What did you do to your boat today

PickleRick

rasbury said:

That transom would be way beyond my ability. .would be afraid it would fall off!

Would be hard to repair one that badly.  Epoxy sticks to anyting.  

rasbury

I put mine in the water and sitting at the marina after a nice meal...about 70 or so, air dried out and very pleasant out.  

PickleRick

Lucky!

rasbury

Not lucky, geography! @PickleRick can you look at my iac thread and weigh in?

PickleRick

you can barely notice it was cut out...paint will be coming soon.  

aero3113

Nice work @PickleRick !!

PickleRick

Quite a compliment coming from you @aero3113!   Thank you!  I won't get another chance to work on it until new years eve.  Hope to have that transom removed and cut out by next weekend. 


With the engine out it doesnt take much work to get to everything.  I have all new deck lights, some accent lights and new speakers to all install and wire before the motor is dropped back in. 

aero3113

Thank you for the comment @PickleRick

PickleRick

wet an rot going pretty strong. I've seen worse.  

PickleRick

Port side is worse

PickleRick

some wood isn't rotten yet...i could have gotten another season out of her! 

PickleRick

old wood removed....time to sand.   

GMSLITHO

Nice job a lot of peace of mind come spring 

rasbury

So you leave the fiberglass skin and then just put new wood? How is that wood secured with the sides?

PickleRick

I do resuse the skin, im only replacing the core.

I make glue from thickened epoxy and clamp it all back together 1 layer at a time.  

Once the outer skin is done curing (side towards the motor) i then tab it in all all sides as well as where i split it in sections for easy removal.  Ill take pics.  I tab in sides with 4 inch over lap then 6 inches.  On the bottom and top  ill do 6 then  8 inches. Approximately.

RiverRat232

@PickleRick I admire your commitment to your boat. Many people would have cut their loses and sold. She'll be good as new when you are done. One other thing. Have you thought about switching your engine to a diesel? Someone on this board told me they are superior. 

PickleRick

Haha...i have.  If i could come up with a way to keep my turbo/manifold sub 250 degrees id be dropping one of my spare 2.0 tdi (170hp 300 ft lbs torque)  motors in it. That low of hp and short stroke(torque pulse low for a diesel) might not grenade an alpha 1.


Cost of a transom rebuild is cheap.  The price of a new tank was not.  Ill be in and out along with all winter seasonal service work for less than 1700. I could sell but she's worth more with all this work done to it.  I got the boat for a steal knowing it needed work, i was able to use it all summer without any major breakdowns that i couldnt fix quickly and nothing to ruin my weekend on the water.  

Id venture to say ill have @ 10 invested by the time she hits the water tied up in the water this summer, this include my original purchase.

With Trailer she only has a 7000 to 8000 resell value realistically.  

That being said there are not many boats out there i can buy in the 23 to 25 ft range with trailer that are in the 10k range that don't need a couple grand in maintenance/repairs.

PickleRick

Not much work done the past few days, have some fiberglass and resin on the way from us composites.

I did get the gimball housing off and in the shop.  Painted and ready for new seals.  Got my new sender and limit switch installed.  Someone really torqued the water tube to do this damage, new one on the way. Im not doing the gimbal bearing as its only a season and half old and is greasable.  Sadly this housing along with leg is pitted  from the corrosion but its not deep enough to be more than cosmetic.

I was hoping to have one layer of ply glued into the transom but what started as a new wax ring in my sons bathroom turned into a demo.  It had apparently been leaking for a while because of a cracked flange.  Hardwood floor and subfloor ripped up, new flooring (linoleum) laid down, the little lady wanted new paint and remove a somewhat broken towel rack a previous renter ripped halfway off the wall back when i rented the place out.   This renovation obviously isn't complete unless the little lady gets a new toilet paper toll holder, light switch cover and led light fixture.  Luckily i already had 3/4 inch plywood on hand thanks to boat work,  a huge upgrade over the original partical board. She wanted a new sink a toilet/tub replacement until i reminded her that this house will eventually go back to being a rental unit so i was able to stop at that point. She called it a low key "no" with a sensible explanation.

So back to boat work.   Less than 4 months til spring.   I need to get done with the boat and start on the trailer.  I plan on putting steps on the tongue as well as a spare tire mount.  I want to solo launch this without having to swim to the transom ladder. April lake water isnt warm water, i don't swim until June most summers.  

Willhound

Busy guy! Nice Reno

LaRea

PickleRick said:

... She called it a low key "no" with a sensible explanation.

Haha!  I need to learn that trick.

PickleRick

Thank you, detail finish work isn't my strong suit.  

The admiral has moved up to retail management so usually if i say no she just buys what she wants, im still stuck installing.  

I have enough of the flooring left i think i may do the cabin of the rinker if its not slick wet.  Dog hair doesn't come out of carpet easily and a 12v dust buster on vinyl would be easily cleaned.

rasbury

Looks good! Keep going!

PickleRick

Hit a snag.  Seller had the wrong part number on the listing, i didn't want to remove the hose from the boat until i received the new one as i dont want to get them mixed up and have the tilt/trim backwards.  

Anyways now he is hassling me over he doesnt do returns.    So i ordered the right part number but he had the wrong part labeled.  Correct one is now on order from a different seller. This is covered under the eBay buyers protection policy so ill get my 40 dollar refund but it will take a few days whether he wants to refund it or not.  I hate dishonest sellers.  He may have honestly not known the correct part number and guessed, no harm no foul if you send me a shipping label and refund.

rasbury

that's the way it should work if your going to stay in business...and there is that rate the seller thing where you can rip him good for that one...I've had 100% success on ebay boat parts so far...and have bought some parts!

PickleRick

I dont want to add up what I've spent in this project lol.

rasbury

That is never good...the past is the past...

aero3113

Crazy to say that I touched up my bottom paint today! Nice and warm out, almost hit 60!

PickleRick

Layer 1 glued in last night.  Was able to snap a pic before i set in layer 2 today.  This pic was taken after all the camps were removed.  Working within 10 hrs of each coat to prevent sanding.  Its near 60 today so the 4:1 resin only has a 15 min pot life.  

Layer 2 went in without much hassle.  I used decking screws to press the 2 together.  The factory used staples, not stainkess.  These will be removed before the inner skin is glued back on.  The only clamps i used on the 2nd layer of 1/2 ply as you can see is around the outdrive opening.  It won't hurt to leave the screws in but when attaching items to the inner transom i might hit them so they come out.  Will try to glue the skins on in a few hours, clamp them overnight then tab them in come morning. I still have to sand around the outer edge of the plywood. I use a multi tool with an abrasive bit to do most if it.  A side grinder with abrasive pad works well too if you can use a shop vac to keep the dust sucked out. The only place i found rinker used stainkess on this wss the stingers up towards the fuel tank. I didn't even find stainkess in the engine mount but that's typical. If you have water/rot on the wood the hardware stainless or not isnt going to help.  These should, in theory, never see a water source.  Water is present in all of our boats wood cores when they are built but the unlucky ones get exrea over the years.


Being that all this is fresh wood it will be important for me to retorque the transom bolts a few times both before the season starts and a few times during this season as the wood will compress a little more. 

Fot those afraid to attempt this at home, its hard to botch fiberglass repairs with epoxy.  A. It's stronger than the resin the boat was built with
B.  It has a much better pot life than poly or vinylester resin
C. The fumes won't hurt you
D. It soaks better into wood so you have a chemical and physical bond.
E. If you you do botch it, cut it out and do over.

Pretty much make sure paint is gone, surface is clean, sand and acetone prepped and you cant screw up.  My 6 to 8 inch tabs will probably be over kill as 2 to 3 inches would probably be sufficient unless this was an outboard. With an outboard id probably double my 2 to 3 layers and do 6, 8, 10 then 12 inch wide staggered tabs instead of my 4 to 6 and 6 to 8

rasbury

Looks good! Keep going!

PickleRick

Skin glued in then tabbing