1990 Sunbird 194SPL restore

[vietcu]

Kickin butt and taking names are you?

Man my wife wants it done "now". She is totally regretting letting me get a boat. If I hadn't bought the resin, I can take my time. But now it's going against the clock, with the weather, coaching soccer, doing house chores, and keeping the wife happy. I tried to get this thing into my garage but no go. So I have to leave it at my shop and do a 20 min drive each weekend. BUT once I get all the stringers in, should be smooth sailing for a little while if I can somehow convince her to help me cut the fiberglass so I don't have to get in and out of the boat. It is somewhat satisfying to see the stringers in and having a solid hull again.

 

[chevymaher]

Congrats I know I am getting excited to see mine going together instead of coming apart.

 

[Corjen1]

Looks like soon you will be doing the "new floor dance" in the boat....My Boss didnt see the beauty until it was done.

 

[vietcu]

Yeah, I'm hoping this weekend I can finish glassing all the stringers and order some foam. My only concern is I read somewhere that I need close to 16 cubic feet of foam to keep my boat afloat. I'm guessing this thing is 1600-2000 pounds. Someone help me with this.
I also have a question about my floor. The back end in the old picture has two rectangle box on either side filled with foam, 4"x8x11. I'm thinking of not putting that back in when I put down my new floor, so I have more space back there for batteries and stuff.

 

[Corjen1]

All I can say is that they are there for a reason.... to keep it afloat of there is a hull breach, or the blasted drain plug is left out.....

 

[Nick0294]

I was wondering the same thing with my little sea ray. It has two large box's filled with foam, and it would be nice for storage reasons to get rid of them, but i imagine in case the boat takes on alot of water, they are there to keep it off the bottom of the lake!

 

[vietcu]

I was wondering the same thing with my little sea ray. It has two large box's filled with foam, and it would be nice for storage reasons to get rid of them, but i imagine in case the boat takes on alot of water, they are there to keep it off the bottom of the lake!

I'm going to keep it out, but I am not reducing the amount of foam if I were to add this two boxes back in if that makes any sense. Instead of putting foam there, I have relocated to the middle, right in front of the transom after the bilge. There was no foam there so I am going to put it there. Will actually be more foam if I add there.

 

[Nick0294]

I'm going to keep it out, but I am not reducing the amount of foam if I were to add this two boxes back in if that makes any sense. Instead of putting foam there, I have relocated to the middle, right in front of the transom after the bilge. There was no foam there so I am going to put it there. Will actually be more foam if I add there.

I was thinking of removing the "foam box's" extending the deck and adding a bulk head under the deck on either side filled with foam.....seems like a good alternative

 

[vietcu]

Well spent another weekend glassing in all the stringer. Here's what I did so far, please let me know if I need to change anything. I peanut butter all stringer and transom in, ran a 4-6" tabbing around everything. The two outermost stringers, I covered with CSM, then covered again with 1708. Everything else I covered with only 1708. Went in and checked today and I'm getting some air bubbles, some places are worse than others. I'm thinking of stopping now and do foam, or should I go with another covering of 1708? I have plenty left and maybe about 8g of resin. Need to have some resin left for the deck. Thanks

 

[savetexomabeaches]

How are you applying the resin? brush? roller? Not sure if its just your picture or not, but I see a lot of air pockets under fiberglass. With stringers/decks/transoms, I like to use rollers, so I can roll it down and push out all the air.

 

[vietcu]

How are you applying the resin? brush? roller? Not sure if its just your picture or not, but I see a lot of air pockets under fiberglass. With stringers/decks/transoms, I like to use rollers, so I can roll it down and push out all the air.

I use rollers. I literally soak the wood before even putting on the 1708. Then I would soak the fibers and roll all the resin around. It's so saturated that it wouldn't take anymore because I keep trying to get it to take more. Once it got tacky if I mess with it, would start lifting so I don't mess with it. Yeah it's not that bad, picture make it look horrible. But I do have bubbles. I'm thinking of finding the really bad ones, and drilling 1/4" holes in them and inject some resin in.

 

[kcassells]

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...unbird-194spl-restore?p=10483273#post10483273

I see you are using solid lumber vs ply. When I ever used solid lumber the wood gassed off when I tried to seal it in glass. Knots, oils, stiill green inside seems to be the culprit. Sand the crap out of it and acetone it to death to get the woods oils out. . Then soak it alot with resin.

 

[vietcu]

I see you are using solid lumber vs ply. When I ever used solid lumber the wood gassed off when I tried to seal it in glass. Knots, oils, stiill green inside seems to be the culprit. Sand the crap out of it and acetone it to death to get the woods oils out. . Then soak it alot with resin.

AH, wish I would have known this before the glassing. I didn't see anyone mention doing this in any videos or thread so I figured I wouldn't have a problem. Oh well, will now know for next time, although it didn't turn out as badly as I thought. I will go through all the glassing and pinpoint out bad spots and hopefully be able to inject some resin. Thanks though for the new information.

 

[vietcu]

Almost there I keep telling myself. I tabbed the transom, covered with CSM, and one layer of 1708. The non resin part will be grinded off, then I was going to tab from outside of boat in, and another layer of CSM, and finally topping off with a layer of 1708. Is that too much? How many layers do you guys usually do for transom?

 

[Baylinerchuck]

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...unbird-194spl-restore?p=10483273#post10483273

I see you are using solid lumber vs ply. When I ever used solid lumber the wood gassed off when I tried to seal it in glass. Knots, oils, stiill green inside seems to be the culprit. Sand the crap out of it and acetone it to death to get the woods oils out. . Then soak it alot with resin.

I just found your thread. Like kcassells stated, plywoods the way to go. Most everyone doing a rebuild like this used ACX or BCX plywood. I used 3/4" for the bulkheads and transom and 1/2" fiberglass coated plywood for the stringers.

Those light areas in the fiberglass look like starved glass from my 100 yard view. It willl be a weak point. Hopefully you can clean that up some.

My transom on the Chap 1 layer of 1.5 oz CSM, and two courses of 1708. This was for a stern drive though.

 

[kcassells]

I think I recollect that the transom should not exceed 2.25" or the motor won't fit. OB type.

 

[vietcu]

I think I recollect that the transom should not exceed 2.25" or the motor won't fit. OB type.

My engine seems to be an aftermarket engine, not the original I don't think. In one of the picture it doesn't even sit on the transom. I'm going to reposition the engine following the OB rule to hopefully have it sit on the transom this time around. Didn't even think about the fitting, but I will measure the engine mount to see how thick I can go, thanks for pointing that out.

 

[kcassells]

Alot don't actually sit on the transom. It's more an issue of the prop being in the right height;

 

[vietcu]

Made a quick diy canopy so I can work in the rain. Mainly for the stupid leaves that keep falling down from the tree of which the boat is under.

 

[vietcu]

Alot don't actually sit on the transom. It's more an issue of the prop being in the right height;

I need your help with my math plz if you can, anyone actually. Because of how I took off the engine, I'm unable to lower it completely as if I were to run it. So I have to do some deductive reasoning with my math. The transom once done will max out at around 2.5" nothing more. The mount measures at 3.25", so I should be safe.

The length of my bow is 19.5". The length of the mount from the top is 14.25". The length of the bottom hole to if the engine were running to the base where engine should sit in the water is 6.5" according to my measurement.

From the last hole on the mount to bottom is 1.25". So if I add 6.5" to 14.25. Gives me 20.75". Minus that to the 1.25 gives me 19.5". So if I have the engine sitting directly on the transom I will have it spot on, according to my calculations. Even if it's 1" up or down, I should be ok right? I'm trying my best here with my calculations.