Winter refit - transom

Hey guys -


I haven't started a lot of threads here recently, but I had a minute free today and I thought I'd start typing something new.

My Sea Ray SRV210, which I bought with a bad engine three years ago, did a lot of work on to replace rotten wood two winters ago, and which has generally been running well since (with the exception of blowing the lower gears and one running out of gas incident) is going to get a re-fit this winter.

Right now I'm concerned about the transom. It was a little wet but not rotting yet two years ago, and since then it's had holes drilled in it that didn't get sealed (I had some helpers working with me) and I'm sure it hasn't dried out.

So this winter a new transom is going to go in. As a secondary goal I want to make it much easier to reach the engine parts for service and repair... right now you have to shove your arm through a 3 inch crack to reach all the plugs, it's almost impossible to reach the transom plate and motor mount bolts there, and generally things aren't as neat as they could be regarding wiring, hydraulics, etc.

So, the first step is to get the boat into the shop. I have an attached heated garage that I use for winter work. To fit this boat in it I have to do a number of things.

1) Get the boat off the trailer and onto a cradle/dolly
2) Remove the drive and engine (no room to do this inside)
3) Remove the windshield (too tall to fit)
4) Remove the fuel tank (need the space empty)
5) Remove 2x trim boards from the garage door to gain 2 more inches clearance
6) Dolly the boat hull inside.

Once all that's done I'll add some stands to support the hull properly, level the boat, and start the tear-down. Steps planned at this point:

1) Remove all transom gear, mechanical/electrical/plumbing
2) Remove/cut off part of the top cap and interior fiberglass in the rear of the boat... there's a shelf overhanging the rear deck and engine that I want to be gone/removable for better access.
3) Measure carefully the engine mounts, deck height, stringer locations, etc for later replacement
4) Remove the deck, motor mounts, transom, pretty much everything aft of the fuel tank bay.
5) Grind the fiberglass, then fabricate and install a new plywood transom.

After that it'll be time to get creative, making motor mounts and arranging an aft deck that drains well but still lets me have access to the engine via removable panels. I'm thinking instead of wooden motor mounts that steel might be good, so I can reach under/through them. Ideally I want to be able to pull out a couple deck panels and the back cap and be able to reach any part of the engine (within reason).

Once that's done I'll re-work the aft cap for removable storage space, maybe a shelf or mount for the hydraulic pumps (to get them off the deck), a second battery, we'll see what else.

I'll update this thread as the work progresses. I'm guessing my first update will be a couple weeks from now, but who knows.

Erik

PS: Forehead smacking moment for this post: On pulling the engine I found out that one spark plug was loose enough to wobble in my fingers. So I've been running a V7 engine all summer and didn't notice. No wonder idle was rough.

Re: Winter refit - transom

Gotta hate it when the spark plugs decide they want out all by themselves...

Sounds like you gotta good plan down, get the pics and let us see....

Re: Winter refit - transom

Okay, I'm rolling on this. Pics will be coming soon of the work, for now I'm including a "before" pic of the state of the boat:



Well, ok, that's a bit older than current, but it looks the same. Sorta.

Here's the thing... after I took the above pic, I took the boat out for a spin to see how bad the supposedly cracked block was. Chevy 305 with a pre-alpha drive on it. In the driveway it idled just fine.

So after taking it for a spin and learning that I should check the tilt/trim fluid before going on the water, I loaded it back on the trailer to drive home. The trailer was set up for a 22 footer I also had at the time, so I moved the bow stop back a bit to keep this boat from sitting forward of the rear rollers. Mistake...

On the way home the boat came off the trailer (trailer fishtailed at 45 mph) and I made the evening news as "the guy whose boat came off the trailer and wrecked his truck".

To make things worse, the towing company that got called immediately decided "It was totaled", apparently not understanding that I didn't have comprehensive insurance on it. So they proceeded to drag it across the pavement with a winch and ripped off a cleat trying to lift it back on the trailer. Then they charged me $1300 for the two tows (truck and boat) and one night's storage.

When I got the boat home, it looked semi-ok... one major crack in the starboard top cap, one rub rail dent that side, the ripped cleat, and a partly ground away set of chines. A couple pics:



Bottom:



One thing about the Sea Rays of this vintage... the hulls are hellishly thick and tough, which helped here.

It turned out the motor, which had actually filled with milkshake on the test run, had pulled its front mounts out (of rotten wood) and then snapped the ears off the transom while shifting sideways. Whee.

So now I had a boat needing lots of body work, a new engine, a new inner transom plate, and the interior was partly rotten (wood under the vinyl collected water).

So I should have parted it out and gotten a new boat, right? But I was hung up on getting on the water... and this boat's transom, stringers, and deck were in good shape (or so I thought) so once I replaced the broken parts I'd have an ok boat.

So, I started by pulling the engine with a rented crane and rebuilt the motor mounts from the top down, by coring them out and filling with some wood block spacers and a slurry of fiberglass, microbubbles, and epoxy. I also cleaned and sealed the transom hole while the transom hardware was off.

I bought another boat with the right transom parts for spares (for $175 I got a whole boat/motor/trailer) and took what I needed from it. I sold the engine for $300 (hopped up 350) since I'd already bought another engine for the boat, took other salvageable parts off, and scrapped the rest. I still have the trailer.

I got a long block engine from Rapido marine and put it in (detailed in another thread here) with a mix of old bolt-ons (fuel pump, intake, carb, power steering) and new ones (alternator, starter). So I got her running.

I took her out on the lake to test my new side scan, had some fun, and enjoyed her for about a month before winter set in. Cool.

That winter I decided that the bulkhead between the fuel tank and the engine compartment was rotten and I wanted to do some "small repairs" before I started work on the interior... the old beige vinyl and rotten wood needed to go, but I wanted to make sure all possible structural stuff was done first.

The story of what happened is detailed in my "Unintentional stringer job" thread... basically the rotten bulkhead led to discovery of two rotten stringers, wet sides on the motor mounts, and a partially wet transom.

/sigh

So, not being the type to give up (just stubborn) I pulled all that wood out, along with a lot of foam, and patched the transom. I rebuilt the outboard sides of the motor mounts, put in a new bulkhead, two new stringer sections, and glassed it all over.

Then I put the fuel tank back in after re-mounting it according to best practices... on a shelf, with waterproof spacers, no where for water to collect.

Then I used her for that summer, on and off. The work had delayed me until July, but I still got a couple months' use.

Last winter she just sat. I was going to try building a boat from scratch. I spent time remodeling my attached garage to a shop so I'd have a warm, well lit space to work. That took three months.

I bought plans, bought wood/epoxy/glass, and started building (detailed in yet another thread here). I learned a lot, had fun, but I realized I had too many projects in my life last spring. I had to cut down. For the first year I had a pretty much working boat to use early spring, and I wanted to use it. I couldn't buy boatbuilding supplies and pay for fuel, dive gear, etc very well.

So I canned the from-scratch build, cleaned out my attached garage space, and spent time cleaning out my garage/house. I did a few updates to the Sea Ray, including some new electronics, and had a generally good time on the water.

Until my stern drive clutch blew and ground up gears. Brought me off plane quickly. $700 later I had a sealed, checked out spare parts drive back for the last couple outings of the season, which included one nasty rainstorm and some of the biggest waves I've had fun in yet. She held up well and got me home.

That brings us to this winter. I decided I was tired of having a boat essentially without an interior (my previous work meant I had plain plywood sides on the inside, a couple cheap seats, plus my too-small captain's chair).

Plus that transom still bugged me. It still had water in it, and had gotten more as people had helped me install trim tabs and transducers in a slightly inexpert way. Holes drilled and not filled for a while, etc.

So now I've gotten the boat ready for work. I took the windshield and drive off and engine out (with my new home-made crane) and stored them in the big garage. I also took off the fuel tank hatch, drained the tank, and put that in storage. Then I took her off the trailer and put her on a pair of big dollys, moved her into the attached garage (she just barely fit through the door) and put her on stands in there for work.

So now the fun is getting started.

What I've done so far with her (again, pics of this soon) is to remove her old back hatch cover and supports, pull the rub rail center out, drill out the rivets on the aft half of the rail on both sides, pull the rail loose, cut it at the same spot on each side and then drill the rivets holding the top cap on out.

If I put this rub rail back on (not planning to) then I can cover the joint with a sleeve or even weld it if needed. But for now I wanted it out of the way.

I used a series of wood shims and a cold chisel to separate the cement holding the top cap onto the hull. I also separated flexible ducts, wiring, etc so I could pull it off.

Right now the rear half of the top cap is off, giving me really good access to the transom for removing trim tab stuff, trim pump, transom plate, wires, hoses, etc.

After which I'll do lots of measuring, then start cutting out the motor mounts, transom, deck aft of the fuel tank bulkhead, and anything else in the way. Then it's grind and clean until I'm ready for a new transom core.

I have a lot of fun ideas for this rebuild that I'll get into later. Some things on my list to consider doing are:

• Metal "offshore" motor mount to make the lower half of the motor accessible for work
• New rear molding/cap/doghouse that's smaller/quieter and has space for the trim and tabs pumps above the engine instead of on deck, or possibly bolted to the transom
• A walk through transom with its own bilge

If I get all that done, I'm thinking of some major mods to the front of the boat... we'll see what I get to.

Erik

Re: Winter refit - transom

Okay, after all that long typing, hopefully updates will be shorter.

Here's the promised pics. First, here's one with the top cap removed on the aft half of the boat, looking from starboard down into the motor/transom area.




Most of the interior of the boat is dusty/dirty at this point due to use, plus spilled fluids during the engine removal (anyone know a good way to soak up ATF fluid other than cat litter? That stuff is messy).

Plus the nautolex started coming up this season and I ended up tearing it off. I'll be painting non skid next time.

Here's a shot of the joint where I cut the cap. I cut it rather than pull the whole thing for several reasons. First, I'm not putting the whole cap back on, but rather I'm going to install a sheer clamp and some short ribs to stiffen the hull, and that will let me have my walk-through transom as well as more space.. the original top cap leans inboard about 6 inches on each side. A style choice by sea ray I suppose. I am going to replace the cap with some simple gunwales, it's not going to stay shortened.



The darker compartment (painted with black epoxy) is the fuel tank bay. It holds a 52 gallon aluminum tank. I need to move that forward if I can, perhaps using a smaller tank, to try to balance the boat better than it has been. Dunno what I'll do there yet, or if I'll get to that. I'm concentrating on the transom for the moment.

Here's a shot of the engine compartment, looking down from the stern.




You can see the Y pipe, the tangle of wiring that's I'll be re-doing completely, the motor mounts, and the bilge pump. The motor mounts will be completely redone with metal after the transom is in, I'll probably cut about half of them out during the transom work. I also want to mount the bilge pump farther aft and add a second pump too.

Looking at the transom from the inside (first pic) it looks like Sea Ray used a standard core for outboard and I/O 21 foot boats... the actual transom core is shaped for an outboard. Plus there are two separate "pads" where the stern eyes are located above the main transom.

All that's coming out, and I'll probably put in a full height transom to add strength since I'm going to put a door in one side, weakening the port quarter.

Erik

Re: Winter refit - transom

Okay, I didn't get much actual work done yesterday on the boat, but I did a lot of planning.

I don't know when I'll get all my plans done for it, but I'm hoping I'll get things quite a ways along this winter. We'll see, I guess. My grasp always seems to have exceeded my reach when planning grand improvements to things.

Don't feel you need to read this unless you're really bored. I'm mostly typing this to get my own thoughts straight on things and get my plan laid out. There's a picture later, though

Anyway, here's the plan: I'm going to fix the transom and install the door on the port side, while reworking the engine area for two separate bilges. I want an isolated bilge with a dedicated pump under the door, so if water starts coming in there with people or waves, it gets pumped out quickly rather than spreading to the main bilge. That'd be too much weight.

So that means some sort of bulkhead separating the door bilge from the engine bilge. That bulkhead also needs to be sound insulated to keep things quiet. Of course, that also means that side of the engine will be hard to get to under the deck. I'm playing with the idea of making the bulkhead removable with some effort, so I can get to that side.

The engine mounts are another issue. As they are now solid rising up off the hull bottom, and with the deck coming right up to the engine well, it's very hard to reach the starter, oil cooler, oil pan, or anything else down low on the engine or back on the transom.

So I'm going to replace the big, chunky fiberglass mounts with thin ones... the rear mounts are still going to be the "ears" on the transom plate, can't change that easily, but the front ones don't need the huge fiberglass stands to sit on. I can replace the front mounts with either "offshore" style tube mounts (google it) or custom welded steel. Since I'll also have to use some kind of cross bar from the transom to the forward mounts for stiffness, I may weld the crossbar and mounts as one piece.

I'm also thinking I'll glass down some foam strips in the engine bilge to stiffen that section of hull like the engine mounts would have... the strips will only be a couple inches high though.

So that takes care of the engine mounts... now, for full access to the engine, I want to be able to pull the deck up around it as much as possible. So the engine well itself will be removable, maybe as part of the doghouse. The whole doghouse could extend down to the hull in one piece, and be clamped down to pads on the hull. Then the surrounding deck sections could be flat "hatch cover" type things sitting on horizontal supports like the aforementioned crossbar and some "ribs".

A big change to the hull is happening too.. basically I don't like the top cap design. I'm going to leave the top cap off and just attach a simple gunwale made of composite panels (plywood w/fiberglass). That means I'll have better access to the transom and inner hull, but I also need to provide stiffness that the top cap used to provide, plus somewhere to put all the stuff that sticks out of the transom... wiring, controls, trim pump, battery, etc.

I have some ideas on that.. the battery will be mounted either farther forward (and lower) under decks or above the engine in a cabinet type housing. The trim pump in the same place.

The controls and wiring I'm re-routing to come under the deck from the new center console Yep, I want to change that, too.

So, so far I'm planning on a transom rebuild, rebuild of motor mounts, rebuild of the aft deck, center console, and a new aft top cap. Phew.

But that's nowhere near all.

I'm also going to remove the cuddy cabin. It's not very useful space at the moment (no one sleeps on this boat, and the head is out, and the cabin is too short). The big problem with it is that the windshield and cuddy make access to the forward deck very difficult. Hooking on a buoy, dropping anchor, etc are hard with two people, almost impossible with one person.

So I'm converting to not quite a bow rider... more like a short foredeck at the bow, with anchor locker, and a step to get to it.

Right now there are no seats in the boat.. for my new center console I'll have a leaning post. For passengers, I'll be putting in some ribs.

That is, along the sides of the hull where space will be freed up by the lack of a top cap poking the back of their heads, I'm going to pull up the deck, and install short ribs from the stringers halfway up to the gunwales. These will stiffen the boat sides to make up for the missing top cap. They'll also be just the right height to have a top put on between each pair to sit on, plus there'll be no deck under them, but rather a cover across the front of them, so the seats will lift up and cover a nice deep (at least at the inboard side) storage well for dive gear.

I'll get seating for about six from those, total of four short ribs on each side.

To add even more complications, the center console isn't just going to be a console. I want another seat in front of it, and I've had requests from female divers to put in a head, and a changing area. I know I could put on a hard top and use a hanging curtain and a bucket, but that's awkward for them, plus it takes a fair bit of space, and it's not all that practical on a rolling deck.

So I'm attaching the center console to a box structure that will have its deck just above the hull level (sunken) with about five feet of space bottom to top, about 35" x 45" inside, with a head and tiny sink. The console will be on the back of it, raised a bit off the deck to improve visibility without raising the CG much. On the front of the box will be a two person seat, with storage underneath it. The feet of the people sitting on the seat will rest in a raised step that leads to the foredeck.

The step will be as wide as the hull, and about 14 inches tall. It'll provide access to the bow, plus the fact that it will run across the whole hull means it'll function as a bulkhead and a watertight compartment.

This is good, because it's where I plan to move my fuel tank.

I need to migrate weight forward if I can... this boat is an I/O, so it's always stern heavy. With my move of the console a tiny bit aft, plus the structure I'll be building aft, I need more weight forward. The install of the transom door means I won't have trim tabs... maybe smart tabs, we'll see.

Sooo.... that's basically a complete re-do of the interior of the boat, stern to bow, plus a move of the console and gas tank, new seating, remove of the top cap and rebuild of the hull sides.

I'm kidding myself if I think I'll get this done in less than two years, but I'm an eternal optimist. Probably I'll get a large part of it done by next spring, then stop so I can use the boat for the summer, then resume next fall. But we'll see.

If you take the changes I've described and lay them out proportionally, then put storage space in between seats etc., plus some tank racks on the doghouse next to seats for suiting up divers, you end up with this pic:




To explain a couple things..... the "mech" areas are mechanicals, like the trim pump and batteries. The "controls" is a tunnel for control wiring. The "air duct" is a tunnel for air to move aft from an intake somewhere on the console... I could also put something on the starboard side for that, but I can't have one on the port side anyway since the door prevents air crossing over via duct, and I don't want vents on the doghouse itself... too loud.

The "31x22 space" is under deck space... probably won't be there long, I just marked the dimensions so I'd remember what I had to work with... blackwater tank, batteries, who knows what'll go there.

The seats are asymetrically placed so there's room for the head door to open and for people to walk by.

That's all so far. Big dreams, eh?

Erik

Re: Winter refit - transom

Just a quick update for today, in case anyone is reading this.

I twisted and sprained my ankle over the holiday, which is going to slow me down a bit. I already tried doing some work on the boat, and it is possible, but painful.

I'm currently cutting out glass from the motor mounts, aft deck section (port and starboard of the motor well) and the secondary stringers next to the motor mounts.

Sea Ray made all boats of this vintage with an oddball dogleg in the stringers... they go from the bow to the fuel tank bulkhead ahead of the motor, then a half frame there spreads the load about 4 inches out on each side. Then there are secondary stringers that go back to the transom.

I'm going to be removing the secondary stringers, motor mounts, and aft deck to get space to remove the transom.

I got one of these to help:
http://www.katools.com/shop/lancelot-tooth-chain-blade-p-50.html?osCsid=idfsqp5j3uj2jslqdvq3hoi0d6

Edit: Wow, something went wrong with that link the first time.

It works really nice for wood, although I'm suspecting that the fiberglass dulls it quickly. It did cut quickly though, as did my recip saw, after the circular saw went up in smoke.

The secondary stringers are thick due to my overdoing them last time... 1.5" of plywood surrounded by a quarter inch of glass on one side (biax with epoxy) and the other side being the original layup - almost 3/4" of glass in places. I've cut a piece on three sides so it stands about six inches across and five high, and I still can't break it off with a hammer.

I might need to get an electric chainsaw again... the last two I had broke, so maybe I can fix one instead.

I did cut off the layer of glass on the center of the transom above decks to look, and it's all wet. Not too much rot up top yet, but definitely water.

Anyway, more posts as I get things done.

One last thing... as I'm taking this apart, by far the easiest joints to break are the ones made with PL premium. A few whacks with the hammer and they're breaking apart. Mostly the glass they sit on fails. So PL is tough stuff, but keep in mind it's not grabbing onto things as much as laminated glass, and less surface area on the joint means less strength. IE, use cleats to expand the surface area on the deck.

I think personally I'm going back to using epoxy putty... I want my deck to be insanely strong.

Erik

Re: Winter refit - transom

Eric, i am watching this and thank god your ok after that incident! Seems you have a solid plan and a long winter. Good Luck!

Re: Winter refit - transom

Wow, what a project! Most boats don't survive an "off-the-trailer excursion". But I'm still hoping you will save that Buehler Turbocraft you have stashed away. Good luck.

Re: Winter refit - transom

Unfortunately, the turbocraft is being parted out currently... I had to raise some cash for my Sea Ray work, plus I have no where to put it. Plus I have too many projects going on anyway. Not sure what I'm going to do with the drive and engine yet, but the chrome is spoken for.

I managed to climb into the boat last night and do some work on demo. When I rebuilt the motor mount stringers two years ago I really did a solid job. I pulled parts out, but mostly I had to cut chunks with a recip. saw and bi-metal blades.

The stringers in question were 1.5" thick with .25 inch glass on either side... probably twice as thick as was needed.

I pulled more glass off the transom itself, found more wet wood.

Tonight if I can manage it I'll finish cutting out the port side motor mount and stringer, then on to starboard, after which I can actually begin removing the transom. Things are going slow because it's tough stuff and I can't find my spare saw blades, plus I'm working in my tent to avoid spreading dust.

Erik

Re: Winter refit - transom

I'm currently rebuilding my 268 weekender. I'm using diamond coated cutoff blade for the 4.5 inch grinder and a twin cutter for the bigger areas.

Re: Winter refit - transom

I love that lancelot/squire chainsaw blade system for the grinder....talk about a dangerous combination there, but I bet it would just chew the crap out of glass for the quick work..wish I had seen that earlier, I would have probably scrapped my boat from all the holes I ground out of it!

Re: Winter refit - transom

Yeah, it's a nice little item... lasts longer than the metal cutting discs I used to always use. But I think I've dulled it a bit on all the thick fiberglass in my motor mount area.

I've also worn out my recip. saw cutting that stuff out. One cut through the motor mounts sideways took about 15 minutes last night with a fresh bi-metal blade. For a one foot long saw cut. Tiring too.

Tonight I'm going to ditch the harbor freight model and go buy a Ridgid or Milwaukee saw... something in the 10-12 amp range, and some more blades. That ought to make short work of the 4 inch thick sections.

I'm kinda happy that demolishing my old work has let me see how I did with regard to sealing, structure, and durability. Basically I get an A for durability, a B for sealing, and a D for weight. This thing would never break, and would take a long time to rot, but it's twice as heavy as it needed to be and probably used 4x as much resin and glass as needed...since I use epoxy, that's expensive.

One of my goals for this winter's work is to make the boat lighter, which shouldn't be too hard... I'm replacing 3/4" deck with 1/2" (reinforced) plus removing a lot of fiberglass in the top cap. I'd like to install a new aluminum intake on the engine for next year, which I'll probably manage, and aluminum manifolds, which I probably won't.

We'll see how far I get.

More pics soon... not much to show yet, I'm still cutting the motor mounts out piece by piece. One night with a new sawzall and I should be moving on to the transom itself.

Erik

Re: Winter refit - transom

I've been following this- Can't wait to see the progress pics. You'll be glad that you upgraded that Harbor Freight saw, they make some OK stuff for small jobs, but for the kind of work you're doing there is no substitute for good quality tools!

Re: Winter refit - transom

Yeah, that's true for some things... I like harbor freight for a lot of tools, because I have a lot of things I use once or four times a year, like my air framing nailer.

I also get tools that I'm likely to destroy there, like 4.5" angle grinders. Even if they stay running for a year, after that long they're half covered in epoxy and the gears are worn from grinding through lots of glass. So I can either destroy a $60 grinder or a $20 one.

Plus there are some tools that it doesn't matter where you get 'em... basic screwdrivers, wrenches, and sockets, levels, plain drill bits... those I get at HF. Chip brushes for applying resin, disposable gloves, knee pads are all ok there too.

Stuff I never get there: Any tool I'll use more than once a month, consumables for anything (sandpaper, saw blades, welding wire) any electronic device, any gardening tool... a few other things depending on how solid they look.

Particularly on the consumables... an HF tool with a quality name brand blade cuts twice as well as a tool with an HF blade. 3m sandpaper lasts twice as long as HF sandpaper in an HF pad sander.

Buying what I can there while recognizing that a lot of their stuff isn't worth throwing away lets me save enough money to buy good tools when I need 'em. You just have to shop smart.



Erik

Re: Winter refit - transom

I agree wholeheartedly with that. If you are smart about your purchases, you won't waste money on quality tools you'll hardly get the investment out of. Anything that is going to be used for production/often is worth the investment in quality, anything that is going to be used once, is better rented, borrowed, or purchased as cheaply as possible....with the exception of buying HF tools second hand

Re: Winter refit - transom

Yep.. HF tools secondhand would be only for the brave or foolish


Anyway, last night I picked up a nice, solid 10 amp DeWalt reciprocating saw. I also got a 25 pack of demolition blades (6 tpi) on clearance at Lowe's.

Together they made short work of the remaining motor mount stringers and the back half of the motor mounts, as well as the decking against the transom:



So as you can see I'm ready to either take more glass off the transom or work on removing the rest of the motor mounts.

I'm tempted to start in on the transom, but then I'll just be doing a lot of the same tasks again when the motor mounts and the bulkhead ahead of them come out. Specifically I'll need to grind twice, vacuum twice, clean with acetone twice, etc. Plus I'll be moving epoxy bottles and glass in and out of the boat, fiberglass, cutting tools...

So I think what I'm going to do tonight is make sure I have good measurements of the placement and height of those motor mount pads, then cut them out and remove decking and bulkhead forward until I'm even with the fuel tank compartment.


That'll let me do the transom, motor mounts, aft stringers, transom door, basically everything back here at the same time, which will be less work and neater than one section after the other. It'll feel like slower progress too, but that's life.

You can see in this second pic that I had to cut close to the transom and sides to get the remnants of the deck out. 3/4" ply deck tabbed to the hull with epoxy. You can also see how thick the stringer section was that came out. The dark, wet foam to the right of that was under the old motor mount. All gone now.

So tonight it's back to the new saw, followed by removal of the transom glass and plywood if I have enough energy.

After that it'll be time to go to the store for flap discs... I expect to use about 5-6 of the 3m ones to grind out all the old wood, glass, etc and get to the point I'm ready to laminate in a new transom. All that grinding will have to be in the tent.. annoying, but at least the whole shop won't be covered in dust. I found out for using the saw I can skip the tent and not worry about lots of dust (still use a mask, though) but for grinding there's no other way. I wish I had a dust collector, that would work better than the shop vac.

I have at least one day this weekend free, hopefully I'll get to the point of cutting new transom wood by Sunday night.

Erik

PS: I had another one of my really goofy ideas for another mod to this boat this winter. I'm not going to tell anyone yet because I probably won't get it done after everything I have planned anyway..... but I just can't seem to stop saying "Hey, it would be great if I added XXXX".... worse than MBS.

Re: Winter refit - transom

Looking good!

I wish there was a better way to control the dust while grinding... I use the tent thing, too. Luckily for me, I live in a slightly warmer climate, so on a lot of days I just wheel the boat out of the shop and grind outside- It keeps things a LITTLE cleaner.

Can't wait to see what the mod is- I do the same thing while I am working, I think of all sorts of great things I could do to improve...

-Andrew

Re: Winter refit - transom

Those stringers look like they were is good shape? Am i missing something?

Re: Winter refit - transom

Yep, they're in great shape, very solid.

But the transom isn't... I need to remove them to put a new transom core in place. Plus I want to re-work the structure near the motor well for better access, and that includes these.

You should have seen the look on my face when I was putting these things in... after six months of boat work in a cold garage, my new stringers and motor mount cores are in, getting ready to clean up and put the deck on.... and I discover the transom is wet, and all that has to come back out at some point so I have space to re-core it. Argh.


So, anyway, a quick heads-up to you guys reading this. I went to Menards last night to get flap discs, because I was optimistic that I'd be able to get to sanding tonight somehow. While I was there I ran into a holiday special... they have a particular 4.5" grinder on sale for $13... cheaper than Harbor Freight even. It's ok quality, nothing to write home about, about the same as the HF grinders. It comes with a set of metal and masonry wheels for good measure.

I couldn't pass that up when I knew I'd be killing at least one grinder while I do this winter's work. I'll probably use this one for sanding with the flap discs and leave the chainsaw blade on the other one permanently.


Last night I spent two hours getting those front motor mount pads out. Just the two square-ish 7 inch tall pedestals the front motor mounts sit on in the pics above. I had re-done their cores as one of the first things I did for the boat when I started re-building it. I overdid them a LOT.

The top three inches were solid fiberglass.... epoxy mixed with wood flour and milled fibers. Below that I had put sections of I think pine board cut to fit and take up space inside the hollow.

I had to cut the tops off one 2x2 inch piece at a time with the recip saw, then pry them off, then work on the next layer. Then I had to prybar the old cores out (wet) and my replacement pine core boards (also wet) and then cut the bottoms of the pedestals even with the hull as much as possible. Phew. Hard work.... I'm glad I made them so strong, but I don't think I'll do that again.

I still have the curved part between the pedestals in the bilge to shave down.. it has a wood core too. Then a bit more trimming on the bulkhead and deck forward to the fuel tank compartment... not sure if I'll remove the bulkhead at the rear of that, it may be constructed as I like already, and it's heavily glassed in place. Once that's done I'll pull off the front face of the transom, then the core. After that it's grinding and cleanup on the transom and hull until I'm ready to start laminating the new transom.

I'm thinking hard about buying a dust collector. I can't afford it right now but it would make things stay so much neater that it might be worth the strain.

Last night I wore a cheap coverall minus the legs (annoying to put on) for itch protection, and it wore a hole I didn't notice, so I'm itchy today.

Toninght I'll probably wear a tight long sleeve shirt and use talc instead, that works better. I have a full chemical protective suit for when I do major grinding, because that'll put so much dust in the air it'll be a fog.

Erik

Re: Winter refit - transom

I spent time this weekend finishing cutting out the remaining bits as much as I could with the recip saw. It'll be much quicker to cut them that way than grind them down later.

I have flap disks and a vacuum dust muzzle set up for sanding. Now I'm working on getting the transom out.

I had hoped to get the transom out in a few big pieces... I wanted to try some stuff Oops used in his thread, using a come-along or winch attached to the inside bow eye to pull on eye bolts or similar in the transom wood to pop it out.

But when I started pulling glass off the transom, I kept finding very soft wood... near mulch condition. So much for one piece. At least the forward layer is going to get scraped out instead, we'll see about the aft layer. I'll see if I can sharpen my chainsaw blade for the grinder, that would work if it had any teeth left.

After the transom wood is out, I start sanding the glass and I'll go get some new plywood. I'm thinking I'll try something new to laminate it... maybe vacuum bag it to clamp the parts together, or to laminate a layer of glass onto it.


Pics soon.

Erik