1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

[ncnjeremy]

I posted this restore on THT forums. Someone told me to come here with it. I can't get the help I need or questions Answered that I a asking. Im gonna post a link to it. If there is a proper easy way to move the thread over here please let me know. If anything ill just post all the pictures here....

http://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/380100-1986-tidecraft-wildfire-xv115-restore.html


Well I'm not sure if it can even be seen if not registered at THT... here I'm gonna try........

I am starting a new thread on this boat. When I came to this forum I had no knowledge on boat repair, let alone restoring one. I have enough knowledge, tools, and a very hot and helpful wife to help me! Surprisingly she is pretty smart and can work the hell outta some fiberglass (Pics of her coming soon). ;-) Everything is looking very well. What sucks is some of my buddies were all like "Yeah man I'll help ya anytime just let me know. We'll go fishing when we get it done".....how many have helped....NONE!!!!,.....Well one of my friends came over and helped with 1 stringer. Guess who all won't be going fishing... on our boat anyway.??? Luckily I have the one wife in the world that loves to go fishing! She has been great with helping. long nights in garage up late. She is always there by my side. OH!!!!!!!! WAIT!!!! I did have 1 of my friends that offered last week to come help for an hour. But first, an hour can't get much done, and second, I asked them for help so so much when I was grinding and cutting all the fiberglass and foam. The dirty hard work. As far as cutting wood, measuring, and rolling fiberglass on, it just takes time.... But anyways, Here is the first few pictures.

Just brought it home.........

Went Fishing in it the next weekend....

Bolts ripped out of the transom, Ripped fiberglass off bottom and half way up the transom.
So I took it in the garage and started ripping it apart. After reading and reading and reading. And reading some more. I decided to fix it. Which is A LOT of work. Don't let new tell ya otherwise. But I know I'm getting it done right......

Pulled off 115 Merc.

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Im not sure the best way to do this since on this forum I can only post 6 pictures at a time.. but I'm gonna try...

I had to grind off the outside where the bolts were ripped off. I decided to repair from outside and inside. They made this boat thin. Not very thick fiberglass.

This is what was just falling out of the bottom where the crack was in the Transom....

Here is a little bit of comedy (not really)... This is what the guy at west marine told me I would need to rebuild the transom, less the plywood......

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Yeah, that is a joke. like really a joke!!! you will see later why.... and not just that but that is not enough at all to rebuild my transom. So after I took the motor off I really saw that to do this job correctly I needed to remove the "cap" of the boat. I looked around and scratched my head for a bit. I took off the "rub rail" and saw the 5 billion rivets around the aluminum trim holding the rub rail in. So after 2 hours of drilling them out. I took off the aluminum trim. Then also noticed there was a ton more rivets and SCREWS holding the cap to the hull. Took em all out, and ran a razor knife along the whole thing to break the "seal" (kinda seems like strong silicone), ripped out all the carpet, took a few screws holding the cap into the deck floor. I was trying to get the boat to lift it up but something was still holding it. After reading a bunch more I realized I was gonna have to figure it out myself. After days of irritation.... Here is what I found was holding it....

Under the Captain seat and the other 2 they had glassed it onto the floor! yay!!!! so, I got it all loose and ready. AND, there is no way that me and the wife could lift this cap off. It was HEAVY! So we had a couple ppl from work come over and help. We lifted the front up and put a 2x4 under it. And same with the back. We took it around back and covered it up. And thats where it sits still. here is a few more pictures before we go to cap removed pictures. Cause thats where it gets dirty.....

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

So, We pulled the cap off. And i startes accessing the situation. Everyone on here told me that the stringers were most likely shot. I prayed that they were not. But I knew in the back of my head that they were. So when I pulled the cap I could not see a whole lot. Just a fiberglass coated piece of plywood and it looked ok. After I got a closer look I saw what was really going on.......

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Inside view of Transom...

I read a lot about transom rebuilds. But I could not find one like mine. That is why I took all the pictures. All the others I have looked at have the back of the boat at a flat, almost full sheet of plywood. Im not sure what this is called. But I googled so much different wording to try and find info on it. Im sure someone will chime in and let me know. This forum is great!. Very smart people on here. On this boat the Transom is only a bit larger than the size of the motor mount. So it has 2 supports that are attached that run down to the stringer. BUT....... I am confused about one of them. I am thinking that the 2nd one is only used for pulling the boat out of the mold at the factory. Cause it has a hole in each side and is only attached to the deck after the fiberglass is laid on. And there is a section up front that has a 2x4 about 6 inches long for no other reason than to lift the mold. And it has a hole in it. So I think it was used as a 3 point lift to pull it out of the mold. And if I'm wayyyyy off someone please tell me cause I am just trying to figure this all out and that is the only thing i can think of. Cause it has no structrial reason. This is a good shot, kinda a bit forward of where I was going but here it is...

As you can see there is two on each side that comes down. But only one attaches to the stringer. The other attached just to the floor..???? yeah...???... Anyways, here we go..., I am out for today. I will post up more tomorrow.

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Thanks you Bob for all the info. I have went very much farther then the last picture shown. The entire boat was rotted. I cut out transom, all the stringers, and the knees. (thanks for giving me the correct term on that) The flotation foam that was in between the stringers was all SOAKED with water. I cut new plywood ACX for the stringers and the transom. Also the knees. I only currently have the one knee tied on. Thats what I was confused about. The outer ones are only tied onto the floor..?? But on the stringers I used a layer of mat. Then a layer of woven. All was used with poly resin and hardener from US Composites. (Great Site) And on the transom I used mat, then a layer of biaxel. I was gonna use the epoxy over the top of that and the knees with biaxel. I gotta use that expensive west system epoxy for something!! So I am gonna put a a few more pictures. Gonna try and get you all up to date. Should not be winter b4 its done!. Im about to put the floor back on and foam in between stringers. I bought 2 lb flotation foam from UScomp. Been using cabosil for thinking agent for areas that need. So here we go. And I took a lot of pictures so I hope I'm not putting too much up. Cause I have like 500 and I'm not posting a 4th of em.

Im assuming cause there was 4 of these I found that this staple was what they used to tie the knees on to the transom before glassing....

The foam soaked wet... I used a tire iron, shovel, grinder, chainsaw, my hand, and whatever else i could find. It was a PAIN to get all of that out and the stringers cut out..

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

This is a pic of in between a stringer after i scooped the rotted wood out with a spoon!!!... well not a spoon. But ya get the pic.

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Nice bubble in a stringer on starboard side.... That bubble was FULL of water!!! don't know how but i cut it and water sling out of it.

Whew..... gettin there...

I tried to get some measurements off the stringers that were measurable..... and I calculated in the rest.

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

yeah I don't think the trash man liked me that week...

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Now there was a couple spots that I cut thru the hull on accident that I had to patch. This one was a tough one. I ended up having to put a makeshift mold. I had to put a 2x4 on the bottom in between the groove and glass back over the top. But here is the doozie...

ALRIGHT..... all cleaned up!!!!!

Time to patch the holes i cut on accident....

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Believe it or not. I used 5 layers of mat a little bigger on each one and put a layer of woven on top just to be sure. I didn't get a picture of the woven. This is just the mat.

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

OH!!!!!!!! This is one for some people that don't know...... I mixed a quart of resin. And poured about a 4th of it into a separate container (after the hardener) and mixed that batch with Cabosil. Well..... I was using the cabosil batch first, patching up a few areas. and while I was doing that I put the lid back on the quart of resin........ NOT A GOOD IDEA... I went to pick up the quart to use it and i grabbed it. IT WAS HOT!!! I realized it was melting the container and the resin was rock solid!

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

This is where the Bilge pump mounts on

I cut strips of mat to put over the stringers to hold in place. Afterwards I laid a layer of mat then a layer of woven..

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Here is my roll of woven..

Here is my roll of mat..

My Awesome wife workin hard!!!...

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Well I have read a ton on this stuff. I have read numerous threads on restores. I got 1 stringer left to lay one layer of woven over the mat and I can put foam between stringers and put the floor back on. I was thinking of using 1/2 ply and put a layer of mat on each side. But I have not figured out what I wanna do yet. If I should put woven over the top of that also. I see lots of ppl use 3/4 but if I put glass on it I could use 1/2. Im guessing here. This is where you all come in. All the suggestions are helpful. I am trying to keep the weight down and the boat very strong. And so should I put the other 2 knees on the transom? Cause if I do that im not going to tie them to the floor only. That is crappy fro strength. I don't know. Its pretty strong as is. I also don't want it to fail.

 

[ncnjeremy]

Re: 1986 Tidecraft Wildfire Restore/ All Rotted

Thanks. I was thinking that if for some reason that it needed support on the outer edge of the transom I could bring the outer knees all the way down and put a cross bridge in the two stringers and tie it to that. I just didn't see any reason for them. Cause the way they had it built the outers were not helping anything. But I may be completely wrong. I have done this all myself in 2 months. And damn it has wore me the hell out. But I also love doing it at the same time. Still makes me furious at a few buddies.

Also I don't know if it was absolutely needed but also with the cabosil I mixed some chopped strand mat with it. I used that around areas that needed a lot of strength. I didn't read that anywhere but I just thought it would be stronger. It sure was a pain to work with. When I added it in it was all sticking together and was much harder to spread and get in areas.