Dixie boat 170 , Floor , Transom , Stringers Rebuild. big job

[gsxrdan]

Cruisin... good luck with the build!

 

[Carpenter2486]

I have one more final question. would someone be able to give me the basic recipe for peanut butter, I have been looking around and I cannot find the one I would like for bedding aswell as laminating transom together..

 

[gsxrdan]

start with approx equal volumes of resin (catalyst already mixed in) and filler (cabosil, wood flour etc) eg 1 cup of each, and about a quarter of chopped strand - mix it up and see how it looks on the mixing stick - if its like mayonaise it will run off the stick a bit, you can add more filler and it will be like peanut butter and it will hold its shape in a mound on the stick. Mix ur first batch and you will see its easier than you think.

 

[Woodonglass]

There are different kinds of peanut butter 1.) Resin and Cabosil. Wood flour can be used when using epoxy ONLY!!! This mixture is used for filleting most often since strength is not that important. 2.) Resin, Cabosil and 1/4" Chopped Milled fibers. This is use for "Glue" such as gluing the transom to the outer hull. 3.) Hairy Peanut Butter .(Tiger Hair) Resin, Cabosil, and 1" strands of cut up scraps of CSM. Use for for filling large gaps, and gouges where structural integrity is important. It usually takes about 1 1/2 times more cabosil than resin to get the proper consistency. i.e. quart of resin and 6cups of cabosil. Usually only use 1% MEKP so your working time is a bit longer.

 

[Carpenter2486]

that's great thank you two!
update for today

we cut the transom and glued together, they will be sitting in the clamp position until we are ready to install, ( December ish ) and I know some of you may not like my choice with this but we weighed the options and this was the path we choose.. the transom was laminated together using PL Premium, now I know it was not recommended because the wait to dry time, aswell it may bubble. and well,, I had 5 large cans sitting in my garage for the last 5 months and we knew the transom was not being installed until I get my winter vacation.. thus,,, PL was our choice. I know wood hates the PL, but I hope it will do us good still any who, it went on well and OOOZed out very nicely and messy,,, I cleaned up as best I could until the end grain started hardening, and then we left it in a nice warm spot for the next little wile until we are ready to cut out he over size motor mount holes aswel the over size drain holes.
after we did this,i spent about.. 6 hours in the hull grinding..... and grinding and grinding,,, when you say a lot of grinding,,, I now understand when everyone sais its the PITS!, but I baby powderd my arms neck and face, masked up, tyvex suit and a cover alls ontop , with fill cover glasses.. it worked well I'm not itchy at all after words. ( knock on wood )

NOW , I Have an Important Question,,,

as I was grinding my life away I took some time to really get into the inspection of my stringers.,, and I have red a lot of pages and projects aswel seen some brutal photos of stringers. mine look in almost excellent shape... I took away about,, 8 inches of glass off the stringers from the transom to the bow, and all 4 were in super'd shape, not wet, maybe a touch dark but not rotten I hit them with a screw driver aswell alittle with with the sander ( after sander they brightened up to a nice brown wood color ) I'm wondering if I even need to replace them...I drilled a few inspection holes all around but what exactly am I looking for in those holes. the wood inside he sample was dark but still completely intact,, I could easily see all the layers of ply.. if I don't need toreplace these it saved me huge time and money,, I would be boating within 2017! so my question would be what exactly am I looking for in these core samples, the transom was in bad shape, ( one of the sides of it atleast ) but I just want some EXPERT opinions

Also if I can salvage these stringers, is there any way I could add some 1708 to them? grind threw the gel coat and maybe add strips just to give it the added strength the factory normally cheap's out on?

Thanks for your help again everyone! I know it took awile to get going but the army life has minimal home life!









I think she likes troweling transoms! she will come in handly!!


clamped, then screwed,



it is as fun as it looks.... atleast it was a nice day for grinding... we had a +7 day.. to yall americans its 44 Fahrenheit. still t-shirt weather!

 

[Carpenter2486]

I also found some very lovely .... previous owner motor mountings? I'm sure this did not help with the transom being in bad shape , but I assume atleast 3 different motor bolt patterns also beside the drain plug there was already a little gash, and after cleaning the little ash to get all the brown glass away, it is not a bigger gash,, i seen on another build wood had me look at, a member did a beautiful job repairing a big brake in the transom, i think i will copy that lead,, but I'm also torn on the fact of wanting to put a layer of csm down first,, one complete cover of the transom that way its i assume over cautious,.. to me it just look like tons of holes in my glass transom... when there should only be 4... ( not including accessories )

i almot want to just sand the entire thing to glass add 1 exterior csm , then start at square one,,,



but on a happier note,, i have the transom sanded mostly,, and 10 inches from stern to bow,,, ( tabbing ) al those dry hairs are gone forever.


you can see the bottom how in usually large the hole is,, that's issue one,and another i failed to mention earlier, is at some pount,, a motor dug its lower mounting bracket into the transom and made those two holes (look like eyes ) i sanded them clean, but now those are two gouges i will be dealing with!,, aswell as all the holes!




all in all, i have to hand it to Dixie, when i first bought this boat i asked on here and wood answered ( maybeee 6ish years ago ) about the quality of dixies, he said they were build quite well ,, and i really an seeing it with this boat, some thing cant change as in people drilling holes every ware, and soaking the wood but the glass is quite thick in mostly all places, thow i am beginning to get itchy and feeling the misery , i am on another note happy to be giving the old bandit 170 another chance at life!

 

[gsxrdan]

Hey great effort so far!

 

[Carpenter2486]

​well... 10 points to whom ever can figure what what way I chose to go with my stringer decision,..

​I figured why try to rebuild the old ones when im here now and just get it done with.
​
​thank god I did ., they were maybeee 5 years away from falling appart into mush, I'm very happy I went this way and did not assume they were fine, I did core sample it and they seemed fine, I guess I just happened to sample the fine parts..

​not I just want to mention I am in very much uncharted waters for me, they are out and I still have to grind everything smooth, but I grinder'd the wood out of all the spaces, so maybe another day or so of sanding,, I have also chose to do in stages, so first is the two main stringers, aswell as the center keal support and the upper center stringer, after those are in and tabbed, I will cut the other far stringers, they seem to be in fair condition but I don't trust much anymore, I will most likely chop them out then grind and reinstall with new, I choe this way for a few reasons,, one is to guarantee my hight for the floor will be bang on, second is alittle more rigid hull,, if anyone thinks I made a wrong move just let me know, but I feel I did good. lots of progress today, pretty impressed with the results and starting to get excited about getting this boat finished !





​


but thankfully the stringers did all come out in one piece, so that makes my life a lot easier for making the new stringers, that will be out of 3/4, they are original 1/2 but I like the idea of beefing this boat up, the lake I use is quite large. and I like the security

 

[tallcanadian]

Usually if the transom is bad, so are the stringers, and visa versa. And having the boat uncapped, it's best to do it all and get it done. It's dirty, itchy work but will be worth all that at the end. The first day you float it again, you will not be able to wipe that big old grin off your face.

 

[Woodonglass]

If you use some 1/4" hardboard as a backer plate when you clamp the transom in place and IF you wax the slick side of the hardboard really well so any ooze out can't adhere to it, and IF you put tape over the holes on the outside...IF you do all that then the PB you use to attach the transom will ooze into those holes and when the clamps are removed it will be a perfectly flat outer skin. A bit more sanding and some CSM applied on the outside and she'll be good as new. No need to apply csm to the new wood transom but...You can if you want. If your First Mate does as good of job spreading the PB as she did with the PL Your transom will be a TANK!!!:nod::thumb:

 

[gsxrdan]

How u doin with that glasswork carpenter? Post up some pics and ppl like wood can steer u right...

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Nice job on this restoration. Following along!!

 

[Carpenter2486]

tall Canadian nice to see you again,

also wood that is exactly what I will be doing to repair that!

thank you Baylinerchunk, it has been an experience to say the least, im just looking forward to be finished sanding and be able to start putting back together

gsxrdan, I have not been able to get any glassing done lately, I had to return to work and thus im gone from home for the next few weeks to month, , im really hoping to just get the sanding done before December, I may have a few weekends I can fly home and work on it, but its hard getting time. but the main plan is I get 4 weeks off for Christmas, and I plan to haul the boat into the heated garage then ( if all sanding is completed ) I can first repair all the holes and cuts I made in the hull... :frusty:
then onto as much glassing as I can possibly do within that time. hopefully transom and stringers installed and glassed in,, that would be FANNNTASTIC, so until then there will not be much glassing, its a hard life working away from home but! got to put money in the bank some how!

 

[gsxrdan]

im sure u meant to type "put money in the boat somehow" :watermelon:

 

[Carpenter2486]

so I have an idea I thought of wile busy at work... I normally have a smaller outboard in the boat for when fishing or am emergency back up. now wile im putting a new transom in would it be a bad idea if I modified the transom abit to make a permanent outboard spot.. I don't know how else to explain it,, il try and draw it, but I plan on doing this and I would love to see feed back incase it is a bad idea.. there would not be a motor on it wile Im operating the main motor, only when I raise the trim then bring the rods out I attach the smaller motor..
if I could get some ideas or advice potentially on how to attach this attachment. ( I have an idea in my head already but just want to brain storm )

my plan is seeing as I already created my wooden transom, I could drill 3/4 inch holes into it from the top then attach the new piece to it and use tybond to glue solid, then when it comes to glassing I put a new extra 1708 on that spot... let me know what you think, I would love to see this happen.,,

my little motor is just a 3hp, even if I bought a newer one would not be over 5.

 

[DeepBlue2010]

First, I have been following your thread from the beginning, you and the admiral doing excellent job.

So, you are thinking of doing something like this (roughly speaking)?




Or this....



If so, my first choice would be to fabricate the kicker motor bracket to compensate for the angel not to flatten the transom to accommodate the bracket. Just my $0.02. However, I don't see why the first picture (adding a piece to the transom) would not work.

 

[Carpenter2486]

nice to meet you deep blue I have seen you before on most projects I follow. and I was more looking into your first photo, where im adding to the transom, I think if I were to cut away from the original design may weaken it only slightly but potentially? also my fathers boat has sort of the same modification on his aluminum starcraft , that is what gave me the main thought proses. but yes, I am onboard with fabricating a bracket and then glass it into place. let me know if I have you correct, your saying cut a section out of the transom then make the bracket to fit into the spot??

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Not exactly. I am saying fabricate the bracket itself on an angle so when it sits on the angled transom the two angles complement each other to 180

Like this


Sorry for the rough sketch, I am at work and about to run to a meeting. The angled black line is your transom. The red is the bracket. The brown is a piece of wood or welded plate (or any other type of filler) to make the bracket rest on a complementing angle to the transom so at the end it is leveled at 180

 

[Carpenter2486]

Oh yes. That is what I had inmind . Cut the plate to fit online with the transom angle. In my photo those lines going into the original transom were holes I would drill then put matching holes in the plate then insert a type of dowel or aluminum rod. Then glue tight and 1708 1708 and then more 1708 so try and make it look as original but mainly as good and functional as possible . But I think we're on the same page!

 

[Woodonglass]

You can do it anyway you want. What I've seen in most cases is to attach an adjustable jack plate for the "Kicker" motor. You can make your own pretty cheap.

http://www.dillon-racing.com/jackplate/plans/jack-plate-page-01.htm