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1997 Viking 43C Restoration - Looking for suggestions

Discussion in 'Viking Yacht' started by petrel, Nov 30, 2019.

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  1. petrel

    petrel Member

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    Well the journey has begun. The Stbd engine was rebuilt over the summer, the port begins (hopefully) next week. The yard says they can get me on the schedule this spring for Awlgrip. Vinyl and electronics are after paint. I'm having the HVAC system overhauled and freshly painted while the engine is being rebuilt. The whole engine room and both engines will be freshly painted after the rebuild.

    I'm in the process of prepping the boat for the port overhaul. Furniture is in storage, carpet is up, and I am heading down this week to do some housekeeping, start taking up the floor panels, and working on little odds and ends.

    I need assistance with two things for now:
    I am looking for a salon floor solution that will ease engine/mechanical access by facilitating easier panel removal without sacrificing sound/heat protection and aesthetics? Would welcome suggestions and photos.

    Also, what is the best way to clean the headliner?
  2. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    If the headliner is vinyl, use meguirs vinyl cleaner in a brown bottle and a terry cloth piece...…..could use a magic erasor if it's really bad, but light pressure. Once you clean all that and wipe off while it's wet. Go over it with Meguiars vinyl protectant.

    Could use some sort of wood for the floor with seams so it removes easy, and a throw rug over to quiet down any noise. Or just go with carpet, not the easiest to remove, but not horrible and generally you're not removing floor hatches often.
  3. petrel

    petrel Member

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    I'll grab some Meguiars on my way to the boat this week. Thanks!

    I am pretty sure I will have a carpet fitted and edge bound to cover whatever flooring is ultimately installed. I am leaning towards a teak veneered plywood floor, but seaming it for each hatch would probably ruin the look.

    A few of the floor panels have soft spots, so I plan to replace the plywood and possibly upgrade the sound insulation while I am at it.
  4. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Many years ago my wife found an outlet for office carpet squares.
    Not the lil 1 x 1 but large 3 x 3 squares. Indestructible. My desk chair has been rolling on it for years.
    for spills, dirt that won't clean up or kat boo boos, pull the square up , outside and hose it off.

    No fuzz. When laid out, you can not see the edges. Engines noise is reduced.

    We have a pile of spares in the mini where house. Only have had to use 2 so far.
  5. petrel

    petrel Member

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    Adding commercial carpet squares to the list with luxury vinyl tile, sea dek, and teak veneered plywood. Thanks for the suggestion!

    By the way, I see the panels in our salon are screwed down. Will they stay put without the screws, or are they integral to the deck strength?
  6. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    The rubber backing holds them down & in place. No glue or screws.
  7. cleanslate

    cleanslate Senior Member

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    I've had both carpeted cabin sole and teak and holly 1/4" veneer sole with 10 coats of Captians Varnish.
    IMO, padding and synthetic carpet is the way to go. Professionally installed, Seamed stapled down with Monel / bronze staples so they don't rust around all hatches end ends.
    The teak veneer looks nice and shinny , but is less forgiving to keep up from scratching , wearing out etc. you will need to put in carpet runners etc with a rubber backing for grip and to protect the sole.
    It is slippery when wet or in socks and won't absorb sound like the carpet will. It also can dent from falling objects , like dropping you favorite hammer by accident or the rum bottle, lol. Also becomes a problem when you lift out your hatches for service...where to set the hatches down without messing up the veneer sole.

    Carpet just make life a bit easier on a boat. Less to watch and worry about .
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2019
  8. petrel

    petrel Member

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    I hate to add a maintenance item too, but I've not had similar experience. With a family of six that likes to fish, carpet gets so cruddy so fast. I was thinking that a removable carpet may be the way to go. Plus we've had the teak and holly before in an express and I liked the way it could just be damp mopped occasionally.

    I agree about the sound deadening effect, and you raise a good point about not being able to stack the floor hatches when they are removed. I wonder if a carpet with corresponding padding could be bound together?
  9. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    You can get it bound on the edges. It's best to leave the padding and carpet separate as it's much easier to roll and remove. Get a good carpet runner made out of sunbrella or another material for the walkway.
  10. cleanslate

    cleanslate Senior Member

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    Either sole you choose , I would put an area rug / runner that can be rolled up and moved when needed. Just get one from local home store that is synthetic with a rubber back if you go with the wood sole . That will protect the high traffic areas . Throw out the area rug when it gets beat or dirty every few years and grab a new one.
    Not sure what finish is applied to the factory teak sole where I used varnish that can become quite slippery some of the pros on here will know what some of the big time manufactures use to finish their teak veneer soles with. That maybe less slippery as you said like in your express boat.
  11. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    A urethane for wood......like ones from home depot......usually a satin...….can do high gloss as well......
  12. cleanslate

    cleanslate Senior Member

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    Like I said, I used Captians varnish on the sole I put in my 42' Matthews. At the time I think I had two or three extra unused quarts so that's what I went with what I had in stock! Lol.
    Looked great but was a bit to glossy! Lol. But it toned down a bit over time.
    After two seasons or so, it was getting dull in the traffic areas along with a scratch or two. So it was easy to bring back to life with a single maintenance coat of captains again over all the soles which did not take very long to do. That is a plus with going wood finished sole compared to carpeting.
  13. cleanslate

    cleanslate Senior Member

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    I've used liquid TSP ( trisodium phosphate) diluted with water to clean my headliners and it did a very good job. Read the directions on it on how to use it you don't wanna use it straight out of the bottle it's too strong that way. Nitrile gloves are needed to.
    Use it on a sponge , ring it out so it's not soaking wet and drips all over the place you don't need a lot It works well with out a lot of rubbing .
    Try a small test area first as all headliners are not created equal...
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2019
  14. petrel

    petrel Member

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    If the Meguiars doesn't get it, I'll try the tsp next. I'm gonna get the light bulbs replaced first, then go to work on the headliner.
  15. PacBlue

    PacBlue Senior Member

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    I like a cork based floor surface for reduced sound attenuation and then a carpet overlay with some additional sound barrier backer.

    We have then added a canvas/washable runner in the traffic area that comes out during fishing trips to keep the blood/guts/scales off the carpet. It snaps in place and gets washed for the next trip, extends the carpet life and keeps it looking factory new.
  16. ranger58sb

    ranger58sb Senior member

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    Our boat was originally "wall-to-wall" carpeted in saloon and staterooms (decent quality), with Amtico "wood" in galley and head.

    A couple years ago we replaced the original carpet/padding with newer/better carpet underlaid with Soundown. The carpet/Soundown "sandwich" (?) section over each engine room hatch is free-floating within the overall "wall-to'wall" installation, so we can lift and move each 30-lb carpet/Soundown pair and each 30-lb hatch separately. I think the Soundown slightly attenuates engine, AC compressor, and freshwater pump noise, and the extra cushioning is great!

    (During our brief fishing season, we cover the saloon carpeting with a runner, Sunbrella I think...)

    We use outdoor Corinthian Carpet segments, cut to fit and bound with Sunbrella, over the Amtico... same as our cockpit and bridge carpeting... powerwash it all outside from time to time... and extra cushioning there helps, too.

    Do you have a ladder to the bridge? Ever consider replacing with something like a fabricated circular staircase of some sort? We have stairs on this boat, and find it a mandatory improvement over "ladder boat" we had previously...

    -Chris
  17. petrel

    petrel Member

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    Ranger, I've read good things about soundown. Could you post a photo of your salon floor if you get a chance.

    For anyone who didn't already know, a little Wisk in warm water, a wash cloth, and considerable elbow grease, will make an ultraleather sofa look almost like new! Took out the sleeper part of the sofa too. Will be converting it into tackle storage.

    Another question for those of you with bound carpets. Did you set the sofa on the plywood and carpet/pad up to it, or carpet and pad the whole salon and set the sofa on top of it?
    Thanks everyone for the suggestions...please keep them coming.
  18. petrel

    petrel Member

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    On an unrelated note. What is the trick for getting the overhead lights opened up to replace the bulbs? It appears that I should just be able to depress the two tabs and the lens should fall into my hand, but no joy so far.
  19. ranger58sb

    ranger58sb Senior member

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    He ya go; sorry it took so long to figure out how to do it from here...

    Since our carpet flows to the stairs down into the galley, we felt we had to go with a wall-to-all installation. Otherwise, a free floating bound solution may have been OK.

    Even so, our original furniture included a sleep sofa, too heavy for me to easily move by myself in order to clear an engine hatch... and it wasn't long enough for me to stretch out on in its normal configuration anyway... so we bagged that in favor of two electric recliners. In both cases, on top of both the fixed carpet and the floating engine hatch carpet.

    -Chris

    Attached Files:

  20. petrel

    petrel Member

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    Thanks for the photos. I would like to go that way to ease engine and other mechanical access.

    I just gutted the sleep sofa and am in the process of converting it to tackle storage.