87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

[locito]

Hello all iboat forum users. I am posting my first thread today after having read the forum guidelines and user etiquette (looks like a great community to be joining). Ok I have had a look around to find anyone who may have documented their project restoration of a savage Electra hull, with no success. I'll fill you in on where I am at, I have identified a rotten transom and some soft spots on the hull floor. Btw, this is my first restoration job so be gental. Ok, i have completed separating the hull from the deck to work on the transom and possible stringer rot too. I would appreciate any tips and tricks anyone has with these hulls and this weekend I'll be cleaning out the rotten plywood from the transom so everyone can see the extent of the rot to guide me on the stringer work needed. Below are shots of the work to date. I have restored the US marine force 125hp motor which I took off this hull and is running smooth, you'll see the photo below just after it came off the hull.

Regards
Locito

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

All,
I have finally got my hands on the photos I wanted to upload for everyone to review and provide tips and tricks which may help me and the whole community on iboats. Here it goes:

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

Welcome to iboats.

Regardless of the name of the boat............. most fiberglass restorations are basically the same.

There is a huge wealth of knowledge here.

Nice looking boat!

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

Thanks Bob_VT,
Look forward to adding some value and taking some in too. Hopefully this oldie will shine up a fair bit once me and the brother-in-law are done with it. Once thing I have noticed that this work is very fulfilling so that is why I caught the bug!

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

Hopefully you have taken a LOT of pre demo measurements. These will be invaluable when doing the reconstruction. Make sure and mark the sides of the hull at the Height of the deck. I would Highly suspect that your stringers are "Toast" and you will need to remove the deck and replace the stringers. You might as well get it all done while you're in there. Make sure and use ALL the proper PPE and don't take any chances with your health. A lot of Well Rubbed In Baby Powder and a Tyvek suit will really help keep the itch down. Let us know if you have further questions and issues.

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

All,
I wanted to know what the general consensus is with hand-laying the transom or vacuum bagging it to minimize the void? I know cost and time are 2 key factors. If I decide to vacuum bag the transom should I still tab the edges by hand?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

Either way you absolutely need to tab the transom to the hull sides and bottom. This gives it the structural integrity required.

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

Either way you absolutely need to tab the transom to the hull sides and bottom. This gives it the structural integrity required.

Thank you woodonglass for your advice! Has anyone come across any videos that demonstrate the process of using vacuum infusion of resin onto a transom? I've seen how to do it manually.

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

All,
I have updates of the progress on the Savage hull over the weekend. The transom is clean of all rot and have made a template out of cardboard for the new transom to be cut out next week. I need to source the 15mm marine plywood this week ready for next weekend. However, before the brother-in-law and I cut out the transom we need to remove part of those rotten stringers back to the good plywood. Any ideas on the best way to join the new stringers onto the exisiting ones on the hull? Stainless steel\wooden dowels, truss nails, etc?

A bit of the very bottom of the transom to show it was rotten all the way!

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

All,
This weekend I have been able to get to the bottom of the rotting stringers to cut all of it out.

So now we started to cut out the two pieces of 15mm thick new transom.

Once I got the second sheet of transom cut out and did lots of inpecting and cutting back of the transom and cleaning little bits of glass out of the transom bracket, a break through! The 2 sheets fit in nice and snug with a little bit of space for the glassing of the transom!

Now it was time to glue the 2 bits together and compress as much as possible to get a even bond between the 2 parts. It was late by this time and had to clean up and rest for the new week ahead!

Next weekend we will start to glass the transom and fit it in with peanut\putty all the way around so I have a nice fillet as 'FriscoJarretts' puts it so nicely on his videos in preparation for the transom tabbing. OK till next time and if anyone has any comments or tips on this restoration feel free to reply to this thread.

Regards,
Locito

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

you are going to grind the original fiberglass before you bond in the new transom or the fiberglass will not stick and will pop free

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

You must grind out all the old glass and wood remnants from the outer skin of the transom and sides and bottom of the hull so you can use the Peanut Butter and the CSM to adhere the new transom to the boat. You also need to coat the new wood with Resin first and apply a layer of CSM to it. That channel you have left is not a good idea. It might seem that way but it is NOT!!!

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

You must grind out all the old glass and wood remnants from the outer skin of the transom and sides and bottom of the hull so you can use the Peanut Butter and the CSM to adhere the new transom to the boat. You also need to coat the new wood with Resin first and apply a layer of CSM to it. That channel you have left is not a good idea. It might seem that way but it is NOT!!!

Woodonglass and glenn property of pam: Good point I will go back and sand\grind out all the wood on the outer layer of the transom. With regards to the channel I will go back to trimming all the old glass around it as I have illustrated in the picture below. A Question I do have though is what do I do about the railing which comes from the sides of the boat? If I cut around it will the new glasss stick to the sides of the railing?


Is this what you mean woodonglass?

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

grind 8" in from the transom and 8" either side of the stringers then clean with accetone that will give the fiberglass you use to tab the transom and stringers in a clean surface to attach to

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

grind 8" in from the transom and 8" either side of the stringers then clean with accetone that will give the fiberglass you use to tab the transom and stringers in a clean surface to attach to

OK! Will do that. Was also thinking of running a belt sander against the transom inner skin to then with accetone to keep the skin nice an clean for the new glass coat to stick to. Thank you guys for the heads up!

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

i followed most of woodonglasses way of doing the transom the only thing i changed was i precut the glass using the transom as a pattern before i installed it. i layed the transom on the csm and added 6" to the sides and bottom then cut it out then repeated with bi-axle so i didnt have to do this in the boat.(mine had 4 layers but that was because of the design of my boat) i also cut two csm 1.25 bigger then the transom all the way around then once the transom was resined and dry i layed one csm on and went around the edges pulling and breaking the glass strands so they would fold over the edge then once resined and dry i flipped it over and repeated it but as you are thinking of vacum bagging the transom you might go a diffrent way

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

i followed most of woodonglasses way of doing the transom the only thing i changed was i precut the glass using the transom as a pattern before i installed it. i layed the transom on the csm and added 6" to the sides and bottom then cut it out then repeated with bi-axle so i didnt have to do this in the boat.(mine had 4 layers but that was because of the design of my boat) i also cut two csm 1.25 bigger then the transom all the way around then once the transom was resined and dry i layed one csm on and went around the edges pulling and breaking the glass strands so they would fold over the edge then once resined and dry i flipped it over and repeated it but as you are thinking of vacum bagging the transom you might go a diffrent way

Yeah I have been looking to find a vaccum baggin kit to do the resin injection with no success yet. At the moment I am resorting to hand laying the CSM and bi-axle +45/-45. Should have some pics maybe later in the week with the cleanup of the old glass I am cutting out for you to review.

 

[Max F]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

Hello, Max here and I own an 84 electra ss and something very important you will have to do, is to set the engine back on a jacking plate. When I first got mine with its big V6 150hp, it would chine walk all over the place at anything over than 40mph. I have a 5'' jacking plate and its stable at 67 Mph !!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

 

[locito]

Re: 87 Savage Electra Hull Restoration

Hello, Max here and I own an 84 electra ss and something very important you will have to do, is to set the engine back on a jacking plate. When I first got mine with its big V6 150hp, it would chine walk all over the place at anything over than 40mph. I have a 5'' jacking plate and its stable at 67 Mph !!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Hello Max. You can not see it from the photos however, the motor was origianlly mounted onto the transom with what I think are called shims. They are like a triangular shaped spacer that runs from the bottom transom mount bolt to the top and get larger going up. I did noticed that it caused huge depression points on the glass which I cut out last night to put new glass in. If the jacking plate is going to avoid any stress on the new transom and prevent the water from getting into the new transom I am up for that. Any place you could recommend to get one for my Electra? Thank you.