Removal & Instalation of Aluminium Floor Zodiac Futura MKII - Page 2

Northern Pike · 22 November 2013, 01:52

Posters are right. PVC boat, and temperature and humidity are critical for a good bond. Mine is a 2001. Last 2 digits of serial usually are the year. Mine: 01.
2345 looks odd. Should be more digits. Maybe someone changed it??
How about a picture of the plate? Serial plate is on the outside.
i think yours is newer than mine because you have the speed tube valves on the transom. That came later than mine.
Good luck.

shaun2020 · 19 January 2014, 06:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Northern Pike

Posters are right. PVC boat, and temperature and humidity are critical for a good bond. Mine is a 2001. Last 2 digits of serial usually are the year. Mine: 01.
2345 looks odd. Should be more digits. Maybe someone changed it??
How about a picture of the plate? Serial plate is on the outside.
i think yours is newer than mine because you have the speed tube valves on the transom. That came later than mine.
Good luck.

Hi All, sorry for the delay in replying, Hope you all had a great Xmas & New Year, Xmas now out of the way, yippe, kids had their toys, time to get my boat sorted, Glued etc,I have all the equipment to do it, MEK, Acetone, 2 part glue, new valves, just need a break in the British weather, and I just hope the repairs are not as bad to do as it sounds listening to peoples comments,
Northern Pike I have attached a photo of my Serial plate which is located inside the boat, I seem to be coming to a dead end on the year of the boat, Can you tell me any more info about my boat? year? by looking at the photo? Thanks in advance to all

shaun2020 · 19 January 2014, 07:41

Boat Plate which is located inside the boat

shaun2020 · 19 January 2014, 08:22

am I looking for a serial number approximately the same length of a car chassis number? if so, where would i find it? as I do not recall seeing any other plates / numbers anywhere on the boat, I would have to double check,

Northern Pike · 19 January 2014, 14:51

I don't have any pics and my boat is rolled up for the winter. Mine has a small long narrow plate on the outside, just behind the one pictured. It has a longer serial number on it, the last 2 digits of which indicate the year. I can show you in the Spring. :^)

I suggest you find a place indoors and heated to do your repairs. Temperature and humidity are critical.

shaun2020 · 19 January 2014, 16:09

Thanks Northern pike, I will have a look this week, I am going to have to wait until the weather gets better as I have my boat in a garage but have no access to electric or any method of heating the garage up etc and the garage is a few miles away from my house, I plan to hopefully start cleaning the glue off this week so the weather is probably irrelevant I take it for preparation? so at least when the weather gets warmer I can instatly get on with the re glueing,

If I had my way I would have the boat in the house to repair, lol (Mrs is not happy with my outboard being in the spare room as it is) It is the only way to keep those toe rag thieves mitts off it, she would have a heart attack if she seen my boat in the house, sure it would fit in my living room if I move the sofas around, lol

Northern Pike · 20 January 2014, 04:58

Well, I don't see anything wrong with having a boat and motor in the house. And Mmm that glue smells good! I just found a pic. You can see the number plate on the right at the very top of the frame. It still has the greenish protective plastic on it.

2Spicy · 07 August 2023, 10:43

Hi Folks, sorry to resurect this, but I wanted to say thankyou for the detail and pictiures. Ive just re-stuck my Futura 380 FR and what started off as a 30cm parting of the floor, turned into 1.5meters both sides .. literally the front half of the floor.

I dont suppose anyone in the UK that was posting on this thread still has their Zodiac ? Mine is an airfloor, and I would love to take a template and convert it to a hard floor ?

Fenlander · 07 August 2023, 11:36

>>what started off as a 30cm parting of the floor, turned into 1.5meters both sides ..

Sadly once the glue starts to fail this tends to happen.

Is the air floor suffering leaks? I though the Futura worked well in air floor versions?

2Spicy · 07 August 2023, 11:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenlander

>>what started off as a 30cm parting of the floor, turned into 1.5meters both sides ..

Sadly once the glue starts to fail this tends to happen.

Is the air floor suffering leaks? I though the Futura worked well in air floor versions?

Airfloor is sound .. Just about to manufacture a new wooden front section as this one has seen better days.

Ideally I would like to put some seats in it, so I was thinking of mounting them on a custom box, fabricated out of marine ply and fibreglass, but then mounting them to the floor .. I guess I could just make a section that fits on top of the air floor.

Also fabricating a spray screen for the front out of 600gsm PVC too

Fenlander · 07 August 2023, 12:56

You mean speedboat style seats as opposed to benches?

User name · 08 August 2023, 14:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2Spicy

Airfloor is sound .. Just about to manufacture a new wooden front section as this one has seen better days.

Ideally I would like to put some seats in it, so I was thinking of mounting them on a custom box, fabricated out of marine ply and fibreglass, but then mounting them to the floor .. I guess I could just make a section that fits on top of the air floor.

Also fabricating a spray screen for the front out of 600gsm PVC too

You could indeed make a ply floor, but at 3.8 metres that's going to be a fair bit of extra weight and that's before you add seat boxes. It might be worth looking into options for an aluminium floor maybe?

2Spicy · 08 August 2023, 23:36

Good point . I am also looking into the possibility of air tubes ... to go between the main tubes, but at almost 1.8meters, the Futura is a wide boat !! .. . i guess i might also consider just upgrading to a sub 5 meter Rib and be done with it ... decisions, decisions.

dhaglund · 28 September 2023, 19:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by captnjack

Looks like PVC construction to me. There only seem to be a few spots where the floor seam is pulling away. I'd just remove as much glue as you can with the acetone and scubbing with a coarse pad. I would not go reglueing the entire floor at this point. Just the loose parts and any sections which pull loose. Using the heat gun to completely remove and then reglue the floor section by section seems like a lot of unnecessary work.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

PS You need to vacuum out all the debris before reassembly!

This thread is old but, I fully agree! If you don't want spend the time to reglue everything, do only the necessary. I have a Futura that looks like this just like this one. I reglued a couple a small sections last year. This year another small section has come undone and I'll reglue that. But most of the floor is still solid even after some very hard use. I can't count the times this boat has been airborne, or just about.

User name · 29 September 2023, 10:23

If the glue is giving up in one section, it's very likely the other sections of the floor will go soon enough so I'd say the safest thing to do is to re-glue the lot. You really wouldn't want it coming apart when you're on open water.

Often it's not obvious that the glue is giving up until you give it a hard tug and it starts to separate. Healthy glue is next to impossible to separate without heat and you'll often rip the fabric before the glue too. I'd just re-glue the whole lot, section by section. It's really not that difficult once you have a bit of space to work in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2Spicy

I dont suppose anyone in the UK that was posting on this thread still has their Zodiac ? Mine is an airfloor, and I would love to take a template and convert it to a hard floor ?

What exactly is it you need to template? I have the aluminium floor version of MK3. I'm not in the UK but I could probably take some measurements if that would help.