1989 Chaparral Transom Repair

[Woodonglass]

I see no problem with your proposed rebuild solution. I also agree that all your wood should be totally encapsulated in resin and glass.

 

[rad1026]

thanks WOG. I did have another question I forgot about. Of course I think of these things at 2:00 in the morning. I spend a lot of sleepless nights as I get in to a project like this just getting everything straight in my head. Anyway, speaking of the deck. How do you butt the new deck up to the old deck? Do I need to overlap and glue the two together or just butt them to each other with PB and then layers of glass over the top? What kind of wood should I use to rebuild the engine mounts. The manufacturer use maybe 2" pine or some other type of wood?

 

[JASinIL2006]

On my rebuild, I also had to mate up new deck to the old, and it wasn't over a bulkhead, either; it had to be a butt joint. I made some cleats and I screwed & glassed them to the underside of the existing deck. They ended up being quite sturdy, and they provided something for the new deck to rest on. I think I had 2.5 or 3 inches on each side of the joint. I screwed the new deck to the cleats and then glassed over the entire surface. If you get into my boat, you cannot tell where the old deck ended and the new deck began. It's rock solid.

I agree with glassing both sides of the new pieces. I cannot imagine doing all that work and not encapsulating every stick of wood that I could.

I was going to say I'd rebuild the transom the way it was, but I would defer to WOG's opinion on the structure. He has lots more experience than me. I would mainly want to be sure I wasn't weakening the rear end any.

I remember mulling over every step in my restoration. I can't tell you how many questions came to me in the middle of the night... I like to think through every step before I start any work, and being able to ask questions here and avoid mistakes (or most of them anyway) really saved me time and money in the long run.

Looks like you're moving right along!

 

[Woodonglass]

Motor mounts can be made from Laminated Plywood or dimensonal lumber. Either will work just fine. Douglas Fir has a LOT of natural resin so it would be a good choice. Yellow Pine is good too. JasinIL20016 is Spot On on using butt joints and Cleats. This diagram shows you how.... 6" strip of plywood so you have 3" on either side of the joint Glued and screwed with PB in the joint.

 

[rad1026]

No Title

perfect! Got it. Thanks! These are pictures of my exact boat redone by a Fiberglass Atlanta. They did not bring the transom straight across so I think I'm going to be good. I hope my finished product turns out as well as theirs.

 

[alldodge]

I had about 4 hours to spend with her on Saturday and feel like I made some good progress. You know once you just get out the big tools, sawsall, circular saw, etc. it goes a lot faster. Don't get me wrong its still a lot of work, and I still haven't gotten all the wood off the transom yet, but I'm a lot farther along after 4 hours then I thought I would be. Look what I found in the engine mounting box, standing water. I could not believe it. Boat hasn't been in the water since last August. I guess there is no where for it to go. So none of the wood in the mounting structure was encased in glass, why? I plan on encasing everything in glass when I rebuild the structure, is there any reason I should not do that?

Encasing everything in glass is good, but keep in mind that every bit of glass that is added, also increases weight. There is a water leak somewhere, if it came in from the outdrive, good, once fixed it should not happen again. Pay close attention to the inner and outer hull, look close for cracks which may have let water in.

If water never came in, bare wood would not be an issue. Sealing up the wood will help greatly IF water leaks back in again.

Also the underside of the floor decking is not wrapped in glass. Even though I am only going to the bulkhead with the decking most of the water coming in and out of the boat is happening in that stern area. Is there any reason I should not wrap the decking on both sides? Also, as you can see from earlier pictures my transom was pretty square on top and went across the stern of the boat. I think I am only going to build the new transom to the shape of the stern of the boat so I can (tab or fillet? I'm not sure which terminology to use here) in both the top and bottom of the new transom.

If your wrap both sides make good measurements. The glass on the bottom will increase the thickness of the wood. Again glass is heavy

Is there any reason I should not do it that way? I have seen it done that way in several examples. Am I giving up lateral stability by doing that?

Thanks for the help!

Your stability should not be of any issue, if anything it will be stronger. Don't know if you should or should not do it, I'll leave that to another opinion

 

[rad1026]

I bet additional glass is still lighter then wet wood..... But yeah the thickness on the decks might make mating up the surfaces challenging.

 

[alldodge]

I bet additional glass is still lighter then wet wood..... But yeah the thickness on the decks might make mating up the surfaces challenging.

Water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon, resin weighs 9 pound per gallon. Wet wood would be less for the only reason that wood weighs less then water.

 

[rad1026]

I guess I could start another thread in the engine maintenance area but everyone here has been through this so I might as well keep it here. What should I be looking at in the gimbal assembly, bellows etc. I don't see any signs of leakage at the steering arm seal or the bellows, but since I have it out are those things that you just do? Are bellows a lot easier to do when the assembly is off the transom?

 

[rad1026]

okay, I'm back on it. Since March I have driven to Puerto Penasco Mexico, Durango Colorado, Raton New Mexico, Truth or Consequences New Mexico and Denver Colorado (in a horrible snow storm). I'm not going anywhere for a while. This weekend I was able to work on my transom and grind down to fiberglass. I chiseled the rest of the wood off then spent about 4 hours with an angle grinder and a 50 grit disk. Worked great. What a mess. Anyway, today I ordered resin, 1.5 oz CSM, 1708, cabosil, 1/4 chop strand, mixing cups, stir sticks etc. I found some fir ACX grade plywood at Lowes. This weekend I'm going to start cutting a new transom. Hopefully the other supplies with show up next week and by next weekend I will have a new transom glued up. Then I can start rebuilding the engine mounts. I will take some more pics this weekend. Stick with me, I'm just getting started.

 

[alldodge]

Sounds like a plan.

AS for bellows, never did it off so cannot say if its easier. Guess it would be so long as you have something to hold it. Also agree replace everything start fresh

 

[rad1026]

No Title

I cut the transom and glued up the second layer last weekend. I let it sit for a week. I received all my fiberglass supplies this past Friday. This weekend I was able to cut the transom hole and I will show you my first mistake. I'm sure there will be more. Hopefully nothing catastrophic. Anyway I too the piece from the cut out and inspected it. I was really happy with the way the wood set up until I noticed the glue still seemed a little soft. I took a screw driver and pushed it between the two layers of wood and guess what?

The glue did not set up. I don't know exactly why. I obviously did not clamp good enough. I must have pushed the glue to the inside where no air got to it to cure because around the outside the glue set up great. So I re-clamped and squeezed out a bunch of glue and put a heat lamp on it all day yesterday. It set up great. Even the cut out piece set up really good. I really suggest better clamping then I did. Definitely drill some holes in the middle and make sure and clamp from the inside and let the glue squeeze out to the edges. Anyway I think I'm okay to continue on to glassing this piece.

The other thing that came up was a slight curve at the bottom of the transom so that the new wood did not sit entirely flush with the boat skin. The very bottom of the wood was not in contact with the skin so I sanded the wood until it fit up nice and flush.

I want some feedback on something I have been thinking about. Since I'm pretty sure my problem started with the lower transom bolt I was thinking I would like to go ahead and drill the bolt holes now and drill them oversized. I would then fill the holes with the resin, chop strand peanut butter before I glass the wood and glue it in. Then when I drill the holes to install the transom there will be no wood exposed. Any thoughts on that?

 

[rad1026]

No Title

I originally cut the transom to integrate with some side structure on the ends but after reviewing some of the pics from the Atlantafiberglass site I decided to just stick with the form of the boat. I really didn't see any benefit to tying in the those upper cross sections and it just looked like it was going to be more of a PIA then it was worth. I think the adhesion process is going to be difficult enough without having to worry about an additional stress since that process has to be done before the resin starts to set up. Next weekend I start fiberglassing. It has been raining here a little, which is really unusual for our high desert dry climate but this week it is supposed to clear up and get in the 80's so I will be able to work for a few hours after my day job. Hoping this starts to go a little faster. I also found out this week my local boat shop maintains all the fiberglass supplies I need. The shipping and haz mat fees cost me $100 just to get the stuff from US Composites.

 

[alldodge]

I want some feedback on something I have been thinking about. Since I'm pretty sure my problem started with the lower transom bolt I was thinking I would like to go ahead and drill the bolt holes now and drill them oversized. I would then fill the holes with the resin, chop strand peanut butter before I glass the wood and glue it in. Then when I drill the holes to install the transom there will be no wood exposed. Any thoughts on that?

Drilling over size I agree with, but don't fill with resin and CSM, I suggest using Marine-Tex.

I originally cut the transom to integrate with some side structure on the ends but after reviewing some of the pics from the Atlantafiberglass site I decided to just stick with the form of the boat. I really didn't see any benefit to tying in the those upper cross sections and it just looked like it was going to be more of a PIA then it was worth. I think the adhesion process is going to be difficult enough without having to worry about an additional stress since that process has to be done before the resin starts to set up. Next weekend I start fiberglassing. It has been raining here a little, which is really unusual for our high desert dry climate but this week it is supposed to clear up and get in the 80's so I will be able to work for a few hours after my day job. Hoping this starts to go a little faster. I also found out this week my local boat shop maintains all the fiberglass supplies I need. The shipping and haz mat fees cost me $100 just to get the stuff from US Composites.

Didn't understand your meaning with "transom to integrate with some side structure"

Bought a lot of stuff from US Comp, just ordered more from fiberglass supply and depot. Shipping and extras were all called out during check out. Have not used the resin yet on my project (Chrysler boat), but expect it to work.

 

[Woodonglass]

If you use Hairy PB to fill the holes you'll be fine. It's super strong and will never crack. And you can then gelcoat over the repairs. If you use the Marine Tex you could have issues with Gelcoating.

 

[rad1026]

Thanks for the replies. Dodge if you look at my transom pics you will see the way I had the original wings going up the side of the hull and matching the wood that runs the length of the boat up on the sides. I decided to cut that off and just make it match the contour of the transom skin. Okay, I will start glassing this week.

 

[alldodge]

OK, got it, thanks

 

[rad1026]

No Title

Last night I got a few things done. I had saved the fiberglass skin from the inside of the transom. I laid that down on my new wood to trace out the steering ram cut outs and the inside of the transom cut is much wider then the outside. I am not sure I should worry about it. I was planning to go ahead and make the hole saw cut outs now so I can glass over everything this weekend. I also drilled out the transom holes at 5/8". I used a micrometer to measure the transom bolts and they were just under 7/16" so the 5/8" gives me 3/16" clearance when I re-drill for the transom. Hopefully this will work out good. If anything it gave me a little experience in mixing up some PB. I mixed up 7 oz. of resin. The mixing instructions said 10 drops of hardener per oz. of resin and at 80 degrees that should give you 15-20 minutes of working time. The temp in my garage was right at 78 degrees so I used 65 drops of hardener and mixed that for about a minute and a half before adding in chop strand and then some cabosil. I taped off the bottom of the holes and worked the PB in the holes. I had quite a bit left so I smoothed out the sides of the transom top layer. I got worried after about 45 minutes when nothing was setting up. But after about an hour and a half it started to firm up and by 2 hours was completely hard. I'm really happy about the way it came out. Can't wait to get some glass down on it this weekend.

 

[rad1026]

I had one more pic but I can't get it uploaded, oh well. What do you guys think about the inside cut out should I try to match it or not worry about it?

 

[alldodge]

The 5/8 inch holes are a bit larger then specified by Merc, should be 9/16. The cut outs on the top call for a 1 3/4 diameter holes saw cut at 60 degrees. The larger area is to give the steering arm room to turn. If it's not cut out your turn radius will be reduced


I used a 2x4 drilled with a drill press to make the hole perpendicular. Then clamped it to each location on the transom identified and used as a drill guide