Taking the Transom out

#1 02-05-2007, 10:06 PM

The interior of my 1978 Cutty Cabin is almost total mush. Tried to dig out the old wood with an electric chain saw. The chain saw worked great as far as it would reach 16". need a lot longer blade. Don't see a way to get to the remaining wet rot from inside the boat without removing the top deck, part of the interior flooring and motor well. To much to take apart and put back. Believe the best repair method is from the outside to come in about 2 inches from the sides and bottrom. Using a side grinder bevel both sides of the 2 inch line until I grind through to the rot. Dig out the rot. Insert epoxy coated plywood. Pour an epoxy filler in the 2 inch area at the bottom. Bolt on the portion which was cut out and start filling the voids with an epoxy filler. Once the transom is filled refiberglass the transom and paint. The entire boat needs painting.

If there is a better and/or simpler way please let me know.

Would not be surprised to read GET ANOTHER BOAT. Bought the boat with a 2001 Yamaha V150 with only 51 hours on the motor, it also has a 2001 SeaStar 1.7 front-mount hydraulic steering system.

msbhammer · #2 02-05-2007, 11:17 PM

Not sure what your saying. Your saying the interior inside the cuddy is rotten or just the transom ?
Post some pics. of your project. We have guys that have done total rebuilds on transoms and removing the cap. Looking forward to seeing some project pictures.

Airslot · #3 02-05-2007, 11:47 PM

It's a bunch of work, but what you described will work fine.

Airslot

#4 02-06-2007, 01:47 AM

Hammer,
Just the transom at this time, thank goodness. Should have written "the intreior of the transom of my------" is mush.

reelapeelin · #5 02-06-2007, 01:42 PM

Is there a way of bustin' up the mush like w/ along crow-bar, then suckin' it out w/ a shop-vac?...just somethin' longer to get it outta there?...

...if not, the way you describe will work fine... ;) ...

macojoe · #6 02-06-2007, 02:34 PM

There are 3 ways to do this.

1. is to do what you described and cut 2 or 3 inches in from the sides and take all wood out and then refiberglass the skin back on.

2. same thing but do it from the inside

3 remove the cap (big job) and go from there.

Good Luck!

spareparts · #7 02-07-2007, 10:54 AM

check out this site, they have a good method of removing the rotten wood with the auger bit, I haven't tried their repair stuff( it is expensive).

http://transomrepair.com/zk/

Years ago I talked to a guy who ran a big glass shop in west Fl(Porta Products). he used the same method to dig out the old transom, but he left the inner skin in place, rather than making a mold on the inside. He said they would take a 5 gal bucket, pour 3 gal of resin in it, then mix in what ever scrap chop glass, grinding dust, saw dust, milled fibers, cabosil, micro baloons, or what ever they swept up off the floor of the shop, till it got to the right thickness, then pour it in the boat where the transom was. The inner skin would make the inside of the mold to hold the mix( just make suire to tape any holes to keep the stuff from running out). He showed me a picture of a big go-fast with three merc outboards on it, on brackets. He said they had repaired the transom in that boat the same way and had no problems with it. I have never tried to repair a transom this way, but it is tempting to try it out.

spareparts · #8 02-07-2007, 10:58 AM

this is Porta Products site, check out their brackets! Pretty cool.

http://www.portaproducts.com/

macojoe · #9 02-07-2007, 01:08 PM

They look nice!! But I think on are boats tou really need the flotaion to help with the weight on the back and low transom.

Stillrunning · #10 02-07-2007, 04:02 PM

I have taken apart a center consol and it was not that bad of a job. I first grouped the wires to each gauge (only the ones which had to be removed some jumper wires and can stay) then i marked each with diferent color fingernail polish. Now I have each grouped and labled for each gauge and color coded. I then removed anthing else which was attached to both sections, bow lights, gas filler line etc... We then unscrewed the two sections and cut the caulk loose. Oh, we did remove the motor and steering & throttle cable. If I'm correct it only took us one day to get to this point and none of us had done this before. I then rigged a pulley in a tree limb and then to the inner section. Using a truck we slowly raise the section as I checked for anything we may have missed. If you have to go between the two sections brase off the two using 2x4 running across the bottom section. We then raised above the lower section and pushed the lower section out of the way. Lowered ineer section and it was apart. Now you can fix any stringers, transom, and flooring from the inside without tearing up the fiber glass. It did take some time but was not that bad of a job and having access to the whole interor of the hule proved to be very benificial as we made other repairs. I would think that the cabin will added a little more time to the job. I found the the inner linning while heavy was not that heavy we could move around with 4 or 5 guys.