another transom job in the works -

[oldbluesplayer]

after I got my 73 Seafari home, and started heavily reading thru this forum, I got more than a little nervous about wet transoms, and started really checking mine out.

The outboard mounting bolts appeared to be at best marginally bedded, that motor was installed 15 years ago, and where the Teleflex cable mounting bracket was thru bolted, 2 of the 4 bolts were loose, and there was no bedding in there at all.

I soundly tapped the whole transom, and was freaked to find a totally hollow thump just below the Teleflex mounting bracket. Great.. figured I've got complete disintegration right there.

Turns out wrong, but I'm started in now. I cut the outer skin off, a 'la Finster's, perhaps better view is same as Hammer's 20, that has the same shape single outboard transom notch - anyways, about 5 in. below where the teleflex was mounted, in the transom core, was a 5" hole, all the way thru the core, to the inner liner, and that had been holed, and patched from the inside, as well. this must have been something from the factory ?!?

Well, the wood was wet, but not rotten, but what the heck, so I kept going and removed the wood, and will rebuild it from the inner liner out.

I realize there is a lot of past threads on this, but a couple of questions -

1 - best way to dig out the wood at the bottom of the transom ?

2 - I'm planning to lay up the new transom with 1/2" ply sheets, probably with a single 1/4" piece of luan first, using that, trimmed, to compensate for the uneven areas around that funny plug mentioned above, and also where the glass deformed over the years at the engine bolt holes. Should I try to get this all in one lamination stage, or laminate a single layer at a time ? (will be all West System epoxy)

3 - how do folks recommend holding the sheets in place, and under how much pressure, while the lamination sets up ?

Any thoughts most welcome !

Bill