Floor Core question -

[oldbluesplayer]

On the last outing of last season, the port side seat pedestal pulled loose from the floor. I haven't worked on it over the winter, no space to do glasswork inside, and I prefer doing glass with the temp at 60 or better, but it's now gettin there.

So last weekend I removed both seat pedestals, and cut out the floor skin under the port side, the one that tipped over. It seems the coring is 6" plywood squares in the forward area where the seat pedestal mounts, but then back a little ways it changes to end core balsa. All appeared to be soaked.

When I measure the thickness, it appears to be 3/8" - but that doesn't seem right, nor jive with other comments I've seen in here - I also seem to recall reading somewhere that in the days this boat was built (1973) that endgrain balsa was only available down to 1/2" thickness, no thinner - so I'm guessing that proper thickness for the recore is 1/2".

I'm planning on replacing with ply, not synthetics.

What thickness do I want to go with ? 1/2 inch ?? I don't want to end up with the replaced areas standing up above the surrounding edges of the old floor skin, creating a monster fairing job.

thanks

Bill