1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

[Marada92]

Hello all... Ive went through hundreds of threads on restores on here and saw how much fun you all were having I decided id join in on it! Yea right. I bought this little 18 foot bowrider off a family friend as my first boat about two years back. Id grown up in a 22' Lowe all aluminum deckboat so had no idea what trouble areas to look for in a fiberglass boat. Man did I ever learn real fast! Unfortunatly I didnt come across iboats until after my purchase or else I wouldnt have made every newbie mistake possible. The biggest being buying a 20 year old boat off another newbie boater! I didnt realize this boat had any problems until installing smart tabs and having water pour out of a hole that went into the wood in the transom. I got that nice sick feeling all of you have experienced at some time of another im sure. But with all the history out of the way here is what im left with. Interior on this boat was in near perfect condition considering it was 20 years old. Only two tears in all the vinyl. Made me think this boat mustve been taken care of. Wrong again! I also added the wakeboat tower before I realized the problem.:facepalm:

I began searching around in the boat trying to find out exactly how bad the rot was. Here is the inside of the ski locker looking towards the boat and also the bulkhead in the back of the ski locker. ROT all the way to the bow. Oh this does not look good. Notice the white growth on the bottom of the deck?

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Got most of the interior taken out today. Going to make getting that motor unhooked a whole lot easier. Ive got a few pics I took as I was working along. Once I was able to remove the floor piece that was covering the gas tank I found that the manufacturer had actually glassed over the stringers up through the gas take area. But the fact that the cover had been screwed into them make that pointless. Stuck one of the screws back into the hole in the stringer... Nothing there! Some came out with black goop.. others were completely hollow. Should make teaking it all out easy. Ill have some questions later about the area below the gas tank but ill leave those until I actually get the tank out. So far its looking like a complete rebuild from the hull up which I expected and would rather do. Starting fresh means I know it ALL sealed right and leaves me with some piece of mind. It honestly amazes me how this boat held together as long as it has!

Ive got to find somewhere to put the 20 some odd gallons of gas still in the tank. Everything in this boat looks like it was pieced together. There are 1x1 pieces of wood screwed to the stringers that keep the tank from rising up any along with what looks to be a piece of angle aluminum glassed onto the edge of the deck at the front of the compartment and then glassed to the tank itself. Wont know for sure until I get to tearing it apart. Anybody need some gas.. Ill sell it for $3 a gallon!

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Welcome to iBoats!

You really have a project on your hands. The good news is there are LOTS of similar threads here on the forum to help you along the way. I think your prognosis is correct, a total hull up resto is in your future.
www.uscomposites.com is a great source for material.

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Thanks for the welcome! I've looked through about every thread I could find on here and thanks to them I feel like I could do this is my sleep. Keyword being "feel". But I've had the pleasure of watching all of Jays videos on his Glaston and current sea Ray restore. Those great videos took me from there's no way I can do this.. To you know I can actually pull this off! Just going to take some time which I have plenty of. Thank you for the advice on uscomposites.. I will definatly check into them.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Welcome to dry dock. That's a gorgeous boat well worth the effort to fix up. Glad you already found Frisco's thread as I'm thinking that's going to end up being the goldstandard thread for this type of project. Good luck with it.

 

[Piece715]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Welcome! Ezmobee said it right "Dry dock". I'm almost 3 years into my restore and loving every minute of it. This is a good bunch of guys and gals on here willing to help all ya got to do is ask. Just remember there is water at the end of the tunnel. Smooth waters to ya!

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Thanks for the compliment on the boat. And thankfully his sea ray is set up about the same as mine as far as stringers are concerned. I've got a keel stringer to deal with and the transom is smaller due to the tunnel at the rear. On another note I realized the other day I've got some slop in the hinge pins on the drive. You can see the pins moving inside the gimbal ring when you lift up on the outdrive. Is there supposed to be any slack and if not what's a fix? New gimbal ring? That'd be another small fortune I'd hate to spend!

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

I've been looking around uscomposites website gathering prices trying to grasp what I'm going to be looking at as far as totals go for materials. I am planning on doing 1.5 CSM for waterproofing on the transom and maybe stringers and bulkheads then tabbing those in with 1708 biax tape..6" followed by 12". I've read the tape is a waste of money because you can cut your strips from the 1708 roll but seeing as this is my first time working with fiberglass I'd rather take the easier route with the tape. But I then plan to cover the transom and stringers completely with the 1708. But the deck I haven't done much researching on. What would be the best layup. I'm hoping to gelcoat the entire deck. If I can get away with the 1.5 and 1708 on that also what would be a decent guess at amount of cloth and mat needed? Right now I have my totals set to get 25 yard rolls of each. Way to much or not enough?

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Thanks for the Vote Ezobee. That is a really nice looking boat, and I was in the "there is no way I can do this" around the first of this year. I am going to watch this thread and help as much as I can.

Getting the right amount of supplies is a problem. I started with 15 gallon of ply. one full roll of 1.5 oz csm and one roll of 1708. Plus all the little crap that you can get at home depot.

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Thanks Jay.. I'll take any help I can get! I had started saying this would be a summer build but I'm thinking I'm going to stretch it out. Try to spread the cost out some but we will see. I'd like to have it done to atleast run before the end of the summer but I'm still going to take my time and make sure it's all done right!

 

[rickryder]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Welcome Aboard! Nice looking rig ya got! Well worth the rebuild I'll be watching your thread to see how your making out and anything I can help with. Good Luck with your project!

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

I am into this for about 2 grand right now. I still have to buy foam and gelcoat.

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

How many yards come on a full roll? They just had the price per lbs once you got over 25 yards. And I'm expecting to be up around that amount also by the time I get done. Looking like I'm going to be in the market for a new.. Well wait.. What I mean is "new to me" gimbal ring once the inside is done. Hopefully I can find a good used one because the price for new is just not setting well with me. Had to look twice just to make sure I saw it right!

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Scratcth that first question.. I overlooked it somehow but it says 90-100 yards. I'm going to check with a distributor here in town also just to see how prices match up. Would atleast eliminate shipping.

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Well only thing I've accomplished so far was getting the motor de-winterized. Wanted to make sure everything was running right before I pulled it. Only had to turn over a few seconds before she fired up. Atleast there is one thing on this boat that works right! I also drilled a few exploratory holes around the boat just to see how bad the rot really was. Found rot or wet wood everywhere I looked except the top half of the transom and motor mounts. Don't see how those motor mounts are still solid when the bulkhead 6" away is basically gone. Which leads me to my next question. If the motor mounts are indeed completely dry and solid would it be easier to salvage those or just completely rebuild them? Feels that's one of my main concerns is getting those back in just right because it looks like the forward motor mounts are adjusted as high as they will go. Doesn't leave me with much fudge room. Also when I get ready to pull the cap what should I do to support the hull so I don't have any flexing in the hull. I'm doing all of this on the trailer and it only has two bunks that are about a foot from the keel. Plus the keel rollers don't touch the hull for some reason. Got to fix that issue.

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

I started out trying to save some things, but once I thought about it, I just took it all out. Take good measurements and pictures for reference.

My roll was 156 pounds @ 2.99 a pound. That is just a little more than what I found on the internet, but when you factor in shipping, it was no comparison. I purchased locally. Granted, not everyone will have that option. Dallas is a HUGE city, and you can just about find anything, if you shake enough trees.

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

I live just outside of Memphis so there's bound to be a few distributors around. The R&D dept at my work uses uses both poly and epoxy making molds for production so I'll check and see if they get it locally. I didn't check on how much shipping would be from uscomposites.. But I'm sure it'll be a good amount.

 

[fat fanny]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Get with your shipping and recieving guy at work and ask him if the R&D people have no idea sometimes you can get it shipped to your work and save on some costs? we do it at our shop and the owners are always pretty good about it.

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

Boy oh boy.. Three straight days of severe storms and tornado warnings makes me forget that I even have a boat. It's been a rough few days. Now after the 10 inches of rain we've had there is widespread flooding... Mighty Mississippi is expected to hit record highs 14' over flood stage in next few days.. Starting to think I might have to leave the old boat together to make sure I don't need it to get to work! Hope anyone else in the southeast has been staying safe in all this crazy weather.

 

[Marada92]

Re: 1992 Marada 1800MVB.. stringer, transom, deck restore

So I'm still stuck on what measures should be done to support the hull. I'm having to remove the cap to get to the floor under the bow seating and it's kind of concerning me the hull could get out of shape. I could do like some and do the transom the each stringer seperately but I'd really much rather strip it to bare hull because I think it will be easier. Boat is sitting on a two bunk trailer.. Both under the main stringers and run as far forward as the stringers do. Will this be enough support or do I need to do more? What can I do to keep the sides of the hull from moving out once the cap is off and inside removed?