Re: 1990 Bayliner Capri 2050 BR w/pics and video (Milestone: Rotten transom!)
Re: 1990 Bayliner Capri 2050 BR w/pics and video (Milestone: Rotten transom!)
More transom gutting and (oh joy) foam removal in this update. I'm sorry to those who have been waiting for their restoration fix, as I have been losing steam on this restore with the massive foam removal troubles I have been having. I can only hope this is the worst part, as it is just plain exhausting. Who knew foam could be such a bear to remove. I feel like I've been beat up by a teletubby, it just isn't natural.
Today, in an act of desperation, I hauled out an ice scraper and began using that on the foam and, to my astonishment, it works GREAT! In a couple of hours I was able to remove a huge pile of foam (enough to need a rake to remove from the hull!). So, I'm pretty happy with today's update:
The transom was rotten til about 1/2 way up, which made it nice, as I was able to use my Poulan chain saw to cut away any upper dry material and gut the rest by hand.
Seeing as my transom is actually 5 angular pieces instead of the usual one flat piece, I decided to do some digging (heh) and see if I couldn't follow others' lead by using nidabond (a cheaper SeaCast alternative, for those who know the SeaCast brand name) transom goop instead of the usual double plywood approach.
By using the transom goop I can clean out just this one section and avoid having to glass and fair a new transom using plywood. I lucked out twice, as it seems each section is sealed and only the center section was rotten.
For those learning, I gutted the transom in this manner:
- Cut off the top layer of fiberglass using a skil saw
- Used a crowbar to remove any soft material from around the sterndrive hole. (This accounted for 1/2 the material)
- Used an auger bit on my drill to remove the first few inches of wood from the top.
- Used a spade bit on the drill to remove what the auger bit missed in the first few inches
- Used my chain saw to remove all of the rest of the dry wood. I used two big swipes at first, then removed what I could and nibbled away (as best as a chain saw nibbles) any remaining dry wood.
- Used a crow bar to scrape the inner fiberglass (reasonably) clean.
Disclaimer: Keep in mind on the chain saw approach, even though it speeds up removal a huge amount, I am quite comfortable with a chain saw (and this one in particular), so you may or may not want to do the chain saw step, depending on your experience level. Yes, only using a spade bit will take hours longer, but your head will not be split in two from a chainsaw kickback, either.
All in all, It really turned out quite nice and only took a few hours
The future home of roughly 5 gallons of nidabond
Some more hours burned taking out foam, plywood, fiberglass and a few of the stringers (which are just sopping wet 2x6 and 2x4 boards)
I'll be working tonight to remove the engine mounts and the last two stringers (the glassed in ones). I have to make sure I measure it all so I can put it back together. I'm a little worried I'll get it all recreated and the engine will always point right or something
There seem to be plenty of voyeurs in this thread, but few posts. By all means, if you are interested or learning from this, let me know. I could use the encouragement about now :redface:.. the end goal is beginning to blur a bit, and thoughts of buying a boat to use while I restore this one are tough to fight off, but I'm trying to hold it together and plow through. Once I begin adding stuff, I think the end goal will begin to come back into focus again. All of that said, my hat is off to others who have done this every day until it was finished, as this is seriously draining work.
