I have a 16' tri-hull bass boat that I'm replacing the motor on so after taking the old motor off I was giving the transom a good inspection. All the core wood seems to be in very good shape..solid, yellow, and splintery...I did however find one spot where the inner skin was soft. There is a thru hull fitting that serves as a gravity fill/drain in my livewell recirc system in the lower pad area of the transom (beside my drain plug and aerator pump). After poking around,come to find out that the hose clamp attacing the hose to the barbed end of the thruhull fitting (nylon) had completely rusted out and was just barely on there. So I knew that the water causing this area to become soft was probably from a bad connection at the hose. So, I removed the fitting with the intention of seeing just how bad the rot was and hopefully fixing it. After removing the fitting I found that the integrity of the core and outer skin was in excellent shape and that the soft area was only a small auface area of the inner skin not more than a 1/4 inch out from the install hole. Looks like I caught this in the real early stage. Now here's where it gets tricky; the hull thickness from the outer skin to the inner skin is about 2 1/4"...the thru hull fitting (3/4") is only 3 or so inches total. The threads on the thru hull do not go all the way thru the hull much less go through far enough to be able to use the inside "sandwich" nut. I'm thinking that the soft spot occured because the previous owner (or mfgr) did not properly seal the inside of the fitting because it just simply wasn't long enough and when the bilge filled it got saturated. Now my problem is this, I have looked and looked for a thruhull fitting long enough but I can not find one that is long enough to go thru and still have enough thread to accomodate the nut.
does any oneone know if there are any fittings that have about a 3" threaded section then 3/4" barbed hose? Or any alternative solutions?
secondly; what product should I use to seal and harden the soft surface of the inner skin at the install hole?...keep in mind the soft area is probably no bigger than a golf ball (including the hole) so we're talking about a small area
thanks
does any oneone know if there are any fittings that have about a 3" threaded section then 3/4" barbed hose? Or any alternative solutions?
secondly; what product should I use to seal and harden the soft surface of the inner skin at the install hole?...keep in mind the soft area is probably no bigger than a golf ball (including the hole) so we're talking about a small area
thanks
