I am starting this topic to help those who want to either install a floor in their hydrodyne, replace balsa with composite, install a sub floor where there was no sub floor, and see what I have done and maybe it will help others. I had hydraulic steering installed. I brought my Hydrodyne home and decided, the carpet is old, I am going to replace it. I go to Lowe's and get some outdoor carpet. I start to take the old carpet out. After taking the old carpet out. I noticed a crack in the floor about 3 feet long. I had known that the floor felt a little soft and I knew that when out in the open water and going over waves, the floor would flex at times. Tip Number One: If your floor is soft and it flexes, it is rotten. I reach under the crack and feel under it. A pile of soft, rotten, mushy, what at one point was wood. I get out the grinder and started cutting. I cut, and cut, and cut, and cut. Like a surgeon, cutting out the cancerous lesions, I cut on. Eventually, I get the whole layer of rotten wood out. I was at a layer of fibreglass, but it was still soft and it was not the bottom. I again cut out another layer of balsa and I am at the outer layer of fiberglass. I have removed the built in seats. I have removed the ski pylon, the gas tank, the battery, the oil tank, the bilge pump, the bilge pump float, fuel water seperator, everything! The wood I took out was basically like wet mulch. Tip Number Two: If you think a little of the floor is rotten, you are probably wrong. Cutting out fiberglass is dirty, dusty, itchy, tiring work. The dust goes everywhere. Where a hat, goggles, a mask, long sleeve shirts, pants, and high socks. After finishing, take off your clothes, this will take several efforts to get all of the fibreglass out. Either take a shower immediately or wash your arms and face with a wash cloth. Put on clean clothes. The fibreglass dust sticks to your skin. Even after you bathe, you will feel it on your arms, it hurts and itches. The dust goes everywhere, it is like your two year old nephew coming over to your house on Christmas jacked up on Starbucks. It goes everywhere. One problem area was the wood that was up under the bow. I took some flat stock steel and bent a hook on the end with a torch. I used it to reach up and pull the rotten wood out. This was a long process. Fortunately the wood was so rotten that it just came out in pieces. This took several days and nights to get out enough wood to feel comfortable. It seems that it may be impossible to get it all out without taking the deck off of the hull. Again, I am offering this post as assistance. I ran into several problems that I could not find any information on. Almost all of the information that I used came from Bano's restoration boat. It is awesome. If you are thinking of doing any number of restoration projects you have got to check out his page. I have several areas I will be discussing. Check back often.
I read you used for the new floor BASLA. We can get it here in Holland. How did you fix it into the Dyne. With glue or other material? hans BAke
