biglurr54
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2011
- Messages
- 234
Thursday while at work I was planning on what to do this weekend. I needed to restore the windows in the nursery as the baby is due any day now. But more importantly than that I needed to get the boat in the water. I knew the transom was weak. Its been weak for a good 4 years. I contemplated just taking it easy on the boat this summer and tearing into it in the fall or spring. The thought of peeling the motor off the transom like a tuna can scared me too much. My goal for the weekend was clear. I've never done a transom or anything like it before. The boat is the one in my avatar and signature. I replaced the foam floor and upholstery when I got the boat 4 years ago so this was the last project. Friday night after a few cocktails I got my plan together. Saturday morning I was up early. Off to my parents house to use my fathers bucket loader to pick off the motor. Once that was off I dropped the boat off at my house and went to go get the marine plywood. I got home and just started to disassemble the motor well. I thought about cutting the transom skin to access the wood inside and then have the skin rewelded in place. Pulling the motor well is more work but much more structurally sound so that was the plan of attack. There were a few welds that needed to be cut and a few rivets to drill out. Then everything got unbolted. The splash well drains got punched out. The back of the boat was bare. The splash well was just sitting there. I pulled it out and the transom wood just sprinkled out. I then cut the marine grade 3/4 plywood into three strips to fit the transom channel attached to the splash well. I cut everything an 1/8 smaller to allow room for epoxy. The transom was 2 inches thick. I routed out one sheet of plywood to get the correct depth down to a 32nd. Day one everything was disassembled, cleaned, and new wood cut. Sunday morning up early again and I immediately started to epoxy the transom. I had three sheets cut to make the 2 inches. I counter sunk and pre-drilled holes for screws to clamp the wood together. I coated the insides with epoxy and then screwed the top layer on until the epoxy oozed out of the seam. Then the same with the back side. Then I coated the whole board with 2 coats of epoxy. I used some old west system 105 and 205 hardener my father had laying around. While epoxy was drying I ground out all the old welds and prepped the areas to be ready for the welder once its all back together. Once the epoxy was dry I slide the board and splash well back in place. It was a nice tight fit. Maybe a 32nd too large at most. I drilled the holes out and ran the fasteners in with 5200 below the water line and lifecaulk above the water line and on things that will be removed. I bolted where the rivets were. Once everything was bolted up tight I ran a 2x4 across the transom and pulled the small gap out between the transom skin and splash well. Off to the welders in the morning then install the interior and hang the motor and enjoy the boat! Simple and a lot of work. But it can be done in a weekend.
