Sea Dek to replace carpet.

[scott resick]

So I am thinking would be nice to ditch the carpet in my 06' 196. It sucks to vacuum and there are some areas that are loose and lifting. I would love to rip it out and replace with Sea Dek. My concern is what I will find under the carpet. Will it be a nice smooth finish or more like the fibers of fiberglass? And will the Sea Dek be able to bend around the clam shell motor box, and adhere to the curvature? Any experience here with this?

[NautiqueJeff]

I am heading down to SeaDek tomorrow as a matter of fact to pick up my 1998 Ski Nautique. We did exactly what you're talking about.

Pictures in a few days!

To answer your questions, the floor is a mess under the carpet. Lots of glue that has to be sanded off of the fiberglass, and then you have to gelcoat the floor.

Check this thread out for more information.

Jeff's 1998 Ski Nautique Restoration

[scott resick]

oh cool! Please post the pics!!! I figured the floor was a mess under there. So the Sea Dek would need to be one huge piece to cover the floor.

[homer12]

It can't really be one huge piece because of the size mats it is manufactured in I'm pretty sure. I think that's why he said you have to gel the floor. Seams and small areas will be somewhat exposed

[scott resick]

But, they could be butted, with beveled edges to not expose the floor?

[NautiqueJeff]

You could do that I suppose, but since you have to spray gelcoat on the floor anyway, why not leave some gaps? That way it looks like a factory installation.

[t.franscioni]

I had tossed around idea of seadeck but abounded it due to anticipated costs of a professional gel coat application. I agree with the idea of laying down gel coat and doing it right. The primary reason for outsourcing gel coat work for me was color matching but I found a website iboats.com that sells spectrum gel coat pre colored to manufacturers specifications and a lot of the correct craft colors are available in gallon formats, colors including the the silver cloud are available which I'm assuming you probably have. It makes this a doable garage project.

[NautiqueJeff]

Well, got mine back from SeaDek this morning. Here's how the floor came out. I haven't mounted the engine cover base or the seat bases yet, which also have SeaDek. I am very happy with how it came out!

[scott resick]

MAN! that looks awesome!

[Eric Rodriguez]

We used the same quality custom kit as Seadek and the results wowed me!