Transom replacement

Joker2 · #1 10-03-2009, 05:04 PM

Well I finally got another day to rip into this transom, did the messy part grinding back all the old glass, made the template and cut the wood. I'm not sure how I did, did I grind back far enough? I'm not quitesure how I am going to put the bilge area back together, It was cracked when I started to take it out so I wasn't too carefull with my cuts ( I think that was a big mistake )I kind of destroyed it. Should I repair it? or try and make a new one? Any ideas how I can get past this obstacle? I feel like I may be in over my head. Any input would be great. I sent theses pic's

Joker2 · #2 10-03-2009, 06:04 PM

Sorry about the pic of my daughter !

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS · #3 10-03-2009, 06:56 PM

First off you shouldn't had cut the outer skin of the transom. What you should of done was cut about two feet the cap, unscrew some of the rub rail and remove tha section of the cap, then remove the inner layer of the glass and ALL the plywood, by doing that you still have the skin outside to use as a guide(our boats have bowed transoms, not straight), and also you could cut the floor about 2-3 feet in to tie the new plywood to the stringers(most likely the stringers back there are rotted too.

Now, what you have to do is remove the rest of the glass from the inside(at the last pic. shows that you have about a foot left), remove the rest of the rotted plywood and i think you still have to cut the cap away anyway. Sure looks like a big mess now but when you done is gonna be good for another 30 years or so. Use marine plywood, do be cheap on that, otherwise you gonna regret it later. Good luck and keep the pics coming.

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS · #4 10-03-2009, 06:57 PM

Oh, your daughter looks so cute, god bless her.

BenFishin · #5 10-04-2009, 08:49 PM

Yikes. thats gonna be tough. Marine plywood does not have to be used and as a matter of fact its proven to not be the best stuff. The chemicals in marine plywood do not allow full penetration of epoxy. A good idea would be to buy some very good grade birch ply or exterior ply and before installation put a few layers of resin on it. But make sure if you wait til it comepletly cures to sand or get a profile again for all subsequent laminations or glassing. i would recommend doing a lot of research on other transom projects on other sights such as classicseacraft.com classicmako.com there are a bunch more that i cant think of. Look into resin types, cloth weigths/angles etc. there is a lot more to it then the pics you see but there are tons of good documentaries on this stuff. Wish you the best of luck captn.

nymack66 · #6 10-05-2009, 08:43 AM

Good job so far, as for the removal of the skin its a strong debate same as uing plywood or Arjay like I did, I removed the skin on my boat because it was tough to remove the plywood that was not completely rotten. See my project posted on www.nymack66.com. What is to be noted is NOT the removal but the emphases I placed on the re-attaching it back, My goal was to make the SKIN both inside an out stronger than before and trust me I did using MAT and resin. Just do the same if not better and you will be fine..Good luck and keep us posted ..Let me know if I can help in anyway ..

BenFishin · #7 10-05-2009, 01:43 PM

Im sure you meant cloth not mat. Mat is no good whatso ever for a transom. In the course of my research i hated tryin to decifer if the person actuall meant mat or actually cloth. HUGE difference. Its a common term used for fiberglass "material" MAT. You wanna use a biax fabric on the transom. And best to use 45 degree 1708 or 1208. but whatever you do dont use mat.

Skools Out · #8 10-06-2009, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BenFishin

Im sure you meant cloth not mat. Mat is no good whatso ever for a transom. In the course of my research i hated tryin to decifer if the person actuall meant mat or actually cloth. HUGE difference. Its a common term used for fiberglass "material" MAT. You wanna use a biax fabric on the transom. And best to use 45 degree 1708 or 1208. but whatever you do dont use mat.

exactly as he said Mack if you used MAT you will have issues.

RidgeRunner · #9 10-06-2009, 01:15 PM

I agree that mat should not be the only material used for the transom but wouldn't you agree it is still ok to lay woven roven into a couple layers of mat, the old school way . Many of the stitched up multi directional products available today were not even invented when these boats were made. Mat can be your friend, hardware cloth on the other hand is more for surfacing IMO.
Marine grade plywood is nothing more than fir with exterior grade glue and cores with less voids. It can be pressure treated and dried after treatment or it can be purchased untreated. It can be laminated with vinylester resin but the surface is too smooth for much penetration so you have to rough it up with 60 grit to get a good bond. I know of several boat manufacturers that thin the first coat of resin when using the marine plywood for better penetration. They refer to it as a hot coat.
I prefer composite cores but they are high $$$$

Joker2 · #10 10-06-2009, 02:54 PM

Thanks for your input. I have to make up 1-1/4" of transom wood was planning on the 3/4" marine ply that I already have, and can get my hands on some 1/2" cdx ply. Do you think this is ok to mix two different types of ply? Should I glue and screw them together or just glue? I saw some other guys made their transoms out of three pieces I have to do the same so I can get it to fit in. I was thinking of offsetting the seems between the 3/4 and the 1/2 for strength, what do you think? Also I have another post up with more pictures of the old Bilge area, any ideas on that? Thanks a lot for your thoughts!