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#31
04-09-2014, 11:30 PM
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Flex,
I am just going to outline the void area first. By rapping on the fiberglass with a small hammer. Once done. Drill a small 1/4" hole at the bottom and another one at the very most top.. I will pipe tap the holes and install fillings with valves.. Mix resin and vac at the top and pull resin from the bottom. Once filled cut flow from the bottom and pull a slight vac from the top. Till cure... I will use a fast cure to about 30-40 min. I will take pics... 
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#32
04-10-2014, 09:28 PM
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Wow. Awesome work. Great thought process and technique.
I am looking to take time off from work next week, as it will finally be above 50F for more than 3 hours, so I can kick off some vinylester. No vacuum bagging yet for me. Even so, 3/4 divinycell with wet layup should be lighter than damp 1" ply.
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#33
04-12-2014, 08:40 AM
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Nice work. I haven't done any vacuum bagging (yet), but I use a lot of peel ply. As you mentioned, no blush, and no sanding required to get a good secondary bond.
__________________
Blue Heron Boat Works Reinventing the wheel, one spoke at a time.
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#34
07-11-2014, 03:49 PM
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Made a little progress over the last couple of trips – finally getting around to posting pics.
The transom is completely glassed in now – on the edges I used 5 layers of 1708 wrapped progressively 3-5 inches into hull (each layer farther in). Made forms for the stringers with scrap 1808 over a piece of 2x8 wrapped in plastic and used a piece of Coosa for the keel. Used cabosil w glass fiber added to hold them in place for final glassing. Also put the vent boxes back in with cabosil and glass fiber. Covered everything in peelply to make the final glassing easier but I am not vac bagging this stuff – I don’t know how to get a good enough seal. I am using fiber in the cabosil since the port vent box had broken loose where the potter putty had cracked completely through. Since I tapered the top edge of the transom core and the vent boxes were matched to the original untapered core, they were not long enough to reach the core on top but did fit on the bottom. I used a piece of a plastic ‘For Sale’ sign as a form taped inside each vent boxes when I glassed them in (after the cabosil). It worked very well and released from the epoxy nicely. 3 layers of 1708 got me the thickness I wanted there. A piece of 6 mil poly plastic taped to a 2’x3’ piece of thin plywood works pretty well as a small wetout table. Glassed the stringers and keel in with 4 more layers of 1708 and covered w peelply. I put a ¾” drain tube through the stringers – aft of the original – to eliminate the water that would stand there. The original drains would plug with leaves (still don’t know how those got in there) and were not far enough aft. Made new engine beds out of 2 layers of ¾” Coosa. The top layer of Coosa is 3 inches wider than the original and has a 15 degree bevel on the bottom to match the middle hull panel deadrise. I did this to eliminate the problem where the old beds trapped standing bilge water on the outside of the beds because they formed a low area over the middle hull panel. Vac bagged the ¾” pieces together with a layer of 10oz between them and 1708 on the bottom. I used some 1 ½” Coosa strips with a 20 degree bevel as the vertical part from the hull to the bed horizontal surfaces and a strip of 1708 on the inner bond line (inside the hollow base). The forward edge is also closed with coosa to keep water out of the hollow base. Fit checked the rough trimmed engine beds after the stringers and keel were done. The beds will get glassed in with a couple of layers of 1808 and 1708 on the next trip. I will try to vac bag them in if I can get a good seal. I still haven’t figured out if I’m going to foam the void inside them but it sure seems like a pain for not much value.
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#35
10-14-2014, 12:21 PM
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It’s been a while since I have been able to work on this – earning a paycheck keeps getting in the way but I do need the cash flow. Finally got around to glassing the engine beds in. Stuck them down with a blend of epoxy/cabosil/chopped glass fiber; it worked pretty well. Then glassed them into place with alternating layers of biax; 1708/1808/1708. Each layer of glass was slightly larger to blend it into the old surface smoothly and minimize how much sanding/fairing I have to do. Since I didn’t have help and was using a fast setting epoxy, I didn’t have time to vacuum bag it but I did use peel ply. There is more resin in the glass than I wanted but I mixed up enough resin for each layer based on a 1:1.5 glass:resin ratio so it’s not excessively resin rich. In the photo below I left the peel ply on the top of the beds to protect the surface until I get around to glassing in the motor mount risers- that probably won’t happen until after I cut the drive hole and figure out exactly how tall they need to be. At least I finally got rid of those low spots outside the motor beds that trapped standing water/oil/funk
 .The two biggest things remaining (before paint) are recoring the decks and putting the engine/drive back in. I want to wait til it’s plenty cool before I cut the decks and start grinding again  .I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out where to set the cav plate of the drive when it goes back in. Power is a 5.7/260HP (for now) and a Bravo 1X 1.65 ratio drive. With an I/O, I don’t have a lot of options for adjustment after I cut the hole. Based on talking to several folks it seems like the 23 Sceptre (w/o a bracket) likes to have the cavitation plate between 2” and 2½” above the bottom of the keel. I’m leaning towards having it at +2”. Once I cut the drive in, I can still lower the cav plate by putting in drive extensions (¼” or ½” increments cost 300-500 each), but I can’t raise it further. Any additional input on drive height is welcome here! Raising the drive means that the engine will come up in the bilges and the exhaust manifold tops will be getting close to the engine box. With the lower engine beds + raising the engine I will also need to get the tallest trunnion style front motor mounts I can – anybody have a set to sell?
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#36
05-26-2015, 10:49 PM
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OK - I have been derailed by work and a bunch of other stuff so I haven't put anything about my 23 here for a while. I got a little bit done on the motor and got to work on the outside of the transom. Decided to raise the outdrive 2" from the original hole - instant opportunity for patching. Since I am trying to use gelcoat instead of paint I had to pay the extra work price. I used some VE to lay-up a layer of glass and used epoxy to put into place in the old drive hole; it is a tie bond layer so that I could use VE for fairing the hole and gelcoat on top of that.
Sanded it smooth except the part that will be cut out for the drive and sprayed it with some gelcoat - took a chance on color matching and lost, but it was good practice. I probably should not have masked it with tape but since the color didn't match I had to sand a lot anyways. I have never sprayed gelcoat before so this is a big time learning experience and I see that red isn't very forgiving. Sanded it down and used a drill fixture to mark the cuts for the drive and drill the bolt holes. Forgot to take a pic of the final sanded transom but it will get some more gelcoat on it before I do the final drive hole cutout - hope I get a better gelcoat match next time. The final coat will be over the whole transom so that if it isn't a perfect match (likely) it won't be so obvious.
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#39
07-20-2015, 09:12 PM
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Slipped down to FL to visit and do a little work. Sorry for the bad pics - apparently I had image stabilization off and was still shaking from tools...
Sprayed a layer of gelcoat to see if I got the color right and maybe not get a ton of orange peel – very close but I can go a touch lighter on the next coat and I got a lot less orange peel – still learning though. I have more transom sanding in my future. Went ahead and cut the hole for the drive. I tried to use a long router bit with the Mercruiser drill fixture – not good – ended up drilling and marking it with the fixture, using a cut blade in the angle grinder to make the straight parts of the cutout 1 ½” deep, a ½” drill for the corners, and a diamond abrasive blade in a sawzall to finish - that worked well but I’m glad I hadn’t just finished the gelcoat or I’d be redoing it a little around the drive hole. Note to self – tape the sawzall foot when I’m worried about the gelcoat finish. I cut the hole to get the AV plate up 2” so I really hope I got it about right for performance. Fit checked the transom housing – I have a little bit more fine trimming with a belt sander to do.
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