Transom repair on a Gamefisher Fiberglass boat

[mudvapor]

Hey guys,
I am sure this question has been answered a thousand times but I can?t find a post that explains it in its entirety. I have some experience with fiberglass repair on cars but not on boats. I have a late 1970?s early 1980?s Gamefisher 14 foot tri-hull that I would like to replace the transom in. The wood was rotted out but the skin on the back of the boat was in pretty good shape. As you can see by the pictures I have removed the wood and am getting it ready to start the repair. My question is what method of repair and what kind of ?system? should I use. It seems like most of the posts are about repairing the transoms in the larger boats. I am not real worried about cost, I just want to do it right and I only want to do it once. I would then like to paint the entire boat so I would also like some advice on that too. Keep in mind that I am a novice so when you start talking about products to use, please tell me the brand names so I can look them up.
Thanks

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Transom repair on a Gamefisher Fiberglass boat

Transom replacement on a smaller boat isn't much different than on a bigger one... it's just easier, cheaper, and quicker.

You'll need to grind the inside skin of your transom back to good fiberglass and remove all of that black crud so you can get a good bond for your new wood and adhesive.

Use a good grade of exterior plywood, ACX or BCX. You can find this at Home Depot or Lowes.

Use marine grade polyester (cheaper) or epoxy (expensive) resin, West systems is a popular brand name and they're available at the iboats store on this forum. You'll want to use 1708 fiberglass cloth and it's also available at the iboats store.

You'll also need a powdered filler like cabosil and maybe some milled fiber to make your resin adhesive to bond the wood to your transom skin.

Take a look here for your supplies:
http://www.iboats.com/Fiberglass-Epoxy-Boat-Repair-Building/dm/view_id.217324

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Transom repair on a Gamefisher Fiberglass boat

Welcome to iBoats!

I'm not sure you have the entire transom totally removed. The section at the bottom where the drain tube is located is also considered part of the transom. The entire rear section of the boat is. What size of motor are you planning on using to power the boat? You will need to grind the bottom and sides of the hull in order to tab the new transom to the hull bottom and sides for structural strength. We can/will show you how when the time comes.

 

[sphelps]

Re: Transom repair on a Gamefisher Fiberglass boat

The pic from the outside of the transom kinda looks like there may not be wood at the bottom Woody ..
See how it slopes in a few inches up ..
Welcome aboard Mudvaper !

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Transom repair on a Gamefisher Fiberglass boat

The pic from the outside of the transom kinda looks like there may not be wood at the bottom Woody ..
See how it slopes in a few inches up ..

Uh huh, looks like a very simple elongated rectangle when you look at the outside back of the transom in pic #3.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Transom repair on a Gamefisher Fiberglass boat

Yeah, but...it's 1 1/2" of sumthun! That drain tube is stuck thru sumthun. I'm curious as to what it is and if it's solid. That's All I'm sayin.

 

[sphelps]

Re: Transom repair on a Gamefisher Fiberglass boat

Maybe it has 2 layers in the middle with just one layer around the edges . A little hard to tell . op2:

 

[mudvapor]

Re: Transom repair on a Gamefisher Fiberglass boat

Welcome to iBoats!

I'm not sure you have the entire transom totally removed. The section at the bottom where the drain tube is located is also considered part of the transom. The entire rear section of the boat is. What size of motor are you planning on using to power the boat? You will need to grind the bottom and sides of the hull in order to tab the new transom to the hull bottom and sides for structural strength. We can/will show you how when the time comes.

The bottom section is in really great shape and shows no sign of damage so I am going to leave it alone. The motor that I use for this is an Johnson 9.9hp.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Transom repair on a Gamefisher Fiberglass boat

If you're only hangin a 9.9hp on her then doin that middle section should be more than ample for that motor. Fabricate a new transom from ext. grade plywood, coat it with resin, mix up some thickened resin to adhere it to the outer skin, clamp it in place, Fillet the edges, sand all the surrounding area tab the transom to the inside hull put a couple of full layers of 1708 over the entire transom and paint or gel coat it and your back on the water.