[FELLOW-SHIP]

I don’t think you will have to cut the lip out of the deck to remove the tank. I used a small diameter ½” round old rod blank to break small chunks of the foam off and bush in into the bilge area. On my boat part of the lip was badly damaged from a sagging deck breaking down the lip so after I installed the new tank I build up the bottom of the lip with strips of 2”x 2” x 8’ Fer laminated. With epoxy and also screwed I attached the Fer strips to the stringers they also crossed above bulk heads I made out of ¾” marine plywood in front and behind the tank. This gave me additional support for the new deck plate and boxed in my tank. You could just glass and epoxy under the lip if they are damaged. As for the baffles my tank has 5 baffles that were build into the tank for additional support and for the back and forth action of the fuel in the tank. I also had the tank made with 90 degree bracket welded in the front and back of the tank which I drilled and put screws through the bracket and the new ¾” plywood deck that supports the tank. If you go with a new tank and deck for the bottom of the deck you might go with ½” instead of ¾” and make sure they don’t make the fuel fill pipe to high or you could have a problem with the new top deck fitting over the fuel pipe. Mine was a close fit.
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