Carpet To Sea Deck???

I have a 2004 Nitro 882 NX that I put full padding with new carpet on a little over a year ago. Everyone loves fishing off a padded deck. its the best and a true back saver. Best move I ever made. I also have 24' Four Winns deck boat that I have ordered SeaDek mat to install over the swim platform. I like the SeaDek material however, I would not recommend it for a Nitro bass boat. SeaDek cost for a 2x8 foot swim platform was about $650 for simple 6mm 2 color piping mat. Carpet and pad was much less in cost. Padding and quality marine carpet is the best option. SeaDek material has to be factory cut around latches and hinges leaving a gap and much of the aluminum lids exposed. Optically, not a great finished look as you would have edges with exposed fiberglass and aluminum below. I also found the floor section under the cockpit with no gelcoat. it had a clear epoxy covering the bare fiberglass. If you decide to carpet, carefully remove and save all the old carpet as best you can to use as a template for the new carpet. Regardless of what material you choose to use you will need to remove all glue from the entire surface and get down to bare fiberglass and aluminum. This was the toughest job. I used a combination of gel goof-off for the heavy stuff followed by spray goo-gone to clean up glue film. As a final step I used acetone on all the surfaces before gluing down the new carpet. Make sure to choose a marine grade closed cell padding that will not absorb and hold moisture. I used a 20oz carpet as anything thicker makes the lids difficult to open and close. Trim pad at a 45 degree angle on the hinge side of all lids. Use only contact cement to glue pad down to top of deck and lids. Marine water based glues will not work as gel coat, pad and rubber carpet padding will not allow the glue to properly breath and dry. Be sure to wear a 3M chem mask when working with contact cement. Also contact cement drys extremely fast especially in warm weather - try to do this job over the winter months and you will have a little time to position the material. Work a small portion at a time working center out. Finally, glue the carpet down over the pad. I used a heavy duty hand carpet roller to ensure good contact between all material and the deck. Good Luck. - Dave