"It Happened!" Transom has to be replaced! (NOW W/PICS)

[chevymaher]

I have noticed the van runs better after it is waxed he may have something here.

 

[LX Kid]

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Been making some progress lately. Did a lot of grinding and sanding today to prep hull for plywood installation. Installed brass drain plug an tube and will notch out the wood at the bottom for proper fit. My partner wanted a screw in drain plug even though it's decreasing drain size down to 1/2". Flooded bottom hull channel to fill in the old original resin that has a lot of cracks. I machined the brass flange to fit the drain tube. The flange has the 1/2" screw threads.Few pics here.

 

[LX Kid]

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See got the first layer of plywood installed this morning. (Before Irma gets here!) We packed resin and fiberglass into the center joint. Probably won't get back to work on it till Tuesday depending if we evacuate here is Tampa. Right now we are going to hunker down and try to be safe as possible.

 

[hogbare35]

Good luck and stay safe . I hope Irma leave you alone.

 

[LX Kid]

Fiberglassing seems to be going along just fine. Next major problem is the gimbal housing and outdrive. Got all the broken studs out of the gimbal housing "EXCEPT" one! It's the portside middle stud. "What if I go ahead and use it missing the that one securing stud? I'd sure hate for it to leak after doing all the work. (Think I just answered my own question.) Going to look around for another pre-alpha gimbal housing assembly. The outdrive seal, on the drive shaft, was leaking badly into the drive shaft boot. Going to replace the seal a little further on down the project completion.

My outdrive is the older pre-alpha with the lifting ring on the top. Mercruiser Type 1 MC 1 Gimbal Gimble Housing other gimbal housings with mate up with my gimbal housing "plate" and outdrive? Thanks

 

[Stumpalump]

Now is the time to upgrade to a newer stuff.

 

[LX Kid]

Now is the time to upgrade to a newer stuff.

That's what I'm trying to find out what will fit what. Can't buy new. Have make sure gimbal housing assembly will fit my
gimbal housing mounting plate and will fit my older outdrive.

 

[Stumpalump]

That's what I'm trying to find out what will fit what. Can't buy new. Have make sure gimbal housing assembly will fit my
gimbal housing mounting plate and will fit my older outdrive.

eBay is loaded with complete alpha drives or you could bring it out of the Stone Age and bolt on an off shore aluminum marine bracket. Some make the running surface longer and you would save some weight. Expensive but if you plan on keeping it 10 years and would like to keep it in the salt then a pair of outboards with a counterotation would bring a whole new Wow to that boat. It's only money and it sure is fun spending sombody else's on the web!

 

[LX Kid]

eBay is loaded with complete alpha drives or you could bring it out of the Stone Age and bolt on an off shore aluminum marine bracket. Some make the running surface longer and you would save some weight. Expensive but if you plan on keeping it 10 years and would like to keep it in the salt then a pair of outboards with a counterotation would bring a whole new Wow to that boat. It's only money and it sure is fun spending sombody else's on the web!

Well that would be nice to bring it out of the "stone age" but she runs too good to do that. I really love an I/O and my Chevy V8 runs so sweet. Before I'd change over to an outboard I'd just sell mine and buy another boat. (Cheaper) Right now with all the improvement, about $1300.00, and my two other partners will only have about $325 each by using our own labor.

 

[LX Kid]

Fiberglass experts question. With only a 2" cut out border around the stern, and after outer hull skin is resined back on, should my final fiberglass layers be wrapped around the corners of the hull? Hope I have articulated well what I'm trying to explain.

 

[tpenfield]

Yes. The more bonding area between old and new the better. Prep work on the old surface is important

 

[ondarvr]

That's the reason for at least a 4" area for bonding. If you plan to wrap it around the corner you need to grind everything down, almost removing all the glass at the radius.

You can leave any amount of build on the transom itself, but as soon as you get to the radius the profile needs to look exactly as it does now or you will mess up the running surface and it will cause performance issues.

The recommended taper for bonding is 12:1, so measure the thickness of the cut out and multiply by 12, that's the number of inches of overlap you need on the existing glass.

 

[LX Kid]

Yes. The more bonding area between old and new the better. Prep work on the old surface is important

The fiberglass store suggested that I wrap around corner and stern with three blending diminishing layers for strength and smoothing the finished look.

 

[zool]

Thats one of the major drawbacks of removing the outer skin, not so much getting the strength back, but getting it cosmetically correct. You should wrap the inside 12-16 overlapping layers (at least 3)on each side, but the outside needs to be ground down to allow the new wraps to end up flush with the sides...at least 4-6 inches, then fair it the best you can, then try to match the gel color....not an easy feat cosmetically without making it look like a bandaid..

 

[ondarvr]

The fiberglass store suggested that I wrap around corner and stern with three blending diminishing layers for strength and smoothing the finished look.

Very bad advice, you never want to wrap around the radius, it creates a tremendous amount of work to get it "right" again.

 

[LX Kid]

What about going right up to the corner and not going around it? The strength of my transom is not anywhere near the strength needed for an outboard hanging off it. Have already surface ground two inches around perimeter and abut 4" around stern hull piece going back on. I can post pics in couple days when Irma passes by and assuming mother nature hasn't reclaimed the boat. Things are just starting to get nasty here in Tampa;

 

[LX Kid]

Thats one of the major drawbacks of removing the outer skin, not so much getting the strength back, but getting it cosmetically correct. You should wrap the inside 12-16 overlapping layers (at least 3)on each side, but the outside needs to be ground down to allow the new wraps to end up flush with the sides...at least 4-6 inches, then fair it the best you can, then try to match the gel color....not an easy feat cosmetically without making it look like a bandaid..

As old as my boat is, an '82, the cosmetics not so very important to me within reason. Don't really care if it looks like factory finish. But that said I'd still like to do the best job I'm capable of doing. (Pride of the job.)

 

[ondarvr]

At this point you'd be better off using epoxy to glass the transom back in place, the bond, and the chances of it holding up long term will be better.

 

[zool]

The 2" lip you left is very small, but you could grind the remaining skin down on the outer lip and skin piece you removed, then tape new cloth or mat flush, then fair it.....then keep an eye out for demaination from time to time.

 

[LX Kid]

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