Wally

iTrader: (1)

Hey Dave, so what do you think the root cause of these issues is?
Do you think the liner is warped, and during installation it doesn't seat properly or do you think maybe formula needed to keep the hull in the mold until the liner was bonded to keep the hull straight?
Maybe it flexed during the install and the assembly team didn't know they should have somehow clamped the liner down to the hull to get a good bond all around?

Audiofn

08 Fastech 292: That would be my suggestion is to do that. I think that the reality is that EVERY 353 is going to have the plugs that Dave, Chris and I are talking about. I have not seen any with out them. Do the 383's and 292's and so on all have them? I don't know. Maybe others can chime in.

Glassdave: I agree that the issue is that the liner was never installed properly from the factory that is proven by both you and my investigation in this. I also agree that it should be bonded/in contact with the bottom of the hull. It clearly is not. I believe that all the boats had this issue. Do the new boats have it I don't know. If some one can open up the engine bay on a new one and look that would tell the story. If those plugs are there then I am guessing YES. I can't speak for how well thought out the repair was as maybe the engineers said that they have to get a full fill and the production did not do that. I won't even try and get into everyones heads all I know is it was a poorly implemented repair and it clearly did not work. Certainly not in our cases anyhow. Both myself and my engineer buddy feel that the foam probably would have been a better fix from the start while everything was clean and a proper bond could have been made. Now with the water and typical engine bay oils in there it is impossible to do the foam repair. The top area outside the "middle" stringers looked cleaner and maybe the foam idea is doable. Anyhow my thought was that since there are voids in the mold and water clearly gets in there, if the boat was in an area were it would freeze and it did so with the water between the hull sections it would expand and blow the joints apart. Clearly if the hull sections were all the way together this would NEVER be an issue but as you and I are finding out they did not get that done. That is what I was talking about with the weather related. It would be interesting to see if in warmer climates if this was an issue? In a warmer climate the water will get in there but never freeze and never expand the two sections. It was just a theory on how maybe it could be worse in colder climates.

As far as the removal of the plexus it was my plan to use my Makita hand planer IF I do the repair myself. I am not as motivated for things like this as I used to be. I am hoping my brothers guy has the time for me. It is interesting that the plexus does seem to have some "softness" to it. If you push it with a poker it is defiantly soft. I assume that is normal? I am struggling with were to make my cuts now as I am concerned about how to make sure I get a good bond and not weaken the grid. I also assume that I am going to find that the bond under the stringers is **** as well?

badmonkey

Well GOOD NEWS.... We have finally settled on new paint scheme for the boat. Now waiting for interior rendering to be completed and we are off and running to completion. Glassdave has done an amazing job coming up with the paint design. The old Formula is on her way to being NEW again. More info to come !!!!


Chris

distantthunder

I cannot wait to see this! The season is upon us!

lastcall02

Chris, are you sure about the paint scheme you chose? You are not second guessing yourself now are you? LOL Just busting your chops, brother. Can't wait to see it. Will this mean we will have to put extra bumpers out between us now?

humbler

Sorry to hear about all of the unexpected troubles, but sure am looking forward to the results! Just got ours home finally a few weeks back and will be poking around alot more to see if we're looking at similar issues.

badmonkey

Extra Bumpers...HELL YA !!!!!!

lastcall02

Will this be sufficient? [ATTACH=CONFIG]552809[/ATTACH]

Gary P

Ha-ha-ha! That should work fine. Any bigger, and it would be like having a RIB boat!

fossil fuel

Hi all, As you know we out here west had some issues with hull deck joint separations on west coast 382's. EZ fix and no future problems on the 5 boats here. I just scanned through this thread. I checked my plexus bond below the liner with a milwaukee inspection camera I bought at home depot. The center drain plug is the access and drain port for below the liner. I ran the camera to both sides from the hole. Its amazing how much I could see. I did find that there was so much Plex in the center that It was holding some water about 2 feet in front of the transom. I ran a long 5/8" drill carefully through the plex to just under the fuel tank. It then drained dry. I could then camera all the way to the bulkhead at the rear of the fuel tank. I saw some mention of water freezing below the liner. I know this may not have been the issue here, but it concerned me. If the plex blocks water from exiting and it freezes it has to not be good. When I would trailer through freezing climates I would vacuum out as much as possible. The white caps in the bilge on the liner I popped off. There always seemed to be a bit of residual water laying there. A vac it this area would dry it out in 5 minutes. Bottom line on older boats. Its always a risk no matter what you do. Your paying way way way less than new $$$ you have to expect to be on your own when it comes to risk. This project will turn out to be a stellar build. Probably way more $$$ that was ever budgeted.,,,,,but its a boat
You now will have a beautiful boat that will last for years and years. Have fun!