Monterey 225 SCR Full Restore, Repair and Customization

imp0ster

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
189
So I need a place to catalog everything and whoop here it is!! I bought this boat knowing it had bad steering and soft spots in the floor. It has a 355 from mid 2013 and silent choice

So far I have:

Rebuilt the bellhousing assembly,
New gimbal ring with NuWave SS pin
Installed Kenwood headunit/Polk MM 6x9s
Plumed in a faucet and water supply for the sink
Sanded down and spahr varnished the ski loccker hatch
Replaced the starboard lounge seat base with a marine cooler
Removed the the port lounge seat and made a step in out of cellular PVC and nonskid
Rebuild the entire center section with reinforced, encapsulated 3/4 Ply
Removed all the carpet and non skidididid the areas that don't need to be torn up for floor repair
Sanded and painted the outdrive, gimbal and transom assembly
Put on an Edelbrock 600 marine, Jegs wires, new pugs, new cap and rotor, new tygon vent line
Added two Optima blue top batteries and wired them in.
replaced fuel sender with WEMA unit.
Replaced all snap studs on the boat with SS
removed and replaced all through hull fittings and sealed everything.
Repaired platform ladder with 12"x5"x1/2" starboard and SS fender washers
Wired in 8 blue leds to flood the boat with light but hidden so it looks nice :)
Ripped up the back right side of the floor and removed rotten bulkhead and all the useless foam.

What I need to do:

Pour Arjay 6011 into transom
Rebuild rotten bulkhead and right rear floor with Nidacore
Rip up port floor under passenger chair and replace with nidacore
Remove the pin from the old steering arm, put new steering arm in and put bellhousing assembly back in
Replace all gauges with new white face Farias
Replace standard heads and 12 bolt intake with built Vortec 202 valve heads and edelbrock marine intake.
Wire in new Lowrance plotter/fishfinder
rebuild entire back seating area with nidacore
replace back sundeck wood with cellular PVC

I had more pictures of the tear down and what's been done so far but lost them. Since I'm doing all my own workand having dad help with the floor/bulkhead/transom stuff) it's actually not that expensive. I got 5g of resin for $80 from dad s well as some other parts
 

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imp0ster

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
189
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We had it at 40mph at 3K RPMs before it hooked a really hard left because the steering arm is totally wallowed out. I figure it will be mid to high 50s as it sits. All the rot was from rain coming in through the swim platform ladder holes and the bilge vent plastics. They weren't sealed from the factory as usual. Then the water collected under the floor and stayed there forever thanks to the foam. We'll be drilling relief holes in the nidacore bulkheads to allow any trapped water to drain back into the bilge
 

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tpenfield

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Jul 18, 2011
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17,620
The boat looks pretty wet and rotten. It sounds like you are trying to do partial restoration, whereas you may need to be doing a full restoration. How pricey is the nidacore versus plywood?
 

imp0ster

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
189
The boat looks pretty wet and rotten. It sounds like you are trying to do partial restoration, whereas you may need to be doing a full restoration. How pricey is the nidacore versus plywood?


It's only rotten where I took the picture and under the passenger seat and the transom. They encapsulated certain things and didn't on others. It was a half ass build from the factory but at least only those areas are rotten. After I dig out the foam near the engine braces I'll be encapsulating the crap out of them.

The nidacore is $10 more per 4x8ft sheet than marine ply and it WAY easier to work with. If you've ever been on a boat that had plywood then went to a honeycomb floor the difference is dramatic in sound. It absorbs it.

I'll be back up in the boat today just to remove some foam and I'll try to snap some better pics.
 

DeepBlue2010

Lieutenant
Joined
Aug 19, 2010
Messages
1,304
Wood is as organic as our body. It is made out of carbon. Once the rot (that is a bacterial infection) strikes in one place, it spreads. The factory connected all of the wood in your boat together as a grid before they encapsulated it with fiberglass. So, you may have rot in places you think sound and dry.

The only way to be sure is to take core samples. The process is explained in details on the forum.. Just search core sampling. Simply put, using a 1/4 in drill bit with a depth set to no more than 1/2 to 3/4 in, drill holes and inspect the shavings. Wet, damp, dark brown, black the wood is due for replacement.. Gold and dry - as any wood shavings - you are good.
 

imp0ster

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
189
Wood is as organic as our body. It is made out of carbon. Once the rot (that is a bacterial infection) strikes in one place, it spreads. The factory connected all of the wood in your boat together as a grid before they encapsulated it with fiberglass. So, you may have rot in places you think sound and dry.

The only way to be sure is to take core samples. The process is explained in details on the forum.. Just search core sampling. Simply put, using a 1/4 in drill bit with a depth set to no more than 1/2 to 3/4 in, drill holes and inspect the shavings. Wet, damp, dark brown, black the wood is due for replacement.. Gold and dry - as any wood shavings - you are good.


You'd think so right? Not this boat. It doesn't have stringers like people are used to. It has a series of 1/2" bulkheads and they're not connected by wood past the engine except for where screws go through. The only information I came up with on my boat was some guy my father knows who used to work for Monterey said "the boat hull was built very sturdy so traditional stringers weren't necessary. If you removed all the floor supports you'd find bare hull and it would still be rigid enough to take out in the ocean" I'll take some pictures today.

I found the wood under the swim platform 100% rotted away and that's where the entire problem started as far as I can tell.

I also already probed everywhere. My father repairs race boats for a living so I have expert help :)
 
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imp0ster

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Apr 18, 2010
Messages
189


Yeah that poor guy. 100% trashed. They left all the wood around the middle gas tank hatch exposed and covered everything with carpet. That's the result. Thankfully mine isn't that bad but I will be sealing the middle hatch completely with 4200UV and cutting a 6" hole over the fuel sender like it should have been done in the first place.

You can see what I mean about the series of bulkheads in his pictures. The engine support is the scariest part of the boat and hard as a MFer to get to..
 

jbcurt00

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Oct 25, 2011
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I see stringers in that other 225, that were rotten and removed
 

imp0ster

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Apr 18, 2010
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If that's what you want to call them. It's 1/2" wood that's only there to support the gas tank cover and secure the bulkheads. They start at the back of the gas tank and end at the front of the tank. Take a look at this pic. The left side is the side of the highpart of the engine support. Notice how it doesn't go anywhere near the hull? It's 6" high. I'll be removing that and dropping the new piece to the hull. The piece on the right is the start of what you'd call a stringer.

The massively F'd thing is past that they laid glass and resin between the bulkheads so rot wouldn't spread. They also laid roving randomly on the bulkheads. Some of it covered the entire bulkhead, other bulkheads it only went up 60%. WTF!?
 

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imp0ster

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Well the motor mount supports are completely open to whatever and were never sealed off from the soaked foam so the right one is mudd. I think someone repaired the left one already but I'm deciding on whether I want to make a squareish mold with glass and pour Arjay 6011 in it or use 4x4s and stack to the appropriate height on an angled hull then encapsulate it. The top 4" of the mount looks brand new but the bottom is gone so the drill bit didn't hit the rot. Good thing we looked.
 

kcassells

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Oct 16, 2012
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8,575
I remember bringing home my new to me boat. All clean and shiny. Couldn't wait to polish her up and put a motor on her and go.....Then it all unraveled in front of me as I began probing, removing, probing, removing.......and so it goes.
Welcome to Iboats imposter. Lots of great guys here to help you through the rehab. Finish that drink and go get that sawzall, grinder and wear protective gear. Keep up the pics and take alot of measurements.
KC
 

imp0ster

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Apr 18, 2010
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De nial ain't just another river.


I'll do what needs to be done :) The starboard side is clean past what we've already removed. We gutted everthing in the rear. Had no choice so it's down to hull. The left side will have to wait.

I have 2 sheets of 1/2" carboncore, 1 sheet of 3/4 carboncore, 5g epoxy resin, 12ft 2oz mat cloth and 1 roll of 24oz Biaxial. It will be done right.

On a happier note transom crap is done. Clearanced the gimbal ring to .008

"Impossible is nothing"
 

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kcassells

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Good for you!! Shoot some pics of the wood work renovations. A "Happier Note" is a good thing. keep diggin at it.
 

imp0ster

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Apr 18, 2010
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I tried but everything is caked in fiberglass dust because it killed my vac + it's raining here. Once I get an new vac and you can see something besides itchy snow I'll post more pics with a better vantage point. I'll get some material pics tonight when I get home
 

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imp0ster

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Apr 18, 2010
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Back from vacation and went at it again yesterday. At this point the entire transom assembly is back together and ready for the drive. The storage locker bulhead and floor are all removed and ground awaiting the nidacore to be cut and glassed in. The right rear is completely out, ground and all remaining water has been removed. It is waiting the nidacore to be cut and glassed in.
 

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