PROJECT SEA RAY

[Mr.Stickney]

Hello All,

Long time lurker and have been soaking up the information and I think I'm finally ready to tackle this. Its a 1990 Sea Ray BR180 with a beautiful matching EZ loader. Scope of the project is as follows.

Transom R&R
Stringer R&R
Deck replacement
Volvo Penta repower - 305 SBC

Why the Volvo you ask? I have a full repower in the garage from a boat I scrapped earlier and this one came with a seized Mercruiser 305 and no drive. And secondly there is some stress cracking in the outer skin that the increased diameter of the Volvo housing will take care of for the most part. Thirdly, just to say I did.

First question for this build thread: There is a gentleman local here selling what looks to be 1708 by the roll for one hell of a deal. Unfortunately the seller has not said that it is 1708 nor does he know the weight of the material. I plan on going to have a look on the weekend but I am just wondering if there is an easy way to identify what exactly I am looking at?

Thanks and stay tuned for updates!

 

[Smtred]

I don't have an answer for your question but I love the interior of your boat. Your boat has a very close resemblance to the one I'm rebuilding. I'll be tagging along for your adventure if you don't mind.

 

[Mr.Stickney]

welcome aboard Smtred! The interior was part of the reason I bought the boat. I think it has a lot of character. It needs a good cleaning and some patching and repairing but for the most part its in pretty good shape. I'm considering switching to captains seats in the front just to give it a little extra room !

 

[Smtred]

What size is your boat? Mine had captain seats in it but I'm replacing them with the same type that are currently in yours because I don't have any places for storage. I wouldn't have room for 2 extra seats in rear like yours.

 

[Mr.Stickney]

just a little 18 footer! - 19 w/ the swim.

 

[Mr.Stickney]

No Title

Tear down started!

Flotation foam is actually coming out in big pieces! pretty excited about that... not going to lie. Gonna go pick up a respirator tonight.

 

[Smtred]

just a little 18 footer! - 19 w/ the swim.

Quite a bit larger than my own. You can check her out here. Good luck there are plenty here to help you out when you need it and I'll try and chime in if I think I can help any, I'm still relatively new to the whole boat scene as it is.

For the foam problem, depending on how much you have in your boat, I used a saw to cut out brick sized rectangles which I discovered in a thread somewhere halfway through and it made a huge difference in ripping it out. Made the starboard side a cakewalk in comparison to the port side.

 

[Mr.Stickney]

No Title

Made some serious progress this weekend. Transom is out. Floor and stringers are out.I have rough sanded a lot of the high edges where the glass was attached to the hull

 

[JaCrispy]

Nice work so far!

sub'd

 

[Mr.Stickney]

Thanks JaCrispy... that imperial of yours is just B-E-A utiful.. making me consider a colour change... one thing at a time though lol - Went and bought a whole ton of sanding paraphernalia today, go make the garage nice and dusty this weekend I think.

 

[kevtec95]

Good looking project.. I actually have the same one going right now.. in fact its the thread right above or below yours. ha Question i have for you is regarding the tunnel under where the gas tank sat.. From my findings that is all composite on mine, but did seem to find to find some foam come out when cleaning the old Bulkhead wood out. Is that what you have found as well?

 

[Mr.Stickney]

I saw your thread yesterday Kev, Hopefully well both be able to lend each other a bit of knowledge and insight.

Under my gas tank was all fiberglass as you said except for the center flat portion at the bottom of the hull. It was basically from top to bottom. Fiberglass-> sheet of 1/2" ply and then flotation foam alternating sides of the drain tube in 6" spans from bulkhead to bulkhead.

I didn't even notice the wood base at first until I noticed a hairline crack in the finish and started digging around. Low and behold - more wet wood!

 

[Mr.Stickney]

.


Ok guys, might need a little bit of input here...

As you can see the transom is stepped from one sheet to two, but if I insert my transom all the way to the highest point it only gives me about two inches before im in the rivets. So I was thinking of filling that part in and terminating the transom where it just out at the second sheet. This leaves approximately four inches from the top of the transom to the top of the keyhole. Is this going to be enough "meat"?





all of the rough grinding is ....90% done... I swear every time I turn around I find something that id like cleaned up. Ill get some better pics of this but I have left a 1" lip around the perimeter. Should I leave this and :

a) taper the edge of the ply and the glass and slide the plywood underneath as shown? (this is just a scrap piece of 5/8, 1/2" would fit better

or

b) take it back to where the hull meets the original glass deck and tab it in from there?

any input appreciated!!!

 

[Mr.Stickney]

back to my original question, planning to go have a look at the glass tonight:

"First question for this build thread: There is a gentleman local here selling what looks to be 1708 by the roll for one hell of a deal. Unfortunately the seller has not said that it is 1708 nor does he know the weight of the material. I plan on going to have a look on the weekend but I am just wondering if there is an easy way to identify what exactly I am looking at?"

 

[Woodonglass]

This is the best pic of 1708 I could find. As you can see the glass fibers on the Fabric Side are at a 45? angle forming an "X" grid and then on the reverse side the 8oz CSM is sewn. It should "Feel" like about 4 -5 layers of paper towels. That's the best I can describe it.

 

[Mikeopsycho]

Can you get a small sample from a local supplier or fiberglass shop to take with you for comparison? Or maybe there's another iboats member in your area who'll loan you a piece of 1708? Just a couple of ideas you probably already thought of.

 

[Mr.Stickney]

Thanks for the ideas fellas. Worst case, Ill ask the seller if I can borrow a strip off of the roll and maybe run over to the local boat shop and see what they say.

Either of you fine gentleman have any direction on my fitment questions above?

 

[Woodonglass]

IMHO you have some additional demo to do in the transom area. The key to a good transom install is getting the new wood core tabbed to the surrounding outer skin and bottom hull securely. In your case you need to have clearance apply the wood against the flat surface and then wrap the new glass around the edges a minimum of 3-6 inches all the way around with the exception of possibly the top edge. If you don't do this then it will suffer structurally.

Watch this...

 

[Mr.Stickney]

I agree completely. I am definitely taking the edges off the transom, that's actually tomorrows project ( took a vacation day for a four day boat working weekend!)

I was just curious what to do with the top. Whether it was better to sacrifice the core material or the adhesion surface of the glass.

 

[Woodonglass]

Ok, based on this pic of your transom, I'm assuming the following. The areas in red are the two layers of plywood to be replaced. The areas in blue will be the areas to be ground down and where the new glass tabbings will be applied to secure the new wood transom core in place. This should allow adequate bonding to the hull and secure the transom.