Rebuilding of the Floor
We had to completely rebuild the floor because we are going to make new engine hatches. The Cummins is a bit bigger, and wider than the Perkins; in order to really have good access to it, we need wider hatches. (or I need to lose a good deal of weight!)
To rebuild the floor we used true 2 x 4 oak beams that were cut at a wood mill. We did this because they cover a pretty wide area and we were concerned about strength.
You can see the middle one we had to notch to get over the fuel tank.
You can see below where we left some of the old floor, we were able to match right up with it. Wish we had done that on both sides.
On this side we needed to peices to go fore and aft. There really was no need to cut it that far.
After the floor was installed I rolled it with some epoxy just to get rid of some splinters and protect it from any water. The end grain on the plywood looked especially vulnerable, and I was concerned it would degrade where the hatches go in and out. One thing of note, the epoxy surface is very slippery when wet. (especially in bare feet)
Here is the floor with the new hatches down.
