a4haus
Cadet
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2015
- Messages
- 11
Here is my first and last boat 
. She's a unique twenty foot cabin-outboard boat with a 90 horsepower Mercury "Tower of Power". I found this boat on Google, so I drove from Rhode Island to Maine and brought her home. I really didn't know much about boats at the time, but I realized that the transom was compromised when I started inspecting her closer. Knowing that it needed a transom rebuild and not wanting to cut up the deck just yet, it very well could need stringers too, I decided to use Seacast to make the repair for a couple of reasons. One reason being that Seacast is superior to wood in that it will never rot out again and the other reason was that I don't have a temperature controlled garage to do the massive amount of fiberglass work needed. The inner and outer skins are in good shape on the boat and that will help make my repair that much easier.
Being that this is my first time fixing a transom, and I have zero fiber-glassing experience, the purpose of this post is to show what I've done, and to get some advice as I near completion. I want to share my project with the internet, so people can reference for themselves how I succeed and failed at finishing this project. I've already had a few minor failures and some good success. Some of the things I can share with people are the tools I've purchased for the project, the costs of the project, and how to deal with a large transom with large splash wings. There are definitely some challenges to overcome, and serious expenses that have already been incurred to complete this project that I plan to finish July 1st 2015. So for now here is the pictorial, I will add some references to tools and other people's Seacast jobs by editing this post until the project is done.
Front of the Boat.
Back of the boat.
Evidence of failed transom. I also drilled out a test hole and water came dripping out. When I cut the cap I could see that the actual plywood was de-laminated at the top. Make sure you have some safety gear before you start working, a good dust mask or respirator, goggles, and ear plugs. Whatever you do, don't wash your fiberglass shard covered dirty clothes with your work clothes, your next day back at work won't be fun...ouch.
Removing the outboard was pretty straight forward, take pictures as you unhook things. The steering tube got stuck but I worked it out with lithium grease finally. The motor has to be lifted off the boat before you can take out the steering. You either need a good tree branch or you can make a gallows hoist like this one. The chain hoist was from sears.com for ($35). All of the wood was 70% off on sale at Home Depot ($40), bent and warped but it worked fine with 3 inch screws holding it together and 2 big bolts at each top corner ($15). I had to buy a circular saw ($30 Sears).
Cutting the transom cap with a Harbor Freight Angle Grinder and 4 Inch Cutting Wheel ($35 Harbor Freight). If I knew what I was doing, and the shape of the inner skin, I might have been able to cut this better and save the cap but owell. I definitely reccomend you cut the cap off from the top of the transom and not from the sides, so that you save the height. Make sure you have the right gauge and length extention cord for your tools, I didn't have the right one and had to buy a shorter thicker extension cord, 50 Foot 14 AWG for ($22 Walmart).
:
Drilling holes with a very necessary Harbor Freight Heavy Duty Low Speed Drill ($40 Harbor Freight w/ Coupon), Dewalt 1-1/4" Auger Bit ($35 Amazon), and Milwaukee Auger Bit 18 Inch Impact Rated 7/16 Extension ($23 Ebay). I also needed a 1-3/8" MLCS Forstner bit with three 12 inch Milwaukee extensions 3/8 hex drive ($20 Amazon for MLCS Forstner Bit and $30 Home Depot for extensions).
Chainsawing out the wood with a new Husqvarna Rancher 460, 24 inch bar chainsaw ($470 Amazon). I needed the saw anyways and it would have cost me $160 to rent it for two days. You might be able to get away with renting a chainsaw for 1 day if you have all the drill stuff lined up, like the Forstner and Auger bit with extensions ready to go.
Done cleaning out 99% of the wood, a piece of flat steel 1-1/2 x 36 x 1/4 inch, sharpened from Home Depot ($10) helped greatly. I had to make an long extension for my shopvac out of left over plastic gutter I had laying around to vacuum out the wood.
More to come.
. She's a unique twenty foot cabin-outboard boat with a 90 horsepower Mercury "Tower of Power". I found this boat on Google, so I drove from Rhode Island to Maine and brought her home. I really didn't know much about boats at the time, but I realized that the transom was compromised when I started inspecting her closer. Knowing that it needed a transom rebuild and not wanting to cut up the deck just yet, it very well could need stringers too, I decided to use Seacast to make the repair for a couple of reasons. One reason being that Seacast is superior to wood in that it will never rot out again and the other reason was that I don't have a temperature controlled garage to do the massive amount of fiberglass work needed. The inner and outer skins are in good shape on the boat and that will help make my repair that much easier.Being that this is my first time fixing a transom, and I have zero fiber-glassing experience, the purpose of this post is to show what I've done, and to get some advice as I near completion. I want to share my project with the internet, so people can reference for themselves how I succeed and failed at finishing this project. I've already had a few minor failures and some good success. Some of the things I can share with people are the tools I've purchased for the project, the costs of the project, and how to deal with a large transom with large splash wings. There are definitely some challenges to overcome, and serious expenses that have already been incurred to complete this project that I plan to finish July 1st 2015. So for now here is the pictorial, I will add some references to tools and other people's Seacast jobs by editing this post until the project is done.
Front of the Boat.
Back of the boat.
Evidence of failed transom. I also drilled out a test hole and water came dripping out. When I cut the cap I could see that the actual plywood was de-laminated at the top. Make sure you have some safety gear before you start working, a good dust mask or respirator, goggles, and ear plugs. Whatever you do, don't wash your fiberglass shard covered dirty clothes with your work clothes, your next day back at work won't be fun...ouch.
Removing the outboard was pretty straight forward, take pictures as you unhook things. The steering tube got stuck but I worked it out with lithium grease finally. The motor has to be lifted off the boat before you can take out the steering. You either need a good tree branch or you can make a gallows hoist like this one. The chain hoist was from sears.com for ($35). All of the wood was 70% off on sale at Home Depot ($40), bent and warped but it worked fine with 3 inch screws holding it together and 2 big bolts at each top corner ($15). I had to buy a circular saw ($30 Sears).
Cutting the transom cap with a Harbor Freight Angle Grinder and 4 Inch Cutting Wheel ($35 Harbor Freight). If I knew what I was doing, and the shape of the inner skin, I might have been able to cut this better and save the cap but owell. I definitely reccomend you cut the cap off from the top of the transom and not from the sides, so that you save the height. Make sure you have the right gauge and length extention cord for your tools, I didn't have the right one and had to buy a shorter thicker extension cord, 50 Foot 14 AWG for ($22 Walmart).
:
Drilling holes with a very necessary Harbor Freight Heavy Duty Low Speed Drill ($40 Harbor Freight w/ Coupon), Dewalt 1-1/4" Auger Bit ($35 Amazon), and Milwaukee Auger Bit 18 Inch Impact Rated 7/16 Extension ($23 Ebay). I also needed a 1-3/8" MLCS Forstner bit with three 12 inch Milwaukee extensions 3/8 hex drive ($20 Amazon for MLCS Forstner Bit and $30 Home Depot for extensions).
Chainsawing out the wood with a new Husqvarna Rancher 460, 24 inch bar chainsaw ($470 Amazon). I needed the saw anyways and it would have cost me $160 to rent it for two days. You might be able to get away with renting a chainsaw for 1 day if you have all the drill stuff lined up, like the Forstner and Auger bit with extensions ready to go.
Done cleaning out 99% of the wood, a piece of flat steel 1-1/2 x 36 x 1/4 inch, sharpened from Home Depot ($10) helped greatly. I had to make an long extension for my shopvac out of left over plastic gutter I had laying around to vacuum out the wood.
More to come.
Last edited:
