Unusual transom

[97fordrunner]

Good evening all, so I've been doing a lot of research on replacing the transom and stringers on my '73 Larson and I have yet to find a transom like mine, the wood is not encased in resin or fiberglass on the inside, is this typical for older boats and is there anything special I need to take into consideration?

I apologize for the pictures, there aren't very many clear shots but it's plywood up to the top of the hull and all the way to the sides of the hull.





Thanks guys, everything I searched so far has been a typical sealed transom

 

[sphelps]

Are you sure that's not just another layer of plywood someone has added to the existing ?

 

[97fordrunner]

Boy I sure hope not, but from what I can see and feel it's just oem, looks about 1 - 1 1/2" thick

 

[sphelps]

Is it an I/O ?

 

[97fordrunner]

Sorry, it's a I/O merc 888

 

[sphelps]

Maybe it was replaced but never glassed in ... idk..

 

[97fordrunner]

Should make life easier then? I'm hoping it separates from the hull ok on the backside
The only soft spot appears to be where someone installed the bolts thru the ladder and failed to do anything to seal it up.

 

[Patfromny]

I wouldn't be too sure that wasn't glassed. There appears to be a patch put in on photo two that def. Doesn't have anything on top and if you compare the two pieces, patch and non, they appear to be different surfaces. If you zoom on the top of the transom you can see some kind of adhesive squeezed out. I hope that isn't factory but if it lasted until now and you're changing it I guess no harm no foul.

 

[Woodonglass]

If it's only got a bit of rot at the ladder connections and the area is not that big, you can probably cut that section out and patch it. No need to do a full transom replacement if it's pretty much isolated to a small area. Pics of that specific area would help. Have you core sampled around the keyhole?

 

[97fordrunner]

Yeah now that I pulled the blower out of the way I got in there and can see there used to be a resin coating anyways, the transom is soft on the port side only but it's pretty bad as you can see, I also know the rear of the stringers are bad to at least around where the motor motor mounts, surprisingly the floor is great but I'm nervous to what is hiding





Where the out drive mounts appears to be solid as does the star board side

 

[Woodonglass]

Based on those Pics...I'd replace the entire transom especially since you need to replace the stringers.

 

[97fordrunner]

Yeah, that's my feelings to since it's all gonna be torn down anyways and Its 43 years old.

 

[Pusher]

This might sound stupid or maybe has already been done. I know people carefully cut those transoms out with chainsaws then switch over to chisels at the end. Couldn't you build a jig for the chainsaw like this http://www.pantherpros.com/pantherCub.html and make pretty quick/clean work of it?

 

[JASinIL2006]

This might sound stupid or maybe has already been done. I know people carefully cut those transoms out with chainsaws then switch over to chisels at the end. Couldn't you build a jig for the chainsaw like this http://www.pantherpros.com/pantherCub.html and make pretty quick/clean work of it?

That would make me a bit nervous... wouldn't take much of a twitch with the chainsaw to leave a huge gash in the hull. It's not that hard to score the transom with a circular saw and then pop out the pieces with hammer and chisel. Either way, you still have to do some grinding, and that's the part that really stinks.

 

[2boatsinMI]

That looks exactly like the paint/ resin that coated the transom on my Century.

 

[97fordrunner]

That looks exactly like the paint/ resin that coated the transom on my Century.

Came off in large chunks.