Fiberglass Repair

[1986mariner150]

Hello everyone: the time has come for fiberglass work on my 2 boats, first the easy one, My bass boat has what looks to be about a 1 foot square soft spot around the drain hole in the floor, all the material around this spot still looks orange but that spot is blackish. I thought I would cut back into the good stuff a couple of inchs, scrape out the foam, cut a peice of plywood to close fit the hole, then resin in a peice of mat first then wood then mat. As for the foam i thought i would cut a peice of pvc a little larger than the hole, drill 4 holes, after installation i want to shoot great stuff expanding foam through the holes. Does this sound right? <br /><br />The other project is more involved; cabin crusier needs a transom and floor, my main question involves the transom. I have read many posts here and all i have seen have cut the transom from the outside. I went to the fiberglass repair shop to purchase materials and mentioned my game plan on this and he said absolutly do not cut the outside of the boat. Just when I thought I had things pretty much figured out i was blown out of the water. How do you do this from the inside out? We did talk about demolishion and I mentioned the chainsaw and he showed me his, I am with evin it seems to be the right tool for the job. I am now leaning towards pouring in the transom, concern here is its inboard/outdrive so what do I do about the hole?

 

[Solittle]

Re: Fiberglass Repair

I have never read of a transom job done by cutting the transom from the outside and can not imagine any process where you could get the needed strength by doing it that way. For my 1988 23' CC outboard they pulled both motors, cut the gunnels and inner liner floor about 4' forward of the inside of the transom. This gave full access to the transom and the rear of the stringers from the inside. This was followed by the process described many times here. The only thing I had done differently than most was I had them use a fiberglass board like used on racing boats instead of the usual 3/4" ply as I did not want to go through this again. When done the reinstalled the gunnels & floor, glassed them in and unless you look carefully you cannot tell that that anything was done.<br /><br />Also check the Project Boats section.