Re: 80's sylvan splashwell removal &transom rebuild
Give me some time to think about this one as to thing I'd do different. I'll write them down as I remember them and post here. What kind of boat are you doing and can you throw in a picture?
As for rigidity, I haven't noticed any problems at all. Some may disagree but it's just crap metal that really wasn't attached all that well to anything solid anyways. mostly screws into the wood transom and a couple rivets int the gunnels. I layed a bead of 5200 calk between the new splashwell and the transom and it's still holding. If there was any flex I'd assume that caulk would have pulled out. If you're going to remove the splashwell for sure I'd seriously consider doing it when you do the transom as taking the screws out of the transom was the hardest part of getting out the splashwell.
Here's a short list of things I'd do different, like I said, I'll add more.
1) I'd consider doing an all metal frame if I knew somebody who could do cheap welding. The wood was easier to work with but I think Aluminum would have been a cleaner look.
2) I had new AL bent and welded to form the new cap over the transom. We used 1/8 inch which may have been overkill. My dad took off the metal top corner brackets on the gunnels and cut them because the new cap wouldn't fit under them. I wasn't there when he did it unfortunately. It would have been wiser and prettier to make sure those corners would fit over top of the new transom cap.....we should have just trimmed 1/4 inch off the transom height . (I hope that makes sense).
3) I built the new transom with 2 layers of 3/4 plywood and an outer layer of 1/16 aluminum. I glued them all together and then had that outer aluminum welded along the original transom line. I'm not sure that was the right way, but it did work and looks decent. I wanted to do a complete inner skin of aluminum on the wood transom but it was too thick to fit into the boat transom brackets.
4) I think the top of my rear deck is 16 or 18 inches off the floor. I plan to add a flip up bench seat to it at some point. One thing to consider when setting the height is to make sure your steering arm can move freely. Mine comes out right at the very top of the splashwell right under the plywood deck. I wish I had gone another 1/2 inch higher with the deck because it would be easier to get the steering arm in and out. I really had to fight with it.
5) Make sure your new splashwell area is wide enough! The bottom of my steering arm just touches the plywood deck on the other side. I got lucky that it doesn't restrict steering but had I gone any narrower it would be a problem.
6) I re-routed the linkage, gas and electrical to enter all from the side. My shifting/throttle cables are wound pretty tight, almost to the point where I wouldn't be able to shift. As others have pointed out, there needs to be a loop of those cables before they enter the motor, and they really should enter from the front, not the side. I plan to change that this spring.
7)I have a pic of a splashwell somebody made and I'll post it when I find it. I made mine by re-bending the old one. That was a lot of work and it isn't as pretty as it could have been had I just found somebody to bend new metal. It would have been pretty easy to use 3 pieces and just rivet them together and run a bead of 5200 on the seam.
8) I wish I had welded over the old transom drain hole and raised it up and inch or two and made the splashwell a bit more shallow. It's still above the water line but when a couple of us are on the back deck like when helping a skier got out of the water that drain gets pretty close to the waterline. No big deal really but I will do that if I ever make changes.
Overall I'm glad i did it. The boat is so much better for fishing, tubing and skiing. I haven't been out in any waves over 2 feet yet but I'm not too worried about the lower splashwell height overall, since it used to come to the top of the gunnels. I have a 750 gph bilge pump and I'm adding a second 1000gph pump this spring. With the young kids though my wife gets nervous about them falling out the back, that's part of the reason I want to add the flip up bench seat.
I hope this made sense, any questions feel free to ask and I'll add more as I think of it.
