I'm confused on how the floor is constructed on the 1960s hydrodynes. I have a 1963 that has a small hole in the fiberglass floor near the stern of the boat in which I can obviously see wet plywood through. However looking at other peoples restoration pictures I only see Balsa wood, so I'm rather confused on how its all constructed. I'm sure some pictures would help, so I'll post that as soon as possible. Until then can anyone give me some advice or point me in the right direction? Thanks!
It is odd that you mention plywood in the stern. Like Jim said the plywood may be added. In a 1963 boat, if you think that it is rotten because it looks wet it probably is, rotten. Someone may have placed plywood over the rotten floor to reinforce it because the wood was rotten and weak. Then they may have fibreglassed over it. The floor in my boat was very weak. You could actually see the floor move up and down when you went over waves. The factory fibreglass that is in the bottom of my hydrodyne, and from what I understand is the standard, is called fibreglass roving. This roving is a thick weave, if the fibreglass resin is thick, it may look the same. If it looks wet and you think it is rotten, feel it, does it feel wet? You may want to just cut out a little section if you are pretty sure, that will answer a lot of your questions. If it is plywood, you will see this strands and sheets, if it is balsa, you will see chunks and possibly some strands from the core of grain of the balsa. These are just my thoughts from my experiences. I am sure you will get several other posts that will give you a great deal of insight. As you mentioned, the pictures would be a great help. Chad
Thanks so much guys, I'm pretty confident that its plywood back there so someone probably fiberglassed it in. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't some original design that I didn't know about. The boat itself is in great condition other than that so I hope the balsa wood isn't rotten. I have a feeling I can replace the plywood on my own, but I'm not crazy about the idea of having to replace the balsa wood. I got the boat for free from my grandpa and I fixed up the carburetors and then it ran at 33mph no problem. But now its only getting up to like 27mph and I can see just a little bit of water come up through that hole in the back when im running it. So I don't know if its holding water, if its just the plywood, if its goes down to the balsa wood. I guess I'm gonna just have to rip of the fiberglass floor and hope for the best. Thanks again!
I had pretty good luck using composite. That is just an option. The water coming up through makes me a little nervous. Chad
