Hewscraft Searunner Foam Removal Project

kevind

Well-Known Member
Hi Guys,

So starting the year off with a project. Probably not the best time of the year to start it but hope to have it finished by the end of the month. It all started with putting some uhmw strips on top of the carpeted bunks. I noticed a couple of corrosion spots so decided to pull up the wood deck and take a look.

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The foam was soaked in water so decided to bite the bullet and pull up the whole thing and remove all the foam that i could.
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I cant remove the foam inside the 2 box beams without cutting them open and welding them back so i have left that part alone. Hopefully with out the other foam holding in the water it will have a chance to dry out. With the foam out i started to sand , sand blast and i used a vinyl wheel to get out all the corrosion i could. The hull wasnt bad at all but the deck supports had some pitting from the screws and where the soaked wood was in contact with the aluminum.
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I haven't fully finished the sanding yet i'm about 75% there but looking much better now. I will be treating the corrosion with a nice acid etching (aluma bright) if anyone is interested they have it at Lordco but its called lordco liquid blue. After the acid etching i was recommended to coat it with Pettit Alumaprotect epoxy as its a corrosion fighter but am a little leery as most of the corrosion was under the factory paint and hard to see until i sanded it so if anyone has used the stuff i'd love some more info on it. after that id like to epoxy seal the deck and put new marine vinyl floor and put a spacer between the deck and the aluminum. What have people used with the best results in sealing the plywood deck? Anyone put spacers between their deck and aluminum? I was thinking carpet runners or 1" wide strips of aluminum plate 1/8"thick attached to the aluminum with some type of marine sealer that is aluminum friendly. Any ideas would be great also.

I'll post up some more pics of the progress as i finish it but will be away for a week so wont be much progress till the middle of april.
 
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i didnt realize when adding from the photo album that it would do it as a link and i couldnt figure out how to change a private album to public after its created.
 
Kevin, I have a Hewes as well, same foam issue. Looking at replacing floors as well. JAC found these guys from Oregon. http://www.dwnrvr.com/ 100% composite flooring, 1/2" thick, lighter than plywood by 30% and wont absorb water. Looks like a great product. Comes in 4x8 sheets, pricey at $350 US per sheet but the vinyl is pretty pricey as well. Never have to worry about floor again. I am going to bite the bullet in the fall, I can squeeze one more season out of my vinyl.
 
Ouch 350 per sheet. that would be over 1000 for me. why wouldn't you go the aluminum floor instead? I would guess aluminum would be cheaper than that.
 
Kevin, can I bring my Hewes for you to do next month? Looks like you are doing a great job, thanks for posting the pictures. I would like to do the composite sheets as well but time and money cuts into fishing. If you get some HH, let me know and we can split the shipping cost.

I will let you know when I order kaelc
 
Kevin, can I bring my Hewes for you to do next month? Looks like you are doing a great job, thanks for posting the pictures. I would like to do the composite sheets as well but time and money cuts into fishing. If you get some HH, let me know and we can split the shipping cost.

Hey Kaelc sure bring it over but make sure you leave the keys lol. Still a bit to go but had to put it on hold for a week as its family vacation time but will get back onto it next week. I won't be getting that HH panels. Looking at it and that's it's make out of foam doesn't sound all that great to me unless I did a lot more research on it especially for that type of money.
 
Just an update to my project. Just about finished putting it all back together now. After sanding and vinyl wheel cleaning i used the aluma bright full concentrate. I think it turned out well. I ended up not painting it as the specific pettit paint product i couldnt seen to find in canada. I redid the vinyl deck floor in the back half as it had a few holes in it and got lucky to find the exact match at rona on clearance :). I ended up caulking all the joints between each vinyl board and from the deck to the aluminum hull. I also used tef gel on all the screws. It should keep the water from getting back under the floor and into the wood deck i hope.

When cleaning out all my mess from the sand blasting and everything else i did find that hewescraft does have drains from the upper chamber that had all the foam and the bilge it just happened to be blocked by that ****** expandable foam so any hewescraft owners should check and see if their drains are also clogged. My drains are located at the very back of the boat. It was a piece of aluminum welded to the box beam and transom to create a triangle shaped opening.

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Looking good. Might want to change the fuel tank fitting gaskets if your already in there.
 
Hey fd i hope your fishing skills are better then your shoveling skills!!!!!

I want to spend a week there fishing out of my boat or yours.
 
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