'76 Holiday i/o 18' Fishing Rebuild (pic heavy!)

[Watermann]

My Chief's transom looked the same but dry as a bone and I pulled it finding rot and the ply delaminating . Here's a before pic...

and after... yeah I seem to have misplaced the old 4 banger :lol:

 

[italianstal27]

How difficult is it to pull the engine and prop? We don't even have an engine hoist :lol:

 

[italianstal27]

Among the sketchiness were these L brackets that connected the gunnel to the stern deck. I'm assuming that 2x4 resin'd wood is the way to go to reinforce the deck and provide stiffness to the gunnels.

We're also going to relocate the wires below the shelf so our fishing gear doesn't snag on a wire or hydraulic line.

Again, more holes in the gunnel. We're considering putting a rivet and washer through it to patch the hole. The original vinyl behind the shelf also is going to get pulled, assuming we don't run the risk of putting yet another hole in the boat lol

 

[italianstal27]

After removing the side panels, we moved to the front of the boat to remove the windshield, but ran into some serious problems

The middle pane of glass is shattered from the previous owner, so you can't see through it. The local boat dealership quoted us $800 for a replacement piece, which is a little too steep for our budget. We also tried pulling the windshield wiper motor, but failed miserably. some WD40 might help loosen the nut off. The glass also came out of the sill, and after 30 minutes of trying to massage it gently back in we gave up. We may just use silicone caulk or new weather stripping. The gaskets were fairly vulcanized.

Also the length of the bolts was beyond ridiculous! Why would anyone use 2" long bolts?!? took forever to remove the bolts under the dash by hand!

 

[italianstal27]

Here's the dash deconstruction. Spent 20 minutes trying to get the steering wheel off. Went on youtube, realized it was probably corroded, sprayed WD40, waited a minute and within 1 whack of the hammer the wheel came off -.- It's the little things in life...

The dash was a mess of daisy changed wires that were all over the place so we traced the original ones back to the engine and labeled them with duck tape and a sharpie. The hydraulic control had rusted bolts on the inside. Going to take an angle grinder to them and see if we can get it to pop out. We'd rather not have to cut these wires off as they're fine as is.

Having a drill with a deep socket set is entirely necessary for removing a lot of these bolts. Without power tools I don't know how anyone could do this by hand. It'd take forever. We're going to keep the steering wheel and reuse it. Looks like it's in great shape!

 

[Watermann]

The L bracket you talk about attaches the main transom cover support to the gunnel and there are 4 or 5 cross supports from it to the transom. It's actually a 1x6 cut into an arch with a cutout for the exhaust. You can see my original in the photo I posted, it was mahogany originally.

On the windshield glass, that's just a flat rectangle laminated safety glass, a local glass shop can cut you a new piece for way cheaper.

One of the first things you need to do on an IO is to pull the outdrive off to inspect the ujoints, gimbal bearing and do a water pump kit. 2 nuts on the thrust bar and 6 nuts on the OD and it comes off. Youtube will show you how easy it is, there are a couple other steps to take but it's easy I do it every year on mine :lol:

 

[italianstal27]

Last night got the deck started and this morning finished pulling the rotted wood. Most of it came off in a single piece 1/2" ply, but we're planning on using exterior grade 3/4" for the decking going forward.

Lucky for us there wasn't in spray in foam, just normal everyday styrofoam, so that took all of 3 minutes to pull out! Next step is shop vac the big stuff and then pressure wash!

 

[italianstal27]

Pressure washing halfway done....

 

[italianstal27]

Found this weird looking stuff after spraying and it didn't come up.... anyone know what this is and if it's normal?

Below is a pic of the finished pressure washed interior:


And here she is all sprayed out! A couple of off color spots from where the rotted plywood was attached to the runners. We're missing a couple rivets on the starboard one, but that's a simple fix. To the googles to see if we can remove that yellow glue on the left side. We're planning on herculiner or rhino lining those shelves so it's unknown if the bedliner will adhere to that material.

Found a slight leak on where the port hull meets the transom, so that'll need fixing. Everything but directly under the engine is cleaned off. Thinking of polishing the aluminum on the sides to get things cleaned up a little more!

 

[jbcurt00]

Yep, the brown smeg.... normal. Although you got extra it seems....

It seam seals the bow. It appears a little has popped loose under the pressure washing. Need to re-seal that w Gluvit when you're doing the rest of the seams, rivets, ribs and etc

 

[italianstal27]

After looking at the transom it appears we should remove it.... it's sketch at best.

Does anyone know the easiest way to do this who's done it before?

 

[Watermann]

Oh man a 76 without rib end hull stiffener braces factory installed, I've seen them in most SC boats 72 and up. She needs a very close inspection for rib end cracks and in the side spray rail chine area above the seam, especially if the boat was used a bunch with rot compromised decking and side panels in the IO config.

The end of the rib becomes a flex point in the bottom of the hull on these boats when they're used rotten and especially with the heavy IO config. Sorry to say but it it's a very well known and documented problem where these cracks form. There is not an issue if the boats are kept in good repair and not left out to rot in the elements.

 

[italianstal27]

Did an inspection and didn't see any signs of cracks on the ribs... However we did find a leak on the port hull where it meets the transom.

Is it easier to fill the boat with water and look for leaks? or should we get it in the water? Given that the hull isn't braced I'm thinking the extra couple hundred pounds from water might cause a structural failure... So dropping it into a lake seems the way to go

 

[Watermann]

It's easier to add some water to the inside of the boat and manipulate the jack to move the water rather than going to the lake. You can see the drips and pin point the leaks, making them with a sharpie. Something you can't do in a lake.

 

[italianstal27]

OK! Huge progress the last week. Work has been insane for both of us. We have now pulled the engine AND transom. We went to our local West Marine store and talked to the local guy there in Tigard. We've decided on .7" decking and sides to connect to the "cubbies" to the deck. Transom is totally rotted. Thanks for pushing us to pull it. Definitely worth it in the long run. We also pulled the engine and the carb. It's pretty corroded and there is a lot of gunk on it. We may have to buy a new one. Also pulled the entire steering system. There is POUNDS of grease on the engine and whatever you call the piece of metal that the engine butts up to inside the transom. Anyone have suggestions on how to keep engine metal from rusting? Pics to come!

 

[Watermann]

The metal piece the motor mounts on in an IO is simply called the transom assembly.

Repainting the motor is a good way to prevent rust, that and not leaving it out to the elements,

 

[italianstal27]

Anyone else have similar forming "stalactites" inside their water intake??

 

[italianstal27]

Got the 1 ton crane from HF for $130 with their special coupons. Best investment ever! There are 1000000 uses for this thing! You can see the engine is in pretty rough shape. There's a lot of surface rust and mold growing on the cooling / fuel lines. All hoses will be replaced, new distributer cap, new spark plugs, new air filter, and new sensors. Only gauge that was working was the RPM gauge, and that had a couple splices in it. No Good!


Prepping the hoist! Raise the cracken!



Feeling like bad asses after pulling our first engine. I've gotten more use from my recovery tree strap on this boat than I've used offroad in the jeep! The engine was actually 3-4" too low to clear the transom. So I went to the bow, lifted it with all my strength, and we managed to "push" the engine over the transom. #OSHAisThisOK?


Found yet another piece of wood.... Looks like another piece of wood is needed!


Our transom assembly had a solenoid on the top? Was this an old method of steering? That's our best guess. the air lines weren't connected to anything and the wires were snipped.

Word of advice, if your transom looks like this, pull it! areas where grease had gotten on the wood were still in ok shape, but the bolt holes had rotted through. We didn't want to touch the steering hydraulic and thought "well maybe we can keep it in here and work around it." That didn't happen lol


Just stupid amounts of grease EVERYWHERE. We're assuming it's important to get everything cleaned up and then regrease? I mean we're talking a couple pounds of this stuff!

 

[italianstal27]

Transom out. Pretty gross where it was in contact with the aluminum. putting that crane to work! It took lifting the boat up a couple inches + having people jump up and down to dislodge it. Guess it swelled from water damage.

Carb is in pretty bad shape. Does anyone have similar experience with theirs? Calling all my i/o people! Share pics of your carbs!




Grabbed the plywood for the deck! Boat is rated for 1700 lbs, and having the extra weight of the deck will help sink her down a little in the water for some extra stability leaning over to grab crab pots. We're also going to use the 23/32 for the side walls. (not putting the vinyl sides back in). We're going to be epoxying the inside side wall, and painting the outside.


Sheets (showing the bad side) stacked and ready to go from an unnamed home construction store and 2x4s for building a couple saw horses.

 

[italianstal27]

Wyatt cutting the first board of plywood. We kept 11"x 8' of plywood for trim pieces, or probably redesigning the console.


First piece cut and done! You can see there's a small gap in the bottom of the transom. We're planning on filling it with either carpenter glue, or the 406 hardener (like peanut butter). Ignore the water heater sitting in the front yard.

Sanding with 100 grit. Couldn't find 80 at that orange home store.


Laying down that Epoxy! 105 and the 205B hardener. it's 45 degrees inside the garage tonight (we hope). We epoxied the C side of BOTH pieces of plywood, let it set for 30 minutes, and then we joined them together. They actually matched up within 1/8" so for freehanding all those cuts, that's not half bad!

We also put 8 screws into the 2 pieces of plywood to hold them together better. After cutting, they had begun to bow out a little, so combined with the weight of the old transom and screws, we're expecting the epoxy should join the wood together and be flat.

Using the old transom (beyond water logged) as weight on the two pieces of plywood below. We also put 2 pieces of 1/4" plywood on top of the existing plywood to help distribute the weight. So the screws combined with the old transom weight will hopefully make it cure right!