1988 Bayliner Capri 1950 Resto Begins

[boatrup]

Well, it is time to start the tear down of my old Bayliner. Thank you everyone who gave me advice in my earlier thread.
Pulled the engine and transom assembly off today. I was definitely over optimistic about the transom being good. Now the first question I have is how thick should the wood be made for the new transom? The hull appears to be 3/8" thick, and I know I need between 2" to 2-1/4" total thickness. I just am not sure how much thickness the glassing will add.
Tomorrow I will start ripping the decking out of the boat and stripping the old wood from the transom.
This is probably going to be a slow process once I begin all the build up. I figure I only have about two months of being able to fiberglass before the temps get too low. After that I will have to wait until next year.
Also, only for the transom, I may end up going with Coosa board. I'll use plywood for everything else.

 

[boatrup]

First Image of the terrible rotted deck.
Heading to buy a mini circular saw to make the deck removal go a lot easier.

 

[Drivewayboater2]

Welcome aboard!
And it begins… once you get to the transom and stringers you’ll get an idea of how thick you’ll make it ( obviously you’ll need to be within spec as you mention). I used 2 layers of 3/4 plywood on mine. It will depend on the thickness of what cloth you’re gonna use. Read the stickies on epoxy resin vs polyester. And ask lots of questions on the forum. Take lots of pics. We love pics. Good luck.

 

[todhunter]

Typically if you leave the outer skin on the boat, proper transom thickness is achieved with 2 layers of 3/4" plywood and about 2-3 layers of 1708 fiberglass...maybe a couple more depending on how your specific rebuild goes.

 

[boatrup]

Ok, thank you. From everything I've seen everywhere 2 layers of 3/4" is perfect. I decided I will do Coosa for the transom.
I have the transom wood all stripped out now, still have to do some grinding and trimming. Most of the rotted deck areas are now removed. Removing the solid decking areas is quite a bit more work now.
Surprisingly I have yet to find an area of the stringers that is rotted. It is all still fully encapsulated and has no delamination anywhere. Everywhere I smack with a hammer sounds completely solid still.

 

[boatrup]

I am definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed with this job. Seemed a lot simpler before getting started lol.

 

[Drivewayboater2]

Smacking with a hammer will tell you little about the stringers. Drill couple test holes in the stringers with a drill bit. Clean and dry or dark and mushy will tell all.
you will get over the overwhelmed feeling soon. Tell my how I know .

Im in year 4 of my resto and thought it would take a year or two tops. Set realistic goals. Take one job at a time.

 

[boatrup]

Smacking with a hammer will tell you little about the stringers. Drill couple test holes in the stringers with a drill bit. Clean and dry or dark and mushy will tell all.
you will get over the overwhelmed feeling soon. Tell my how I know .

Im in year 4 of my resto and thought it would take a year or two tops. Set realistic goals. Take one job at a time.

Yeah I'm sure I'll get over it soon. Honestly, once the tear down is finished I'll be a lot more relieved.
As far as the stringers go, I don't really care if they are good or not. Either way I'm ripping them out and replacing them. Seems like a dumb choice to even consider leaving them at this point lol.
For the transom, I can order 1.5" Coosa, or .75" board. It would be better to just do a 1.5" board rather than layer the .75" right?

 

[huggyb1972]

Is yours a cuddy or a bow rider? I'm doing a 85' cuddy I'm nearly finished now. The transom on the 85 was 2" thick in the center.

 

[boatrup]

Is yours a cuddy or a bow rider? I'm doing a 85' cuddy I'm nearly finished now. The transom on the 85 was 2" thick in the center.

Mine is a bow rider. I had a chance to pick up a free 1992 cuddy hull in pretty good shape, but I really prefer the extra seating for my uses.
It was also a 17.5' hull, and I didn't really want to go with a smaller boat. I've been caught in some high swells before (about 5 foot), and definitely would want to be on a smaller boat.

 

[boatrup]

Its been a lot of work just to get this far. So much more tear down left to do. It's honestly difficult to keep myself convinced that the boat is worth all the time, money and effort.
Interesting observation, the transom had definitely been replaced before. It wasn't very well done though.

 

[boatrup]

Question for people who know about the manufacturing techniques used in the late 80's.
I noticed that everything seems to be hand laid fiberglass. I always thought that at this time they relied on mostly a chopper gun. The stringers are clearly a woven cloth, and I can see the woven pattern on the hull surface.
Was 1988 before they were using chopper guns?

 

[todhunter]

I think cheaper boats used chopper guns, and nicer ones were marketed as "hand laid". Unfortunately on mine (1987), some of the hand laid glass was sloppily done, and none of the stringers had glass all the way up the sides.

 

[boatrup]

I think cheaper boats used chopper guns, and nicer ones were marketed as "hand laid". Unfortunately on mine (1987), some of the hand laid glass was sloppily done, and none of the stringers had glass all the way up the sides.

Thats basically what I expected for mine, with Bayliner being one of the cheap boats. I am very surprised at the layups in my boat. Stringers are fully wrapped hand laid. Bulkheads unfortunately were just tabbed in, though still fairly strong and not breaking out very easily.
When I started my teardown I basically thought everything was going to be weak enough to just smack with a large hammer and be gone. Then come back through after with the grinder to smooth it all out. So far though once I got past the rotted deck area everything has been a huge chore to get cut out. Took about 4 hours to finally get the wood out of the transom (upper half was very strong and dry still).
I actually missed a very heavy hammer swing and ended up smacking the stringer, couldn't even really tell that I hit it. Just a little white mark where the fiberglass got scraped.

 

[boatrup]

What technique do you all use to cut the deck up against the hull? I have been very nervous about accidentally cutting through the hull. So, I end up cutting about an inch away from the side of the hull.

 

[huggyb1972]

A ultra sonic saw works real well in those areas, but there is nothing wrong with running on the side of caution. Several years ago dad redid a bad section of deck in his Sea Ray 160, the job looked great. I took it to the lake prepared to do work on the trailer bunks while the boat was in the water. What was not prepared for was the next morning going down to fire up the boat and water half way up the deck. Later after running the bilge pump and dewatering the boat I found a slice about 8" long where dad got a over zealous with his ultrasonic saw. Good thing the trailer was fixed. Lol

 

[boatrup]

A ultra sonic saw works real well in those areas, but there is nothing wrong with running on the side of caution. Several years ago dad redid a bad section of deck in his Sea Ray 160, the job looked great. I took it to the lake prepared to do work on the trailer bunks while the boat was in the water. What was not prepared for was the next morning going down to fire up the boat and water half way up the deck. Later after running the bilge pump and dewatering the boat I found a slice about 8" long where dad got a over zealous with his ultrasonic saw. Good thing the trailer was fixed. Lol

Yes, my biggest fear right now. Last thing I want is to end up destroying the hull. I know it can be fixed, but to me it seems a patch just wouldn't have the same strength.

 

[buxmj]

I think everyone on this forum who has done a resto has cut through the hull. I freaked when I did it but like everyone had said no big deal, just make sure you glass over it. My boat company was Lyn Craft but was nicknamed thincraft, so not a lot of confidence in hull thickness to begin with. I added a few layers of 1708 wherever I thought it was thin and then added a whole layer of CSM on the outside of the boat, initially for coverIng up the whole thing covered in spider cracks but realizing that it probably gave it a good bit of extra strength too. I am in the 5th year of my build but hoping to splash in the next few weeks. Keep plugging away and take lots of pics, helps when you want to take a sawzall to the whole thing to see that you have already made good progress so just keep plugging away. Good luck and keep the updates coming!

Buck.

 

[huggyb1972]

Yes, my biggest fear right now. Last thing I want is to end up destroying the hull. I know it can be fixed, but to me it seems a patch just wouldn't have the same strength.

Cut a section of deck out for a decent sized peep hole and inspect where you're going to be cutting. If you're going for a template nothing missing out of the middle will bother a future measurement. It's fiberglass anything that happens can be fixed most of the time.

 

[chevymaher]

I did it that way. Cut close then took the peice out. then grind. Took forever but i never hurt the hull.