holgo123
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2006
- Messages
- 89
At the beginning of summer I had a running boat... I took a week off, cleaned her up, added some new graphics and docking lights... Changed the fluids, etc... I was only able to use it 4 or 5 times when a whole bunch of things happened... Somehow I think they were all interconnected... I took on some water and the boat was back heavy and when I realized something was wrong, I backed off the throttle and the engine ingested some water... I had to be towed back to the dock because the motor was hydrolocked. I got all the water out and changed the oil. I took her back to the lake and fired her up and ran it at the dock for about 20 minutes or so to get it up to temperature. When I turned her off, there was a constant stream coming in through the transom... I think I knew then what the problem was, but was in denial. I bought this boat 6 years ago from someone who abused it. I have been playing with it ever since. From the dirt lines on the inside of the transom, I think it had standing water in it at one point.
I have read many posts on fixing this problem and am ready to tackle it. I am going to use epoxy and biaxial cloth from US Composites. The transom is 2" thick in the middle portion. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but there is a area in this middle between the two center stringers that is two 3/4" pieces of plywood laminated together. The outside hull and inside portion of fiberglass make up 1/2" My worry is being able to fit a new laminated piece of plywood back in once I get all the bad wood out... It looks pretty tight. I am thinking I may need to cut some floor out or the upper fiberglass shell to get it back in... I know I will have to cut some of the floor to get the whole transom out. Any thoughts or ideas? Also, I am doing this in the garage, but I am worried about the cure time because of temperature. Can epoxy cure too slow? What issues can it cause? I will try to document my adventure. If I get through this, I am going to try my hand at upholstering some of the areas that need attention and replacing the carpet... I have touched just about everything on this boat...
I have read many posts on fixing this problem and am ready to tackle it. I am going to use epoxy and biaxial cloth from US Composites. The transom is 2" thick in the middle portion. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but there is a area in this middle between the two center stringers that is two 3/4" pieces of plywood laminated together. The outside hull and inside portion of fiberglass make up 1/2" My worry is being able to fit a new laminated piece of plywood back in once I get all the bad wood out... It looks pretty tight. I am thinking I may need to cut some floor out or the upper fiberglass shell to get it back in... I know I will have to cut some of the floor to get the whole transom out. Any thoughts or ideas? Also, I am doing this in the garage, but I am worried about the cure time because of temperature. Can epoxy cure too slow? What issues can it cause? I will try to document my adventure. If I get through this, I am going to try my hand at upholstering some of the areas that need attention and replacing the carpet... I have touched just about everything on this boat...
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