1972 MFG 12' Car Topper

[biasedmind]

For years my stepdad has offered to give me the boat settings in his back yard. After moving back to TX I finally decided to take him up on the offer. As you can see from the ad I'm estimating it's a 72.



It was previously owned by an old hunting buddy of ours and as you can see it was painted to be a duck boat. The long tail mud motor was added later and was never run on the boat. It was last licensed in '01.



After lots of cleaning to remove an ant colony and remains is an old mouse nest I could survey the project. The boat seems sound minus the transom and the very front of the bow. After lots of research and YouTube videos I got the nerve to open up the transom. I guess the good news is it was so rotted the wood scrapes out with little resistance.









I was conservative with my first cut. Didn't want to cut away too much since I didn't know the actual shape of transom.

 

[biasedmind]

I need to get some strength built into the transom to support the mud motor. It's decently heavy. The original transom was 7/8" thick with an additional 9x9" section. Total thickness at the mount was 1-3/4".



My thoughts are to remove the small plate and make the transom go all the way to the hull. It'll only be 7/8" thick at the base but 1-3/4" will span the width of the hull. I am trying to avoid removing excess amounts of the water side fiberglass.



Or, should I remove the step out in the transom and glass it flat?

 

[Woodonglass]

Yeah you'll need to remove the bottom section of the inner wall too. Then you replace it using multiple pieces with overlapping joints. I would NOT cut the outer skin. You can and should do all the work from the inside. Use thickened Polyester resin to "Glue" it to the outer skin and then an ample coating of Titebond III wood glue and screws for the remaining layers. I'd recommend 3 layers of 1/2" Ext. Grade Plywood. Prior to replacing I'd soak all The edges with the Old Timers Recipe to ensure no water can penetrate.

 

[biasedmind]

The inner wall only extends an inch below my first cut. Below that is solid glass. What you're looking straight down on is the fillet that transitioned the transom to the glass.



The highlighted section is what I was wondering about removing to simplify and strengthen the shape of the new transom.

 

[biasedmind]

Just noticed in my late night typing I labeled the boat as a '76 in the thread title.

 

[sphelps]

Welcome Aboard !!
Someone else had a MFG Car Topper on here a while back ... It was kind of hard to see from the pics but it does have an extra step out where the motor sits ...
I think I would leave it that way ... A layer of 1/2" clued in there first then 2 layers over that all the way across the beam and to the top ... You would need to cut the remaining inside upper skin out then a good multiple glass layup on the new wood overlapping the bottom and rolled over the top ..
Should be a nice little fishing boat once finished !