1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

[Brickie]

Hello everybody, I am new to site but have owned my Searay for 12 years. I did a bellows job this year and made it through it by reading forums on this site. I took boat out once this season but noticed a soft spot in floor by engine cover . I investigated and decided to pull out drive and engine. I have been doing a little interior demo while getting stuff together. Today i removed out drive and motor, I know i will have questions and you all seem to be helpful. Here are some pictures of my project.

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Back at it tonight I got the wiring labeled and unhooked from trim pump, blower, and bilge. Removed the pump, exhaust elbow, inner transom, and gimbal housing. The transom did not look to bad but I know I have rot in star board side where stringer comes in because I drilled and brown wet came out then I took piece of stringer out where it buts transom and it was wet. I tap and it sounds bad on starboard side but not port. The bolts with anodes looked good but the other two bolts coming through from gimbal side looked rusty. Should I just clean them up or try to remove them? I would appreciate any comments. Thank you Here are a few pictures to up date, I took a lot for documentation but don't want to bore everybody.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Sooo, How's it going. Made any more progress. Can we help in any way??

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Thank you for reply Woodonglass. I have been to busy to get anymore done however today I received order from US Composites, so I am excited. Sunday I will begin carpet, fuel tank, and seat removal, after that I guess the real fun begins. I bought a respirator and tyvec suits. I have tools, just never did fiberglass demo or layup so any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Update took wife camping Alum Creek this weekend not a lot done , but managed to remove seats and gas tank. The seat bases are really sturdy and look like will take some elbow grease to remove the stringers definitely have some soft spots and false tank floor rotted. Here are some before and after photos.

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Update after dinner was able to use rigid multi tool to remove starboard side seat base, it took a little time to cut all the way around separating fiber glass tabbing. Then pried until foam under base finally let loose. The foam was not wet at all. The more I remove the smaller the project is, at least that's what i keep telling myself.

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Woodonglass, I was wondering if im ok to keep going with demo and rebuild with my boat on roller trailer, or will I need additional support as I remove stringers, floor, and transom? Thank you in advance for your replies.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

It depends on what all needs to be done. If all the stringers and bulk heads need to be removed as well as the transom then, I would say you need to build more support for her on the trailer or remove and place on a separate cradle. Roller Trailers are NOT good for restoration support especially once the foam is out of the hull.

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Thank you Woodonglass for your advice, I bought some 2x6's and had a couple hardwood plank laying around and some scrap 3/4" plywood so I went to work shoring up tight to underside of back 8' of boat and reinforced off axel in between rollers to stiffen hull up.

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Additional picture of shoring. Sorry guys tried to add picture to original post but it put it on new post. I got busy today and removed the other seat bases, floor , foam, stringers, and rear battery box / rear seat base. The foam was dry except in rear of boat and stringers were good 1' before bulk head at front of gas tank compartment by helm. The deck was solid except towards stern of boat. the false floor under gas tank was rotted. I'm hoping I won't have to go into the cuddy cabin ..

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Cut 3/4" marine grade plywood for transom,glued together with tite bond 3 waterproof glue. used screws where cut out will be and clamped as well. I waterproofed with resin and added 1.5oz csm to side to be glued to stern. Made my first Peanut butter and applied it with small notched trowel to wood and stern. Clamped it and waiting to get back to grinding as I believe have got all of bad wood out. I have been real busy and have not been working on boat lately and do not want rein to go bad or temperature to get to low. I can not believe it is Bow season already, it will have to wait.

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Hey guys anyone know how cold I can do polyester resin work?

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Hey guys anyone know how cold I can do polyester resin work?

60*F is about the minimum you want to try. I have a very similar boat to yours, it's a '87 Thompson 19' cuddy that I am also in the middle of repairing. I just finished glassing in a new fuel tank support *, rear bulkhead, and front engine mount support. I'm hoping that the warm weather here in NY will keep up a little longer so I can finish what I started
I also put a 10'x10' pop-up canopy over the boat and added plastic drapes over the sides. This way it keeps everything clean and dry, and you can throw an electric heater in there if you need to keep things warm on a cool night.

Looks like you don't have as much rot as I did when I started. I replaced my transom too about 5 years ago as it was nothing but mulch.

Best of luck with your project, I'll be keeping an eye on this one. My project link is attached to my sig feel free to stop by.

*edit*

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Yep 60? is about as cool as you wanna go. You can use heat lamps to heat the surface up mix the resin inside and then carry it out and apply it but you still run the risk of a poor bond. Cold weather glass work is a challenge. If you can keep everything @ 70? then no problemo!!!

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Yep 60? is about as cool as you wanna go. You can use heat lamps to heat the surface up mix the resin inside and then carry it out and apply it but you still run the risk of a poor bond. Cold weather glass work is a challenge. If you can keep everything @ 70? then no problemo!!!

I also want to add that lately I've been mixing catalyst at about 1.5 - 2% ratio. So say for a 350ml batch of resin, I'll mix in 5-6ml of hardener, no more than 7ml at most. It gives me about 15-30min working time and in 12hrs it's dry to the touch. This is with temps around 60-68 degrees. Also, I find it easier to work in multiple small batches of mixed resin at a time, than mixing a large cup at once and run the risk of it gelling on you.
I.E: Mix up a cup - get it out of the cup asap - get it onto the surface & wet out as much as you can - if you need more resin than stir-up another batch...repeat as necessary.
I find that this method lets me use resin very efficiently with little to no waste and I can keep moving along at a good pace.
Once all the glass is wetted out then you have plenty of time to fix little imperfections and air bubbles; as the resin is all spread out so is the heat, and it wont begin to gel for at least 1/2hr to an hr.
Just my 2 pennies..

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Thank you WOEISMEIGOTTA470 im going to enclose sides of the canopy I've got over the boat and put heater in and a thermometer to keep up on temperature. The resin I purchased two months ago and have not had time off to work on it and I don't want it to go bad. I went on your site, that motor is really sharp, nice work! The motor looks brand new and the engine bay rework is excellent. It makes me want to get fiberglass done and work on my motor.

 

[Brickie]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Hey Woodonglass thank you for reply im going to make sure it is 70*, by enclosing canopy sides and using heater, will mix in heated garage that is to filled to get boat in. I have been to your transom and stringer diagrams which was a big help with transom work. This site is awesome!

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Hey Woodonglass thank you for reply im going to make sure it is 70*, by enclosing canopy sides and using heater, will mix in heated garage that is to filled to get boat in. I have been to your transom and stringer diagrams which was a big help with transom work. This site is awesome!

One good thing this site is good for: keeping me motivated to work haha. For some reason your boat looks big for a 19 footer. Also it's interesting to see how different the hull and stringer design is on your sea ray when compared to my thompson, specifically the height of the stringers. I'm also curious how your engine performs? Technically, the 6cyl I plan to drop in is rated for 165HP, where as the old 470 4cyl I had in it was rated for 180, but I'm anticipating much better torque from the I6. Also I doubt I ever experienced a full 180 hp with my old tired engine...

Oh and btw my resin sat for a year in the 5 gal pale, I only just opened it and used it and it was fine (albeit I gave it a good stir with the drill 1st). I know they say there's a limited shelf life so definitely good to use it up sooner rather than later.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Oh and btw my resin sat for a year in the 5 gal pale, I only just opened it and used it and it was fine (albeit I gave it a good stir with the drill 1st). I know they say there's a limited shelf life so definitely good to use it up sooner rather than later.

Temp & humidity affect shelf life too.

I think using old MEKP is more problematic then old resin.

Since you can't use 1 w/out the other, they are purchased together & are usually the same 'age', it's the MEKP that fails to fully catalyze the poly resin.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1984 19' Searay Seville Cuddy transom. stringer, and floor rebuild.

Stirring resin with a Drill paddle is not a good idea IMO. You never want to introduce air bubbles into the resin and power mixing will do this in a hurry. Stick to hand mixing, it's a much better method.