As long as you sealed everything with epoxy it will be effectively waterproof

Nice work. I did something very similar a couple years ago. Looks like you had good help!

We have an 89 dynatrak and it's still a great boat, you'll enjoy it with that 150

Yesterday we sealed the joint between the old and new decks. I received the faux teak flooring today, so it's going in next, along with cockpit seats.

Nice work! Love projects like this.

Nice work. Wood and epoxy plus a little elbow grease. You will love it once you're done.

Nice work man. You want a job at a Texas boat plant? I could probably get you hooked up

Gunny456 said:

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Nice work man. You want a job at a Texas boat plant? I could probably get you hooked up

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Probably wouldn't afford me, but I'd love to tour a boat assembly plant.

That's a lot of work. Looks like you and your assistant did a great job!

Nice job! You are a young looking dude for class of 1996.

Fairview said:

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Nice job! You are a young looking dude for class of 1996.

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Those boys are classes of '25 and '27, if I've raised 'em right.

Do you have any before/after pictures?

Roc96 said:

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Do you have any before/after pictures?

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I used to somewhere. The only pic I could find was the rear bench that I refabricated. I was particularly pleased with the refinishing of the ski locker/storage. I did some minor reupholstering in places as well...

Skeeter Boats is a large manufacturer that actually does complete plant tours. They will show you gelcoat, lay up, deck- hull assembly, etc. located in Kilgore, Texas.
They build typically 10 - 15 boats per day on average so you get to see all phases of production.
Produce bass, bay and multi specie boats.

Gunny456 said:

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Skeeter Boats is a large manufacturer that actually does complete plant tours. They will show you gelcoat, lay up, deck- hull assembly, etc. located in Kilgore, Texas.
They build typically 10 - 15 boats per day on average so you get to see all phases of production.
Produce bass, bay and multi specie boats.

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Yep. Just walk into the plant lobby any time of day, and the receptionist will call up one of the managers from the production floor to give you a personal tour. It's fun.

Really? Wow! I'm going to do it.

Here's some finished product photos for the floor portion of this renovation, and my final pics of the project. I'll be on to other aspects, like replacing old/dilapidated carpeting on the start and now decks and hatch kids.