I have a 1972 Cruisers Inc 18.5 foot cuddy cabin. I have some rot in my transom. Well, it seems like a lot of rot in my transom. The way the boat is constructed, the cap extends all the way to the floor. I haven't taken the rub rails off but I would not be surprised if the boat is one single lamination of fiberglass. With that said I do not want get involved with the amount of cutting and later refabrication it would take to reattach and finish the cap to the rest of the structure.
I looked at the SeaCast web site and after taking measurements the 20 gallons I need are a little more then I can afford.
This leaves me with needing to remove the transom. As much as I would like to do this from the inside the inability or lack of desire to remove the cap would make this impossible. The interior design also makes it difficult because the way the floor is constructed there is a channel about 2 foot wide that runs down the center of the boat to the cabin and the floor is raised the entire length of the boat on both sides and this goes straight back to the transom.
I am left with wondering if it is feasible to remove the rear lamination and remove the plywood that way. Then I would have to taper grind the hull sides and bottom on the outside in order to re-glass the back. If I did it this way I could replace the entire transom. I would also rough and scuff the inner hull skin so I could bond the transom to it.
As far as materials I see a lot of people are using poly resin to do transom repairs as well as other glass repairs. According to a couple of sites I have looked at (all sales sites) nearly every one says that for bonding new glass to old glass you have to use epoxy resin only. Have any of you used polyester resins instead of epoxy without incident following the repairs? If so how long ago were the repairs made with not having problems occurr. I ask the resin type question for the obvious reason that the epoxy is double to triple the poly cost depending on where you source it from.
Finally who has the best prices on the proper resin for the type of repair I am writing about?
Thanks in advance.
Adam
I looked at the SeaCast web site and after taking measurements the 20 gallons I need are a little more then I can afford.
This leaves me with needing to remove the transom. As much as I would like to do this from the inside the inability or lack of desire to remove the cap would make this impossible. The interior design also makes it difficult because the way the floor is constructed there is a channel about 2 foot wide that runs down the center of the boat to the cabin and the floor is raised the entire length of the boat on both sides and this goes straight back to the transom.
I am left with wondering if it is feasible to remove the rear lamination and remove the plywood that way. Then I would have to taper grind the hull sides and bottom on the outside in order to re-glass the back. If I did it this way I could replace the entire transom. I would also rough and scuff the inner hull skin so I could bond the transom to it.
As far as materials I see a lot of people are using poly resin to do transom repairs as well as other glass repairs. According to a couple of sites I have looked at (all sales sites) nearly every one says that for bonding new glass to old glass you have to use epoxy resin only. Have any of you used polyester resins instead of epoxy without incident following the repairs? If so how long ago were the repairs made with not having problems occurr. I ask the resin type question for the obvious reason that the epoxy is double to triple the poly cost depending on where you source it from.
Finally who has the best prices on the proper resin for the type of repair I am writing about?
Thanks in advance.
Adam