1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

[lonewolfed]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

That is going to be a sweet boat. The transom can and should be made with two solid pieces of plywood with a sandwiched layer of fiberglassed epoxy in between. Use a nice piece of heavy weight cloth fiber in between.

Since you are re-doing the motor mounts at the same time distance to the outdrive should not mater because moving the motor an inch forward or back is no biggie. My concern would be the thickness of the outdrive mounting system. The sandwich transom method makes the transom at least 3x stronger than what was in there.

I recommend "Runabout Restoration" as a good book for basics (Google it-15 bucks)-it tells you how to do the transom in detail.

 

[jvl711]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

That is going to be a sweet boat. The transom can and should be made with two solid pieces of plywood with a sandwiched layer of fiberglassed epoxy in between. Use a nice piece of heavy weight cloth fiber in between.

Since you are re-doing the motor mounts at the same time distance to the outdrive should not mater because moving the motor an inch forward or back is no biggie. My concern would be the thickness of the outdrive mounting system. The sandwich transom method makes the transom at least 3x stronger than what was in there.

I recommend "Runabout Restoration" as a good book for basics (Google it-15 bucks)-it tells you how to do the transom in detail.

Thanks for the feedback. I do not think the thickness where the outdrive attaches will be any thicker. It was two pieces thick in that area, just much of the other area was not. I can only assume they wanted to save a little on material by cutting the second layer of the transom in a T shape.

When you say heavy weight cloth for the joining of the two pieces of ply does the biax with mat sound OK?

Thanks for the book recommendation. I will check that out. A $15 book could end up saving me $100's.

 

[jvl711]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

I think that if I were going to the extent, effort and expense that you're contemplating, I'd replace that transom and leave the I/O out and repower with an outboard or 2. Armstrong or Gill build great positive flotation brackets. Just look at how much you would open up the space in the boat too.

Captain Chris
SternMate?

I do not think I will be changing to outdrives. The motor and outdrive are in good shape. We are freshening up the engine with new electronic ignition components, and some new accessories. The engine and outdrive have less than 100 hours on them.

Plus I just have a thing for V8 engines

 

[yoyins69]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

very nice boat truly a good boat and deserve a second chance I am doing my self a dig *** reconstruction so good luck and do not give up

 

[mhturfguy1]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

Good lookin Chap!! u done??? i just did a lot o wk to my 87 200xlc. I experienced that with the fuel fill hose! Man, that could have been disaster! what did u use for fill/vent??
good luck, Chaps are Cadilliacs in my book!!!

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

That is going to be a sweet boat. The transom can and should be made with two solid pieces of plywood with a sandwiched layer of fiberglassed epoxy in between. Use a nice piece of heavy weight cloth fiber in between.

Since you are re-doing the motor mounts at the same time distance to the outdrive should not mater because moving the motor an inch forward or back is no biggie. My concern would be the thickness of the outdrive mounting system. The sandwich transom method makes the transom at least 3x stronger than what was in there.

I recommend "Runabout Restoration" as a good book for basics (Google it-15 bucks)-it tells you how to do the transom in detail.

Moving the motor forward or backward does matter, your transom has a min and max thickness. If you move the motor forward (towards the bow) the drive can not be moved forward because of the transom. Therefore, your min and max thickness of the transom would not be correct. To find the thickness go to the engine forum and find your engines manual in the sticky at the top.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

that vessel has some beautiful lines and to me that's about the size I'd go for too. I'll keep checking back to this thread and I'll chime in when I can. Good luck with it

 

[F14CRAZY]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

You were asking about how many layers to use on the stringers. Basically you want to put back what used to be there...main rule of thumb. The fiberglass "encapsulation" in my Capri was about 3/16'' which came out to be 3 layers of 18 oz fabric.

The West System stuff is certainly good but you're gonna be giving them a lot of money...I went with US Composites epoxy with medium harder (uscomposites.com), about $60/gal. I'd start with an order of 5 gallons. And some cabosil to thicken it up when you want to make fillets and stuff. The "colloidal silica" at West Marine is waaaaay too expensive, and so is there epoxy (which will come out to about $120 when you get a gallon of west system epoxy and hardener. US Composites sells you a gallon of epoxy PLUS the hardener for $60).

My fiberglass was an 18 yard chunk of 18 oz that I scored on ebay for $40 . I needed just a little more for my Capri and luckily the seller on ebay still had some.

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

You were asking about how many layers to use on the stringers. Basically you want to put back what used to be there...main rule of thumb. The fiberglass "encapsulation" in my Capri was about 3/16'' which came out to be 3 layers of 18 oz fabric.

The West System stuff is certainly good but you're gonna be giving them a lot of money...I went with US Composites epoxy with medium harder (uscomposites.com), about $60/gal. I'd start with an order of 5 gallons. And some cabosil to thicken it up when you want to make fillets and stuff. The "colloidal silica" at West Marine is waaaaay too expensive, and so is there epoxy (which will come out to about $120 when you get a gallon of west system epoxy and hardener. US Composites sells you a gallon of epoxy PLUS the hardener for $60).

My fiberglass was an 18 yard chunk of 18 oz that I scored on ebay for $40 . I needed just a little more for my Capri and luckily the seller on ebay still had some.

It may be cheaper but is there a difference in quality? That is over half the price and when I cam doing something once, i do not want to do it again. Don't get me wrong, it might be just as good. I am just a firm believer in when it sounds to good to be true, it usually is.

If it really is the same, I might look into this.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

18 oz roving is not as strong as biaxial fabric, I can say that for sure. But I'm not a marine engineer so I can't say much more.

I can say though, that I piloted my Capri from Chicago to Benton Harbor, MI in a small craft advisory (man that sucked) and the gelcoat didn't pick up any spidering, which without getting into engineering science, shows me that the stringers are doing their job well

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

Sounds good. I will be doing some researcfh this week before i start my transom reinstall. Thanks for the info.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

here's my thread if you wish to look through it

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=272749&page=3

 

[jvl711]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to let you know that I am still at it. I had to take a little break because of life obligations, but I have dedicated a few weekends to get some work done. The transom is in, and I have some of the tabbing in. I am going to start cutting the stringers this coming weekend. I hope to have the transom glassed in, and possibly some of the strings in and ready for glass by the end of the weekend.

I will have some pictures posted after I get done this weekend.

 

[jvl711]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

I am going to post a few weekends worth of progress. I finally got back to working on the boat, and got around to uploading some of my older shots.

Here is a picture of my Father-in-law and I cutting out the transom. We used 2 sheets of 3/4" AC plywood.

Test fitting the transom before installation.

I choose to laminate the two pieces together with a sheet of 6oz mat, and then to mount it to the boat with 6oz mat as well. It worked out really well.

I used two pieces of angel iron, screws and bolts to clamp the transom to the skin. The clamping worked well.

 

[jvl711]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

I am tabbing and fiberglassing in the transom with 22oz bi-axial. At first working with the 22oz took a while to get used to. I took a long time to wet out the glass. I was thinking it would not soak up the resin. I just kept soaking the glass until it soaked in.

Here is my first attempt with the 22oz tabbing in the transom. It went pretty well.

Here is a bulk head (i believe it is called a bulk head) between the cubby cabin and the deck.

Here we are putting a layer of glass on the transom

Here is a picture of the stringers laminated together. I joined them together by routing out 3/8" layer from each half of the string than joining them together with epoxy. They seem really strong.

Here is the new stringers installed. This is were the stringer is joined to the original stringer. The gap that was left was there in the original design. It is for the fuel fill line.

Another picture of the stringers.

 

[Davidcarr87]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

this is looking awesome--i have a 1987 187 chaparral..floor is weak..prev owner just put a sheet of 3/4 plywood ontop of it and threw a long vip bench seat in the boat (for the driver to sit on the end ) i got the boat 2 years ago and haven done anything with it.due to divorce..but now its time to rock out...lookin good..i will be folling this..thanks for the updates..gonna help me out along with the other 20+ post im following

 

[jasontf]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

I'm looking at your picture of the bulk head between the cabin and the deck. I'm wondering about the way that water drains from the cuddy cabin back to the bilge. The way my boat is set up, the cuddy cabin floor is much lower than the floor in the back, so water can drain toward the cabin. Does it then go under the bulk head you created? Or are you going to add a drain in the bottom of it?

 

[25thmustang]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

Very nice work on this one. Should be a great boat when all is said and done!

 

[PsychoDragon]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

Any updates on this project? I'm considering picking up a Chaparral 235 that's for sale near me.

 

[jus chillin]

Re: 1986 Chaparral 235 XLC Restore

You will love this boat when it is done. I have owned mine for 14 years. Very solid with a nice ride, comfortable overnighter.