Thanks! I plan on putting down white gel coat over the fiberglass in the bilge and storage areas to dress it up.

Great idea.

made some progress today. I was able to cut out the starboard stringer and outboard bulkhead system. There was a ton of rot but luckily I found dry solid wood about 2ft from the main bulkhead at the bow which is also dry and solid. I plan on butting a new stringer up to the old stringer and run another piece of ply along the inboard side to add strength and help with the joint. Should last longer than I plan on keeping her.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...psml1rodoa.jpg

Update: I have been making more progress recently. I was able to grind down the old fiber glass some more. I also glued in the right stringer in today with epoxy glue. Now I have to sand off the areas where the epoxy leaked out. Hopefully this week I will be able to fillet and tab in the starboard stringer. I need to get my hand on some cabosil this week.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...pswvo7nln3.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...pssd7olufb.jpg

Nice work.
Going to tackle my transom now that the snow is melting.

Questions;
How much arjay did you use?

What are those metal standoff things that appear to be spacing the skins?

You used poly resin. Is it OK to use epoxy with arjay?

I plan to cut the inside skin 3" from the corners, dig out wood, glass the old skin back in using epoxy resin. All of my fiberglassing experience is with epoxy.
I read that it is best for "repairs" of old glass and has better adhesive qualities.

Did you pour it solid and re-drill holes for drains? Any problems/suggestions?


Thanks for any suggestions you can make.

I used 3 5 gallon pails so 15 gallons total

Those metal looking things are 2x4's wrapped in duct tape.

I used poly to laminate everything back, remember with epoxy, epoxy sticks to poly and vinyl ester but poly and vinyl ester doesn't stick to epoxy.

Epoxy is over kill but I would use what you are used to.

I poured it solid, I will cut holes and reglass later.

You can PM me with any questions you may have, good luck!

Love seeing and reading about cap off restorations.

I'd post any questions here so everyone else down the road can benefit from others prior experience.

Very good point bradford.

I did want to share a tip for anyone interested.

The easiest and less messy way I found to remove the foam from the side of the hull is to use a shovel. You basically just dig into the foam and it pops apart in big chunks and there isn't a bunch of dust like you get with a chainsaw or a sander. Each side took me about a 1/2 hour to remove all the foam. I also had those large garbage bags made for putting leaves and grass in. I used them to put the foam inside of and I just put them at the curb after for garbage collection.

Also, what works excellent to remove the remaining pieces of foam is a angle grinder with a wire wheel on it. To get into those hard to reach places a hard bristle wire brush works great.

I also don't plan on putting foam back into the sides. I will cut the edge of the ribs where they meet at the bottom of the hull and the stringers that will allow water to flow back into the bilge.

How much flex did the hull have with doing one side at a time? Did you do it that way to keep the hull straight?

Not as much flex as you would think it would have. It helps that it's supported bow to stern on a nice 4x6 trailer bunk. I would say that the bunks are about 10ft long or so, then I have a support under the front of the bow. side to side movement is minimal. I weigh about 300lb so it's supported pretty well.

I did it one side at a time for a few reasons. Like you mentioned, so it would help with keeping everything from flexing as much. Also, so that way I have a reference when rebuilding the new stringer.

Once the new stringer is tabbed in and before I put the top layer to cap it off, I am going to measure against the old stronger and then add more glass or remove wood to get it as close as possible to how it was.