I dont like the look of that wood, or that hole in the fiberglass by the mounting stud hole in the last pic.
Do you have a 3/8 drill bit? Drill out a few test holes, look for wet/rotten wood. Mark off about a 1/2 inch deep with electrical or duct tape so you dont drill into the outter hull.
Fill back in with 5200 or 4200 (8200 is walmart brand)
You do want both sides of the hull to be flat where the plates sandwich, that looks collapsed.
Right - will do a couple tests and talk tomorrow w/ mechanic about fixing the inner transom.
Here is an overall picture, would appreciate any thoughts on how you'd fix it, and then will compare to what the feedback is from the mechanic. I have faith that this guy knows what he's doing, just want to see if it matches up!
If the wood is soft you have no choice but to cut out and replace, i posted a number of pics on the what did you do to your boat today thread of the process.
One of my techs used to work at a lake keowee marine, he said i went above and beyond what they would have done in the marina, they also wouldnt have used epoxy resin.
From pics, the inner fiberglass skin looks pretty cracked and may not be able to be reused like i reused mine. In that case biaxle 7801 is your friend, us composites is in Florida and its cheap, a gallon and a half should be plenty for that transom if the wood only goes from stinger to stinger like mine did.
I dont trust a moisture meter, wet doesn't mean rotten and you can also find pretty dry rot(mulch). I do have a hard time getting sellers to let me drill holes! So i just assume that there is going to be rot
Don't get me wrong, wet isnt good but sometimes wet can be dried out with time. Rot just gets worse.
When replacing rotten wood all the wood needs to be removed as a new transom/stinger can rot in just a few years due to contaminated wood being left behind.
hit it with a hammer all over inside and out, felt solid and the sound didn't change.. mechanic also said "no rot" the other day when they got it out..
Hopefully it's just deceiving pics. Either that or he doesnt want to fool with a transom rebuild as it's an itchy dusty mess. I'd still make 3 or 4 test drills on each side, see if it feels wet or if it comes out as light color chunks rather than dark colored crumbs.
As a shop manager one of my biggest issues is a tech being lazy and not wanting to do more work...which makes no sense as they get paid hourly, even if they got commission more work = more money.
I really dont like this. There should not be voids this bad to cause the fiberglass to collapse in
Yeah it sure doesn't look good. I suppose I keep calling him the mechanic, but I'm actually talking to the owner of the place.. it's his name on the trucks, shirts and building. Def will bring it up tomorrow.
Id show him that pic and insist that it be checked over well, in the Florida humidity a wet transom will rot quickly, it wont dry either. Leaving it open in a heated storage facility for a 6 month winter might not even dry it.
If you look at the edges of that key hole, it's hard to believe you would have rot going on...when they push that drill through the transom for those holes it looks like they are busting out material on the back side. Mine kind of looked like that also Not that it should not be checked but don't talk yourself into more repairs- and I said before at the begining of your saga, that does not look like a new transom asy and I really don't think you would have that much corrosion of those studs in three years- hope I'm wrong- and don't be mad at the brand because you ran into a rip off artist mechanic shop. Carma will get that pos.
Here's pictures from when they replaced the transom assembly, seemed pretty new to me! (Yes, I've learned to take pictures of EVERYTHING)..
Sept 2016
Interesting looking back at these pictures, thinking I was putting a BUNCH of money into this boat so that I wouldn't have problems in the future, and here we are again.
The bolts clean up nice with some club soda (thanks Rick)..
Down at the boat doing a little recon... Occurred to me I should swap the hot water heater while the motor is out... Anyone have a better replacement than this?
How's your waste tank looking? Sometimes they get damaged from the vacuum, that's a cheap replacement too.
By the way, that ablative paint touching the drive (black paint right up to the drive) ... you should check whether it has any metallics in it (like copper). It's a big no, no and could in fact void warranties on new engines. Issue is that it forms a galvanic connection to the entire hull, and that means it will send any stray current to that drive ... merc cathode may not be able to keep up.
The easy fix is to paint with epoxy over the ablative, and leave a 2" band around the drive. This way when you mount the drive back on, it sits on the new paint. The right thing to do is to sand out that ablative, again a 2" band around the drive. Reason is, the ablative can fail underneath the epoxy paint, and cause it all to flake off with time. All though the portion of epoxy squeezed between the drive and the transom should never come off ...
Hey, FL ain't to bad, your on keys time...might as well be in the Bahamas...on the plus side, just motored to a little marina, taking a little cruise up to another marina to spend the night...
Comments
Do you have a 3/8 drill bit? Drill out a few test holes, look for wet/rotten wood. Mark off about a 1/2 inch deep with electrical or duct tape so you dont drill into the outter hull.
Fill back in with 5200 or 4200 (8200 is walmart brand)
You do want both sides of the hull to be flat where the plates sandwich, that looks collapsed.
Here is an overall picture, would appreciate any thoughts on how you'd fix it, and then will compare to what the feedback is from the mechanic. I have faith that this guy knows what he's doing, just want to see if it matches up!
One of my techs used to work at a lake keowee marine, he said i went above and beyond what they would have done in the marina, they also wouldnt have used epoxy resin.
From pics, the inner fiberglass skin looks pretty cracked and may not be able to be reused like i reused mine. In that case biaxle 7801 is your friend, us composites is in Florida and its cheap, a gallon and a half should be plenty for that transom if the wood only goes from stinger to stinger like mine did.
Don't get me wrong, wet isnt good but sometimes wet can be dried out with time. Rot just gets worse.
When replacing rotten wood all the wood needs to be removed as a new transom/stinger can rot in just a few years due to contaminated wood being left behind.
As a shop manager one of my biggest issues is a tech being lazy and not wanting to do more work...which makes no sense as they get paid hourly, even if they got commission more work = more money.
I really dont like this. There should not be voids this bad to cause the fiberglass to collapse in
Not that it should not be checked but don't talk yourself into more repairs- and I said before at the begining of your saga, that does not look like a new transom asy and I really don't think you would have that much corrosion of those studs in three years- hope I'm wrong- and don't be mad at the brand because you ran into a rip off artist mechanic shop. Carma will get that pos.
Sept 2016
Interesting looking back at these pictures, thinking I was putting a BUNCH of money into this boat so that I wouldn't have problems in the future, and here we are again.
The bolts clean up nice with some club soda (thanks Rick)..
He's also going to sand the inside problems, fill all voids and holes, and then redrill the holes for the TA
Boat Name: King Kong
"Boat + Water = Fun"
By the way, that ablative paint touching the drive (black paint right up to the drive) ... you should check whether it has any metallics in it (like copper). It's a big no, no and could in fact void warranties on new engines. Issue is that it forms a galvanic connection to the entire hull, and that means it will send any stray current to that drive ... merc cathode may not be able to keep up.
The easy fix is to paint with epoxy over the ablative, and leave a 2" band around the drive. This way when you mount the drive back on, it sits on the new paint. The right thing to do is to sand out that ablative, again a 2" band around the drive. Reason is, the ablative can fail underneath the epoxy paint, and cause it all to flake off with time. All though the portion of epoxy squeezed between the drive and the transom should never come off ...
Boat Name: King Kong
"Boat + Water = Fun"
Will sand the paint off around the TA housing on the outside.
Looks good.
2018 Cherokee 39RL Land Yacht (Sorry...)
(Sunrise)