The cockpit deck on my project 32’ was rotted. Last year I removed the cockpit deck, bought the nautolex covering and adhesive, made a ¼" template and cut out new 5/8" deck pieces. Today I decided not to restore the deck with the original nautolex. It is a tedious two man job and I would be repeating a system that didn’t work well the first time it was used. I dragged the template over to a Rhinoliner dealer. He made me a very good price to spray grey textured Rhinoliner on the 5/8" deck pieces.

I’m making some other changes.

The original deck was attached to the aluminum floor joists up from the bottom side with washers and wood screws. The screws along the cabin side walls and around the scuppers were very hard to reach. In these areas I am going to screw down from the top side and into the aluminum joists with stainless screws through trim rings.

The caulking around the sides dried hard and had to be ground off. I am going to use something more flexible and easier to handle and remove.

The idea is to have a deck that can be taken up if necessary without wrecking it.

I wish I had time to design some big improvements in the hatch, but I don’t. A Waterproof gasket would really be nice. So I will use the piano hinge. I will not use the thin sharp edge stainless flange around the edge of the hatch. That is DANGEROUS. On my 28’ I fell against it while opening the hatch and ended up in the emergency ward. Lucky I fell on my arm and not on my throat. Guys...Take the time to round out the edge of this flange.

All are great ideas. Can you post some photos of the finished panels?

Just curious, but can the Rhinoliner guy come to the boat and do the sidedecks and foredeck? That stuff is pretty good.

Years ago I planned to purchase a Rhinoliner franchise and I trained on the system. I backed out because of legal issues, basically RL was only willing to give me franchise protection for 5 miles around my shop, which would be great here in DC but made no sense in Brevard County, Florida where a five-mile radius doesn't take in much. Couldn't get them to see it, the (&^^R%&*^&( franchise manager had the brains of a snail.

I had planned to run the shop in an old service station, and to mount the equipment in my truck so that I could go to dealerships and do a bunch of pickups at once for them on site. The marine angle never occurred to me.

Sounds to me like your guy works only out of his shop.

I got the deck pieces back from Rhinoliner. They look real good. I will post pictures when I get them. I cut the deck from 5/8" which had one sanded hardwood side. It warped when it dried. I may have to use wood or metal gussets on the hatch to take out the warp. The rest should be OK once it is pinned to the deck. If I had to do it over again I would track down some 5/8" MDO plywood which stays flat. Even if I hadda drive outta da UP Eh....

Another tip.. Cut a template for the main deck piece out of 3/8" plywood or 1/4" hardboard. Then you can zip out the 5/8" stock with a router for one side, Flip template and zip out the other side. I used 1/4 luan for the template... I thought is was a little too soft for a router.

Sorry too fast, looks great might have to try something like that. How much? if you don't mind telling.

Thanks, Thad