Re: Engine Mounting
Ok, Ben to replace the transom, (alot of work like JB said) I hope you really like this boat, cause you will be spending a lot of time with her and it wont be fishing!<br /><br />I can only tell ya how I did it, I was interested in preserving the original shell around the transom area, and also my floor needed to be replaced, I had someone give me a estimate for cutting out the complete transom and leaving the top of the boat in place, I didnt go that way mostly because of appearance reasons.<br /><br />Okay, drill out fasteners or remove fiberglass (ugh) that holds the top and bottom halves of the boat together (mine were rivets) Lift top of boat completely off and set in a convenient place, Ha!<br /><br />Now you can see the complete inside of transom, start digging,grinding,chipping away at the plywood for the next 80 hours or untill you give up (its not all rot, believe me!) I was desparate, and desparate people do desparate things, so out comes the chainsaw, and boy did it work well! you can hear the sound change as you brush against the fiberglass, so if your careful you will not damage it. As you approach the floor level you will find out that transoms go below the floor!! all the way to the outer shell of bottom glass.<br /><br />Now it gets really interesting, you will have approx. 1 1/2" of width to dig a pocket of wood out equal to the hieght of the floor stringers for the entire beam of the boat, but you guessed it, a chainsaw works great for that too!<br /><br />After you have done all of this, tilt the boat up as to raise the bow, and wait a day to see if water collects in this pocket at the base of the transom. Water? What! uh?<br /><br />Ya, I found out that some of these boats are filled with foam in the floor stringer area and can hold water like a sponge! Therefore rotting out the stringers and the floor! (Try to determine this ahead of time as it will help with your decision making) do some test holes, run a clothes hanger wire in and hopefully pull it out dry. <br /><br />By the way, I thought that rainwater had leaked through the floor to cause this, wrong! the bottom of the boat looked good, but where the gelcoat is chipped, water can seep through the strands of fiber in the fiberglass! I know this, because after my project was completed I had water leak into the floor again, so plan on re-sealing the bottom of the boat.<br /><br />Okay, now that your floor needs to be torn up, of course, you could let the water drip out of the foam for 365 days to get the water out, but your wood will still rot. Back to bussiness, remove everything from inside your boat, take the trusty chainsaw and carefully cut the glass bridge that is created from laminating the floor to the hull, remove the floor and save it for a template.<br /><br />Now get a shovel and dig and scrape out all of the water filled foam. Now examine the condition of the floor stringers or stringer (I only had one) and mine was wet, but not rotted, so I let it dry in a heated area for about 2-weeks at 80 deg.<br /><br />Now create a paper template for the transom, and with your existing floor, you can trace onto new marine grade plywood.Transoms are usually created by using two 3/4" thicknesses.<br /><br />Now that the boat is ready to be put back together, I was in no mood to learn how to lay fiberglass at this time, so I put everything in the boat, set the top on, and hauled it to my local fiberglass guy, who fortunatly knew how to build a boat, and had him glass the whole thing together, and pour new foam into the floor for about 450.00.<br /><br />Once home, pop-rivet the top to bottom seam, or glass-it together and completly re-assemble the entire boat.<br /> <br />Well, thats about it, hopefully your floor is ok, and if you are not too concerned with the appearance, cutting out the transom from behind may be the way to go, but make sure it is done right! by someone who understands structural issues with boats.The integrity of the Transom is serious business and could cost your life possibly.<br /><br />If you are in a hurry to this, and have a full time job, plan on a major comittment and relationship strain. Please excuse my spelling as I am not paying much attention.<br /><br />By the way my boat was a 1975 16' Olympic with a 83' 90hp Evinrude, Your boat may have no foam, but the extra flotation is nice if you are going that far. In general newer boats have better flotation and are safer when those worst scenarios occur.
<br /><br />My thought for the day: Free is NEVER free in marine land!
