Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

[FBPirate95]

Well its been bugging me for some time now. Even though I had suspensions about it, I thought "Nah, my new to me boat doesn't have a soft transom." Curiosity finally got to me and I decided to use my handy-dandy multi max to investigate. Instead of popping the cap, I cut out the portion of the cap right above the the motor mount holes. Now brace yourself (psycho shower scene music plays in the background) THE TRANSOMS ROTTED!!! NOOOOO!!!!!! (slumped to the ground in a Charlton Heston move pounding my fist on the beach)

END SCENE

So now I guess I'm in the lets see what I can do now. My plan is to gut it all out. The rotted portions that is. It appears the portions closest to the sides of the hull are still solid. Then I'm going to inject the areas and remaining wood with Rot Doctors CEPS to treat it, cut out new plywood for the center sections, then laminate it all back in with Rot Doctors Layup Resin. Finally I can glass it in from the inside of the boat. I have access all of the rotted area from under the splash well area.

That's the plan. Now lets see if I can do it.

I know the proper method is to pop the cap and do a full replacement. But as always, funds and time are limited. Plus I'm only looking for this boat to get me through the next couple of years before I upgrade.

To all those who have boldly gone down this path and submitted picture threads, THANKS A BILLION! I will use your experiences on this project.

 

[jdsgrog]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

I know the proper method is to pop the cap and do a full replacement. But as always, funds and time are limited. Plus I'm only looking for this boat to get me through the next couple of years before I upgrade.

Personally, I'd do it right the first time and get a very solid transom in there. If I had to do it over again knowing what I know now, I would have replaced my whole transom the first time on my first boat. It actually would have taken less time and headache than just doing a "repair job."

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

Personally, I'd do it right the first time and get a very solid transom in there. If I had to do it over again knowing what I know now, I would have replaced my whole transom the first time on my first boat. It actually would have taken less time and headache than just doing a "repair job."

What went wrong with your "repair job?"

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

Possibly your best bet is to go the nida bond route if it is in your budget......it's been done here before......

 

[Coho Ghost]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

Yes yes I second the Nida Bond. Just did my transom with it, and it's the real "trick" stuff. Getting the rotten wood removed from between the outer and inner skins is the work, pouring the Nida bond and finishing out is pretty easy.

I've still got some painting to do, then it's hit the water and give the Nida bond a sea trial. As solid as the transom appears (you can grab the lower unit of the motor and just reef on and NO flex at all) I'm not expecting any problems.


Coho Ghost,
Up in Washington state

 

[MTribe08]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

Well its been bugging me for some time now. Even though I had suspensions about it, I thought "Nah, my new to me boat doesn't have a soft transom." Curiosity finally got to me and I decided to use my handy-dandy multi max to investigate. Instead of popping the cap, I cut out the portion of the cap right above the the motor mount holes. Now brace yourself (psycho shower scene music plays in the background) THE TRANSOMS ROTTED!!! NOOOOO!!!!!! (slumped to the ground in a Charlton Heston move pounding my fist on the beach)

END SCENE

So now I guess I'm in the lets see what I can do now. My plan is to gut it all out. The rotted portions that is. It appears the portions closest to the sides of the hull are still solid. Then I'm going to inject the areas and remaining wood with Rot Doctors CEPS to treat it, cut out new plywood for the center sections, then laminate it all back in with Rot Doctors Layup Resin. Finally I can glass it in from the inside of the boat. I have access all of the rotted area from under the splash well area.

That's the plan. Now lets see if I can do it.

I know the proper method is to pop the cap and do a full replacement. But as always, funds and time are limited. Plus I'm only looking for this boat to get me through the next couple of years before I upgrade.

To all those who have boldly gone down this path and submitted picture threads, THANKS A BILLION! I will use your experiences on this project.

Any reason your going with Rot Doctors Resin? The stuff is so overpriced it will make your head spin. Do some reading around here..many people use a thickened poly to laminate to the outer skin..some use epoxy. Unless money isn't an issue, I would choose something else. Good luck.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

Any reason your going with Rot Doctors Resin? The stuff is so overpriced it will make your head spin. Do some reading around here..many people use a thickened poly to laminate to the outer skin..some use epoxy. Unless money isn't an issue, I would choose something else. Good luck.

I purchased it for another project and didn't use it. So this seems like the best way to get it off my shelf. I'm going to do a little more investigation on the transom today and determine exactly what method I'm going to use.

 

[jdsgrog]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

What went wrong with your "repair job?"

Nothing went wrong with the repair job. But it was a pain getting the rotted wood out. Pulling the whole transom out would have saved me some time and headache. To do it more easily, I found that cutting a couple of feet off the floor and taking the inner skin off would have been much easier to pull the transom out (of course with the cap off). If the transom rotted once, it'll rot again. I would have preferred to take out the whole transom, built a new one fully epoxied and sealed. As someone said, taking the wood out is the work.

 

[83mulligan]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

Sorry to hear you have some rot in your transom. I think some of the guys here are right though. If you have a lot of rot in one area, its almost certain the rest of it is wet too. Do yourself a favor and get it all out now. Check out the early stages of my thread. I went through this same thought process of partially replacing it. I thought only a few areas were rotten. You can see what I found when the guys here steered me to just pulling it all out. The guys here are of great help and are very knowledgeable. Good luck with your project!

 

[jdsgrog]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

Also, that is right as well. When I did start tearing out the transom, I thought it was only one spot and area but what it ended up being was almost the entire half of the transom. To do the repair properly, I had to tear out half the transom and replaced the inner skin. When I looked in retrospect, I should have just torn the whole thing out, but at that time I was a noob. In the future, any boat I may restore, the whole transom is coming out.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

At lunch I did a little more checking. Surprisingly enough, the design of my boat does not have a full beam wood transom. Only the motor mount area, the width of the splash well is the actual wooden transom. The rest of the stern is a heavy thickness molded fiberglass. See the pic below wood transom is outlined in red.

Since its like this, I will be able to replace the full wood transom without popping the cap.

 

[lowkee]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

That will be so easy to fix, it may only take one day (seriously).

- Cut off the transom cap in that area (use a cut-off grinder),
- Use a chain saw to dig it up,
- A shop vac to suck it all up,
- Scrape the inside as best as you can (not of critical importance since you are using repair goo)
- Plug the holes or tape them up,
- Pour the goo,
- Wait for the goo to become solid
- Re-drill the holes.
- Sand a ridge where the new cap's glass will sit
- Glass a new cap on or just glass the old cap back on
- Sand the new cap flush with the old glass

Be sure to pay it forward and log your exploits throughout so others can learn from your experiences.

 

[MTribe08]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

I purchased it for another project and didn't use it. So this seems like the best way to get it off my shelf. I'm going to do a little more investigation on the transom today and determine exactly what method I'm going to use.

Gotcha, back in the early a stages of my denial I bought some of the rot doctor resin along with some cpes. I ended up using the cepes and I sent the resin back when I realized how much I was going to need. Good luck with the transom.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

Took a closer look this afternoon and made my plan of attack. The fiberglass from the bilge side of the transom was weak. So I figured to get the best clean out I'd remove that fiberglass. I used the multi max to cut away the glass. This exposed the wood. All rot, still wet. So I started tearing it out.

Once I get it all cleaned out my plan is to make a laminate of exterior plywood coated with the Rot Doctor CEPS. Then I'll slide the piece in through the cut out cap. I'll be able to manipulate and align the plywood from the bilge area. Then I'm going to use the Rot Doctor lay up and laminating epoxy to glue the piece in place, and to glass the backside in. Should be a pretty easy deal (famous last words I know)

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Ok...I'm done with denial...now its time to replace transom

So today I dug out the remaining rot, and vacuumed out the debris. I purchased some foam board to serve as my template. Tomorrow I'll be drawing out the template and getting ready to cut the plywood.