'78 Palm beach floor replacement

s-m-h

New member
Sep 13, 2019
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G'day folks,

As my coach is gutted and there is some rot in the floor I have decided to replace it. As such I have a few questions for the wizards...

First, it sounds as though marine grade ply is the popular choice for flooring. Can someone provide me w/ a purchase list. I understand the
thicknesses may be vary in different areas.

Secondly, how are we insulating the floors? Product, and before or after install?

As usual, thanks a ton for your input.

Shawn
--
Shawn Harris
1977 Palm Beach 403
Bone stock - gutted interior
North Vancouver,
Canada
 
Shawn,
The is indeed 1" marine grade plywood. I would suggest that ripping
everything out to replace everything might be more that you need. Seeing
that yours is a 77 unit it should have aluminum on the underside facing the
road, havel you looked underneath? I assume that the bath module and other
modules are still installed.

J.R. Wright
GMC Great Laker
GMCGL Tech Editor
GMC Eastern States
GMCMHI
TZE Zone Restorations
78 Buskirk Custom 29.5' Stretch
75 Avion (Under going Frame up Restoration)

On Sun, Nov 17, 2019 at 3:14 AM Shawn Harris via Gmclist <

> G'day folks,
>
> As my coach is gutted and there is some rot in the floor I have decided to
> replace it. As such I have a few questions for the wizards...
>
> First, it sounds as though marine grade ply is the popular choice for
> flooring. Can someone provide me w/ a purchase list. I understand the
> thicknesses may be vary in different areas.
>
> Secondly, how are we insulating the floors? Product, and before or after
> install?
>
> As usual, thanks a ton for your input.
>
> Shawn
> --
> Shawn Harris
> 1977 Palm Beach 403
> Bone stock - gutted interior
> North Vancouver,
> Canada
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>
 
Hi J.R.,

No modules of any sort installed the entire floor is exposed. I just painstakingly pulled up the fiberglass compartments for the generator and the
propane area as well as the rear wheel inner fenders. No excuse not to replace the floor at this point. I haven't had a chance to look underneath but
that would be a great bonus if there was aluminum floor pans underneath!
--
Shawn Harris
1977 Palm Beach 403
Bone stock - gutted interior
North Vancouver,
Canada
 
So I am going thorough this same process in my 1976 Eleganza II. There are
indeed aluminum floor pans under the plywood, filled with expanding foam.
Im my case the expanding foam has continued to expand thorough the years
(or original quality control was crap) and the pans bulged downward, and
the floors upward. At the worst the foam was 3" thick. Anyway I have
removed the front two floor sections (7' X 4'), removed the aluminum belly
pans (they were just resting in the aluminum framing, removed all the foam
and, road gunk on the bottom, and straightened them out (back to flat). I
am going to be installing 3/8 inch thick Afromosia hard wood on top of the
plywood (in a teak and holly pattern) this will be water tight! So for my
underlayment plywood, I am going to use 3/4" Sturdi-Floor tong and groove
pine plywood (which is available just about everywhere).

As far as installation, I will be coating the bottom of the aluminum belly
pans with a quick coat of paint, installing them in place, then installing
rockwool high temp insulation into the area between the belly pans and the
plywood floor. Then the plywood. I thought about painting the downward
facing side. Any thoughts on this? Plywood floor was originally glued down
and screwed in place. The original glue was greenish in color, and when my
floor was originally layed down must have been after a three martini lunch
because half of the glue missed the mark entirely and even ran up the side
of the walls about a 1/2 inch in places. Anyway I have not decided what to
use as I put the new wood down, but the words of Jim Bounds are always
ringing in my ears "remember eventually whatever I do will have to be
redone". So any thoughts?

Oh and 50 percent of all the screws broke trying to remove them so I just
ground/cut,broke them off flush. I have not decided what to use here either.

Rich

On Sun, Nov 17, 2019 at 8:13 PM Shawn Harris via Gmclist <

> Hi J.R.,
>
> No modules of any sort installed the entire floor is exposed. I just
> painstakingly pulled up the fiberglass compartments for the generator and
> the
> propane area as well as the rear wheel inner fenders. No excuse not to
> replace the floor at this point. I haven't had a chance to look underneath
> but
> that would be a great bonus if there was aluminum floor pans underneath!
> --
> Shawn Harris
> 1977 Palm Beach 403
> Bone stock - gutted interior
> North Vancouver,
> Canada
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>