crackedglass
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2009
- Messages
- 203
I am about to do my first wood transom replacement in glass boat. The boat is a Montgomery Wards, 1962? Sea King. My guess from looking at pics is that its a rebadged MFG, Stuery, or maybe Starcraft. It has the lapstrake style hull and measures 15'8" long with a 65" beam width.
The transom was soft but not cracked, the boat has a later model Mercury 400 on it and has a bolt in spash well. (sorry no digital camera yet).
The inner glass layer looks thin and the wood in the transom don't appear to go all the way to the bottom, at least not around the drain plug area since that area uses a crimped in brass tube through a single layer of glass which is below the floor level and cut into a drain well type of layout.
I've been reading up on the various ways of repairing this and I think I like the epoxy idea best. I'll use good grade of exterior ply, something with as many layers as I can find and waterproof. The wood don't appear to be very well adhered to the glass in this boat, I pulled the splash well out and most of the wood lifted right out of the cavity in pieces. I used a shop vac to pull the lower pieces out. The lower I got the less it looked like wood and the more it looked like mud. The boat has no wood stringers, its all glass but it does have a second below the deck drain plug which had a brass tube installed. The tube is loose and fell out, so I figured the best bet was to oversize it to take a standard size 1" drain plug rather than the 3/4" one it had.
The floor is all glass, no wood, about 3/8" thick and it sort of honeycombed on the back side. I can see pretty well through the drain hole with a light and mirror.
I have the cavity all cleaned out, the lower area below the floor is open to the bilge, so Sea Cast would be a hassle and I'd have to find a way to block off that lower area so as not to just let it run into the bilge. I am not cutting the original floor, it's original and I want it to stay that way. The wood actually stopped about 1/4" below the floor in most places, it didn't go to the lower hull at all. It didn't even go tight to the sides. Right now the cavity is clean with no wood adhered at all, I used pressure washer and to blast away all he bits of wood and to make it spot clean. It's all dried out now and ready for the next step. Which as I see it will be cutting out the inner layer of glass. Which is super thin, I can do that with a box cutter. The outer hull is single layer, so with the inner glass layer gone, I should be able to slip the new wood into place. I plan to prefab the transom as one piece out of the boat and to coat it in epoxy prior to intallation. The original wood didn't go all the way to the top of the gunwales in the wing areas, so I should be able to sneak the new one in in one piece and still get it to the same position as the old one was.
The questions are:
Should I laminate in a layer of glass between the two layers of 3/4" plywood when I build the new transom?
Can I cut out and reuse the original layer of glass inside?
What do I seal the spashwell back to the redone transom with? 5200?
Since there will be no lower access to secure or flare the new through hull drain tubes as they were before, do I just epoxy them in place or should I use something else?
My thinking is that this boat held up with a rotted transom very well when I test ran it last fall, other than just plain odds, the transom didn't give me any real signs of rot when running the boat but it is over 40 years old.
My point is that pretty much anything I do is an improvement, with any luck it will out last me. It's only holding a 40hp Merc, no power tilt or trim either so it's not like I'm having to build a transom to hold a 250hp V6 but I do want it to be safe and I don't care to ruin the original look if at all possible.
The transom was soft but not cracked, the boat has a later model Mercury 400 on it and has a bolt in spash well. (sorry no digital camera yet).
The inner glass layer looks thin and the wood in the transom don't appear to go all the way to the bottom, at least not around the drain plug area since that area uses a crimped in brass tube through a single layer of glass which is below the floor level and cut into a drain well type of layout.
I've been reading up on the various ways of repairing this and I think I like the epoxy idea best. I'll use good grade of exterior ply, something with as many layers as I can find and waterproof. The wood don't appear to be very well adhered to the glass in this boat, I pulled the splash well out and most of the wood lifted right out of the cavity in pieces. I used a shop vac to pull the lower pieces out. The lower I got the less it looked like wood and the more it looked like mud. The boat has no wood stringers, its all glass but it does have a second below the deck drain plug which had a brass tube installed. The tube is loose and fell out, so I figured the best bet was to oversize it to take a standard size 1" drain plug rather than the 3/4" one it had.
The floor is all glass, no wood, about 3/8" thick and it sort of honeycombed on the back side. I can see pretty well through the drain hole with a light and mirror.
I have the cavity all cleaned out, the lower area below the floor is open to the bilge, so Sea Cast would be a hassle and I'd have to find a way to block off that lower area so as not to just let it run into the bilge. I am not cutting the original floor, it's original and I want it to stay that way. The wood actually stopped about 1/4" below the floor in most places, it didn't go to the lower hull at all. It didn't even go tight to the sides. Right now the cavity is clean with no wood adhered at all, I used pressure washer and to blast away all he bits of wood and to make it spot clean. It's all dried out now and ready for the next step. Which as I see it will be cutting out the inner layer of glass. Which is super thin, I can do that with a box cutter. The outer hull is single layer, so with the inner glass layer gone, I should be able to slip the new wood into place. I plan to prefab the transom as one piece out of the boat and to coat it in epoxy prior to intallation. The original wood didn't go all the way to the top of the gunwales in the wing areas, so I should be able to sneak the new one in in one piece and still get it to the same position as the old one was.
The questions are:
Should I laminate in a layer of glass between the two layers of 3/4" plywood when I build the new transom?
Can I cut out and reuse the original layer of glass inside?
I was thinking of just removing the inner layer, and reinstalling it by tabbing it and overlapping new glass strips all along the edges where it meets the floor and sides?
I do plan to seal in the top of the transom where as the original was only capped with an aluminum strip.
I do plan to seal in the top of the transom where as the original was only capped with an aluminum strip.
What do I seal the spashwell back to the redone transom with? 5200?
It was only siliconed along the edge and held in place with several screws.
Since there will be no lower access to secure or flare the new through hull drain tubes as they were before, do I just epoxy them in place or should I use something else?
I really don't want to cut back or damage the original floor, it's perfect now and don't want to deal with having to build up or secure a repair there. Right now, its a tight fit up against the transom wall.
My thinking is that this boat held up with a rotted transom very well when I test ran it last fall, other than just plain odds, the transom didn't give me any real signs of rot when running the boat but it is over 40 years old.
My point is that pretty much anything I do is an improvement, with any luck it will out last me. It's only holding a 40hp Merc, no power tilt or trim either so it's not like I'm having to build a transom to hold a 250hp V6 but I do want it to be safe and I don't care to ruin the original look if at all possible.
