23' Transom Advice Request

[Caymanboy]

I guess that's what forums are for, opinions!! :-)
My opinion differs from the rest, but mostly for one reason. It depends on what your are doing with the hull, if you are painting or gelcoating it, I think it is easier to do from the outside. JMHO. None of this matters much because you aren't doing the work, I think it is easier to work standing up on the outside of a boat. :-) It may be cheaper that way. Comes down to what the guy who is doing the work is comfortable with.
As for the rest of the stuff, materials, etc, looks good.
I'm an outboard guy myself, plus I like to spend O.P.M, so that is what I would do.
Good luck and keep us posted!

[Entourage]

If you say it is easier doing it from the outside, i guess you mean you would be reusing the old skin you take off right. Because if you are going to lay up all new glass and fair it in on the outside i would definately have to beg to differ with you. The reason why i ask is i just did mine and i thought just like you, and started from the outside but ran into some issues from the guy who did it before and had to do both inside and out. So i had the best of both worlds and i feel i should have just stayed on the inside anyhow.

[bigeasy1]

Chris,I'm not an expert glass guy,but I had help from a friend who is.I had some experience with it from other small restorations I did but his help was invaluable.

I did the transom on my 74 Tsunami I/O from the inside,and imo I think it's the best(although most difficult)way to do it.I'm just not comfortable cutting the outside skin off as I think there is a chance of comprimizing the integrity of the hull.
I removed the transom cap by cutting across the gunwales in the center of the hawse pipe sleeves that are located just forward of the.
After removing the rub rail and screws that hold the cap to the hull, from the stern and up to the cut i made at the gunwales, I lifted the transom cap off.I then cut the inner rear panel that goes from the cap to the deck leaving about a 3" lip across the deck.

This exposes the entire inner surface of the transom and bilge and engine beds,making it easy to work on.
I removed the entire inner transom skin right to the sides of the hull,i didn't leave any lip.I removed all the rotted core(peat moss),to the glass surface and ground the glass with some 36 grit and applied two layers of 1708 to the skin.(I was surprised how thin the orig.skin was).
I also had to remove the rotted engine beds and rotted scupper blocks.

I went with marine plywood,cut it to fit,and thickened up some System Three epoxy,spread it onto the new transom face and transom skin with a notched trowel and clamped it and fastened it into place.
Once it was cured,I put a nice fillet around the edges and laid up the new inner skin with a few layers of 1708,extending the fabic way out onto the sides and tabbed into the new end of the box stringers.I switched over to polyester with all this work,as the two resin systems never came into contact,and (for me at least)I find it so much easier to wet out the fabric with polyester and money was an issue.I know that epoxy is stronger and has a better secondary bond,but I'm confident that I'll be long gone befor this ever needs to be done again.

After all was done,I replaced the rear panel,the transom cap,and glassed it all back together.Cant tell that it was ever touched.

Here's a few pictures in no particular order.

** OLD BILGE**



** REMOVING THE ROTTED CORE



**BEEFED UP OUTER SKIN



** INSTALLING NEW TRANSOM



** GLASSING IN THE TRANSOM,AND TIEING INTO THE BOX STRINGERS



** RESTORED CAP BAIT WELLS WILL BE ELIMINATED



** FINISHED TRASNSOM, ENGINE BEDS TIED IN,ALL GELCOATED /BILGE ETC.



** ALL GLASSED AND PAINTED NEW ENGINE INSTALLED

[Entourage]

Here ya go we have a "winner".

[Water Rat]

My apologies to all that have replied for not thanking you all sooner, but have been having computer issues.

Wow is all I can say; the information provided here is phenomenal and the pictures a huge help. I think I've got a very good idea on how I'm going to approach this. To help return the favors, I will document the process (which hopefully will begin soon) with pictures and post them on the site. Thank you again to all who have replied here and BigEasy, the above pictures really tell all. I reserve the right to come back here for help when I inevitably run into a problem.

[floorboy]

Dont be afraid to take some pics of your seating arrangement and some measurments if your bored.

[Water Rat]

Floorboy,

I should be at the boat over the weekend; happy to oblige and pictures no problem but what measurements are you looking for specifically?

[Entourage]

Hey Chris was looking at the photos of you boat and was wondering why your water line in the rear was lower than normal. Then i looked at what you had for power and that answered my question. Big dog in there ha. Yehaaaa