Sea Ray 180 sig series termite/water in ski locker rot

[Cklepic]

Hi there, new to this site but reading many posts and thankful for all the info. My Dad recently passed away and left me the boat, which was parked in the driveway uncovered for years and then eventually it got a cover put on it. Termites ate the floor which was pretty much collapsing as I walked on it, then realized that rain water collected in the ski locker and the bilge pump was non-operable so I bailed out the water. After closer inspection I decided to remove the driver side seat and found live termites and a caterpillar looking thing eating away at the wood. Decided to get it fumed and have since then closely watched “Frisco boaters” YouTube and done some demo. I am in need of new stringers and a floor, would greatly appreciate any advice and direction that you guys could give. Constructive criticism is a good thing and I am open to any options regarding the restoration of my boat that has many family memories in it. Thank you for your time.

 

[todhunter]

You're on the right path being on this site and watching Frisco Boater's videos. Go ahead and assume the transom is rotten too. Get the engine pulled and spend a few days with a tape measure, pencil, and paper, and make lots of sketches with measurements. Do this before getting too wild with the demo.

 

[Cklepic]

Okay, will do. Going to purchase the engine hoist next weekend and will post progress.

 

[KJM]

Does the engine run good? That boat needs to be gutted completely including transom as mentioned above. Make sure you are prepared for the cost and work involved before you get too attached for sentimental reasons and find yourself in over your head.....

 

[Lou C]

And invest in personal protection equipment like 3m respirators, typecast suits gloves and goggles. Grinding fiberglass is bad for your health and so are the resins used in boat reconstruction. You should use 3m respirators with fume cartridges with N95 inserts for working with resins and P100 filters for sanding/grinding fiberglass.

 

[Reserector_]

Welcome. You are off to a good start.
All of the above, especially the part about measuring and taking notes. Make sketches.
Take what you think are too many pictures and you will be glad you did when you have to go back and refer to them. Make sure your phone is backing up your pics to Google photos or whatever iPhone uses.
Michael Romer and Jmink are two other You Tubers that I used for reference. worth watching, because although they did tri-hulls, they shared allot of knowledge in video form. Frisco is good, but he is heavy-handed with the resin.
My build (link in my sig) has a similar hull and stringers to what you have. you might want to breeze through that thread as well as todhunter's Power Play build that he just finished up.
the more you research, the better prepared you will be. We already made the mistakes so that YOU don't have to.

 

[Cklepic]

Awesome advice guys, thank you. I have gotten the engine out(doesn’t seem to be in great shape) and have taken many pics/measurements along the way. The termites had a field day with the transom and as I was chiseling I kept finding pockets of the wood that they ate. I am almost done with the existing transom removal, taking it very slow using a 40 grit metal grinding wheel on my dewalt 11 amp grinder and a hammerchisel. It seems that the bottom of the transom is worst off than the top. Also with the ski locker towards the bow part of the boat, is there a false bottom floor? It seems water crept under that if that is the case. Will post current pics soon. Thank you again for the replies and I will post more pics in the coming days.

 

[Cklepic]

From engine removal to current demo

 

[todhunter]

My boat had water under the ski locker floor. See here.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

I don't have any pictures but my locker was full of a disgusting soup. The prior owner did a floor replacement and the sawdust from it and the rot blocked the drains to the bilge allowing the water to accumulate there.

 

[Chris51280]

you can also see my rebuild. my ski locker would not drain because the manufacturer foamed the cavity underneath. i since have made a separate pipe that goes directly to the bilge. the ski locker does have another board for a flat bottom

 

[todhunter]

My boat had water under the ski locker floor. See here.

Not sure why it posted the wrong link. I meant for it to link here.

 

[Reserector_]

Yes, there is one more layer that you may need to remove. That flat area along the keel is plywood that has been glassed over, and likely foamed underneath. If that is rotten, it will have to come out as well.

 

[KJM]

Yeah, under that flat floor in the ski locker is likely a thin layer of foam. On mine I cut the last foot or so before the transom out. The foam seemed dry so I didn't go any farther forward and glassed off the cut end. Now I have a rear little well that goes down to the true bottom of the boat to collect bilge water and thats where I put the bilge pump.

 

[Cklepic]

This is current demo on transom and I am so close to the hull that I am using a grinder with a 40 grit wheel. I didn’t feel too comfortable with a chisel being that close to the fiberglass hull.

 

[Reserector_]

Try a belt sander with a coarse belt. The belt sander will not make a cloud like the angle grinder will. It will also leave a flatter surface.
I duct taped a vacuum cleaner hose to the dust bag outlet on mine and it blew most of the dust out through the hose, which I draped over the gunwale.
I just bought a cheap one from Harbor Freight and it worked great and held up.