Rehabbing a 1963 17' Glastron Crestflite and maybe a family.

[Oshkosh1]

In me experience, transom repair needs to be done "all or nothing" once it reaches the rot point. Cut and pasting will be temporary at best...lead to a catastrophic failure at worst. I'd just plan on starting anew.

 

[wahlejim]

After reading a lot on the restoration forum, Woodonglass is the man to talk to. He is excellent with this kind of stuff. You can start a thread there or ask a moderator to move this one.

 

[82rude]

Check out the resto threads,theres lots of help there.Start your own post there and post pics and you will get lots of pointers etc.

 

[Waterwhippin]

Ok I will thanks for the tips I'll check it out

 

[Waterwhippin]

Transom repair 1963 Glastron

My transom is rotten and leaking, really a bummer, but I rushed into buying this pretty little boat. What would be a good approach to this task. I've never worked with fiberglass before. What would I do about the angles gunnel? Would need to cut the "fins" out? Going to remove the side part that the battery and spare gas can sit on and post pics tomorrow maybe. I may need a day to morn
Any tips would be very appreciated.

 

[NAT1VE]

Well. A budget, what is the vessel worth to you, price compared to a new vs. restoring. List out the supplies needed and their respectable prices, including tools and Personal protective Equipment (PPE). Research, research and more research on the process.

Jump right into the process of demolition. Removing the cap first Most are held on by rivets, drill those out, unplug all the wiring and pull the old rigging through the transom hole. Inspect the floor and stringers, more than likely they're rotten. Just my $.02

 

[Waterwhippin]

Yeah, I have no idea what I'm getting myself I to. I know I have tons of time and enjoy working on this stuff.
My brother and I who are both in early recovery for addiction could use a positive project to keep our minds and bodies occupied. I suspect these projects are quite labor intensive as opposed to costly. I guess I don't know how much fiberglass cloth and resin I'd actually use for a project like this. I could buy a little at a time, one problem at a time. I figure the transom would be $400-600 in supplies.
$75 in wood, $150 in cloth, I saw a gallon of resin at Wal-Mart for like $20. The epoxy is prolly another $50. Then a couple hundred in "didn't know I'd need that" stuff.
Fairly cheap as compared to most treatment centers, hopefully you never have to price those lol.
My brother list an arm in an accident about a year ago and has been having trouble finding work. Watching him bust his butt today helping me clean the boat out really inspired me and gave me hope for his recovery. So I guess I'd be willing to invest in hope, having faith things will work out.
When finished the boat would have a monetary value of maybe $1200? Not sure you could put a price on the sentimental value and experiance of it though.

 

[Waterwhippin]

The rivets would be inside the rubber surround?

 

[Waterwhippin]

I expect I'll do something very simular to this thread. If utvstops raining today I'll start the demo of the transom area

 

[gm280]

Waterwhippin, I would certainly read and watch some of the tons of refurbishing threads on these forums before getting too far involved. And I do believe you and your brother have the ability to make this like new again. It does take a lot of sweaty itchy, smelly work. But the end results certainly will be worth your efforts.

First, don't buy your polyester at WalMart. Buy it from one of the many boating supplies sources either online or locally. Polyester has a shelf life and when you buy from a place that doesn't have a huge turnover of such a product, you have no idea if it will be quality polyester resin. If you buy online, you will get quality fresh material that will work like it is intended too. Also, polyester can be bought with wax or without wax. If you are doing multiple lay ups, you don't want waxed poly. You want unwaxed. So do some reading and watching and then post any questions. JMHO

 

[Woodonglass]

Due to the way your boat is designed you have 2 choices on how to replace the transom. 1.) Cut the gunwales about a foot in front of the spashwell and then you can remove it and gain full access to the stern. You'll need to cut away 2-3ft of the deck too. Then use a circular saw set to the depth of the plywood and cut a kerfs in the transom approx. 2" apart both vertical and horizontal. You can then easily chip them away with a hammer and chisel.

 

[Waterwhippin]

Thank you for the response Woodonglass I guess the first thing I need to do is get the motor, seats, controls, and electrical disconnected and off. I'm hoping from there to drill out the rivets from behind the rubber dock rail and maybe the cover will just pop off? Gotta wait till I can get a hand with the motor cuz she's a bit stout.

 

[Waterwhippin]

Due to the way your boat is designed you have 2 choices on how to replace the transom. 1.) Cut the gunwales about a foot in front of the spashwell and then you can remove it and gain full access to the stern. You'll need to cut away 2-3ft of the deck too. Then use a circular saw set to the depth of the plywood and cut a kerfs in the transom approx. 2" apart both vertical and horizontal. You can then easily chip them away with a hammer and chisel.

What's the second?

 

[Woodonglass]

2nd method is to remove the entire top cap. Litlle bit more involved but...Keep you from having to repair the "Cut Line" in the gunwales.
If you have a Garage you can put a 6" Lag Screw eyebolt in the header of the door and then use a hoist to lift the motor off and put it on your motor carrier.

 

[Woodonglass]

WW, you should keep all the Posts concerning your project in ONE Thread. Forum Rules dictate this in order to keep from confusing the Members with multiple posts on the same build. You can PM a Moderator and have them combine your posts into one thread and one Main title line.

 

[Waterwhippin]

Ok thanks I will. Sorry for my wrongdoings. Now if only I could find a mod

 

[Woodonglass]

I'll tell em for ya!!!

 

[Waterwhippin]

Thanks Wood, looking at my posts they do get repetitive. I guess I need to work on patience I just have so much to learn lol. I'll have the mod delete a bunch of stuff and focus on the transom rebuild.

 

[jbcurt00]

................. Now if only I could find a mod

Some forums handle posts and topics 1 way, many do it differently then we do.

Here, mostly we try to keep 1 topic about a subject. If it's a whole boat rehab, 1 main topic in the resto forum for all the boat work, another for motor stuff (in the motor forum) and possibly another topic about the trailer rehab, if there's questions, over in the towing/trailers forum.

That way all the info, pix, help and up to current boat work progress is in 1 place. That can help keep duplication/repetitive pix, questions and help to a minimum. We get plenty of traffic, topics and replies, no need to pad the #'s w the duplicates. Plus it saves room on the server to only have 1 copy of each pix posted in a topic.....

Perfect example would be your transom topic. Can't really help you unless I know what boat, w/ pix of what you're working on (the transom). If you're doing the transom, so you're likely going to be doing stringers and deck. Once you get them done you'll be working on the interior and upholstery. When you finish, you'll (hopefully) be posting pix of it back on the water. Not only do several of those subjects overlap, it's really nice to see documented start to finish projects, which is much easier to do w/ 1 main rebuild topic.

If you scan thru a few topics, you'll see the Mods are fairly active and posting thru out the day. Any Mod can help, or merge topics.

Merged, good luck w your project

 

[Waterwhippin]

Thank you. I'm going to spend some time reading the forum rules so as to not draw any more attention from the authorities lol. Old habits die hard. Anyways, I'm thinking I'll cut the splash well out here exposing the transom. The next step will be getting ppe. With the $20-30 3m 6000 mask be good enough?