advise on transom rebuild

[fandtm666]

have been a member for a while and love the site and read plenty and learnt plenty.

Now to my question

I am currently in the process of ripping down an old mustang 1600 i have because transom was shot aswell as floor and stringers.

what i would like some input on is i was thinking of raising the transom to full height and adding a pod to get some extra fishing room.

i was contemplating building the pod on as i do the transom and glassing the whole thing in as one, but i am unsure on what i should use and how or would i be best doing the transom then buying a pod.

thanks

[fandtm666]

some pics of the mess i have made ripping it apart

[fandtm666]

well its all cleaned and ready to get done but what thickness would be recommended for the transom

to take a 90hp ( more than likely 75hp )

[matt fraser]

Seriously big job to do the lot.............probably cost you 1-2 grand in materials, and 250 - 300 hours work. Lots of dust, itch, noise, are you sure you really want to?

If you are going to go full rebuild, its not really much more work to do the pod, you just have to work out your angles and measurements.

Goodluck,

Matt

[Noelm]

most transoms would be around 50mm thick I would think, that is the entire transom, including the outer and inner glass, just have a look at another boat and measure it.

[mustang5]

My transom holds a 225 four stroke and thats with two 19mm sheets of ply epoxied together so Noelm is spot on.

Really not much work from where you are at if you do it right. There are plenty of threads here and there to which members here have rebuilt there transoms.

I dont think the Pod option would work too well given you will need the splashwell in place as it seems to be what is holding the back of your boat together. I recommend simply building up the transom you have to take a longer leg and get that outboard out of the water.

You have done the hardest part in removing the old wood for the transom, all thats left from here is cut out a cardboard template, then cut the ply, then slot the ply in and glass it all in. Dont touch the outer skin as unless you want to be sanding for 5 days you are best not to touch it and only worry about the inside.

With the stringers well, thats where the work will be.. Have to make sure cut them flush to the hull, and have a clean connection for all the glassing.

Keep us posted :)

P.S. Talcolm powder on all exposed skin before doing any cutting/glassing.... lol.

[Noelm]

OH, and make sure the hull is well supported when it is all cut to bits, and bends, twists or warps will be permanent when it is glassed back together!

[fandtm666]

Seriously big job to do the lot.............probably cost you 1-2 grand in materials, and 250 - 300 hours work. Lots of dust, itch, noise, are you sure you really want to?

If you are going to go full rebuild, its not really much more work to do the pod, you just have to work out your angles and measurements.

Goodluck,

Matt

Yeah i realise it will take plenty of time to do but that's something i am prepared to do, as for how much i have worked it out to about 3 grand all up and im happy with that considering the boat cost me nothing ( long story ).

and thanks for the advise to the rest for the transom thickness, i poped into a fibreglass place that had a boat with a transom being done and had a chat to him and he advised to use 3 x 12mm laminated.As for the pod i still haven't made my mind up yet.

[dreemon]

Yes big job but this is the time of year to do it , hook into it and enjoy the summer without the scratchin, and it looks like a worthy rig worth doing, beer helps on jobs like this. hell ! beer helps ALL the time, where are you? I know a really good guy on the goldy for helping you on the glassing if you want?, very fair price. cheers

[fandtm666]

Yes big job but this is the time of year to do it , hook into it and enjoy the summer without the scratchin, and it looks like a worthy rig worth doing, beer helps on jobs like this. hell ! beer helps ALL the time, where are you? I know a really good guy on the goldy for helping you on the glassing if you want?, very fair price. cheers
i cant afford to just go out and buy one this size in good nick so the way i am looking at it is
i will have what i want for the right price and if that means a lot of sweat and scratchin so be it.

When i need to get away from it i have a nice little dehaviland with a 25 4stroke that i can get out and chase a few flatty's

Im down at banora mate

[Jarrah Jack]

At least you'll know by the end of the job that you'll have a boat that will last you for a long long time. The transom really was a total mess. By keeping photo evidence of the project you'll be able to prove the work if you ever want to sell the boat.

Good luck with it. Love seeing old boats being restored.

[610]

have you considererd extending your stringers out past your transom and doing an actual hull extension instead of bolting on a pod i would think that this would give you much better bouyancy and ride, just a thought .

[fandtm666]

have you considererd extending your stringers out past your transom and doing an actual hull extension instead of bolting on a pod i would think that this would give you much better bouyancy and ride, just a thought .

I had but i am not that skilled in boat building

[dreemon]

I know where your coming from on doing it up and saving coin by DIY, mines a 1978 v150 nautiglass, and have made it stronger than new by pulling up the floor and bunks up front , layed an extra layer of mat and resin to the hull , lucky the transom and stringers were good on mine but did the reno in summer and crazy dayz, piece of mind now, I have a litre of wax in styrene and about 400 ml of catalyst you can have that was left over from when did mine last summer, let me know if you want it, Cheers

ps go with the 90 hp ;D

[fandtm666]

thanks dreemon very kind offer, ill will be off to grab the supplies next week to start the transom.

So where is the cheapest place to grab the gear on the gold coast.I have looked at fgi-whitworths and bias
for supplies and stock.

[dreemon]

Funny I had a dream last night I was able to punch my fist through the transom, ran out to my boat this morn but it's all good. the guy that helped me with mine got all the gear fr fgi, I did all the prep and carpentry and he mainly glassed, learnt alot from it, If you go into fgi bring some pics of what your doing and they'll get you on the right track and tell you the mixing ratios / drying times/ cleaning and procedures, it'll fill your head so take notes , cheers

[Noelm]

here is a link to a site that has all sorts of info about materials and quantities, I also found FGI to be the best, they delivered all my stuff at a much cheaper price than anyone else
http://www.acefibreglass.com.au/

[Noelm]

A couple of quick tips on some things I found out the hard way, use only cheap throw away brushes and stuff, do not waste acetone cleaning them, if using rollers, make sure you get ones that have a plastic inner bit, the real cheap ones disintergrate in a second when used with resin, do not cut chopped strand with a knife or scissors, just sort of rip it, this leaves a sort of 'feathered" adge that just blends in with a second coat, do not wash your hands too much with acetone, it will disolve your finger nails, NEVER spill acetone on anything valuable! buy some cheap disposable overalls, I dont care what anyone tells you, the itch cannot be prevented.

[Fed]

Would you do it again Noel, I would have sent it to the 'guy' and spent my time revamping the V4s.

[Nathan Tuskes]

im also using FGI down the coast at labrador and wacol and find thier prices are pretty good with matting and resin, the best value for disposible paint brushes is bunnings $3.31 for 2(100mm- and 65mm i think), trade tools for disposible overals and get your ply from a ply wood supplier. Mister ply I think is the name down at labrador or use sharp ply at..... wacol:S, other then that just ask questions even the little ones because they can save you alot of time resanding or re glassing if something goes wrong, and yes it will its a DIY project!

[fandtm666]

thanks for the tip on the ply i was going up to harbour town tomorrow so i will drop in and have a look.

To be honest even upto now it has been a great learning experience reading up so many post here
and also at many other forums where people have done the same thing.I even bought a magazine from
jeff webster which had a transom - floor rebuild and so many great pics and details was worth the $10

[svranjic]

The Jeff Webster magazine on transom rebuilding is very good. The tearing of the glass matt instead of cutting with scissors is a good tip, I wish I had known this when I did mine because after I painted the inside you could see where all my matting stopped and left an edge....... such a pain in the ass sanding glass back aarrgghhh!

You will get over the itching after a while.

[Noelm]

yep, tearing the mat is a BIG one, it will just sort of disappear when a second layer is applied, another tip I forgot is to start saving ice cream containers NOW, you will use lots, just leave them when finished, and the leftover will just pop out after it is hard, it is also good to have a helper, so they can mix batches of resin to save you jumping in and out of the boat, and it wont matter how much you cover things up, resin will end up on everything within a 10m radius of your work, also buy some disposable gloves (I used surgical gloves) as you will end up looking like some sort of Yeti, when you have wet resin on your fingers, and then touch some mat. After a bit of time, you will realise why a professional charges like they do, they earn every cent. Would I do it again? depends on the job, but probably. OH another tip, when you have finished, clean all the little drips and fingerprints off the gelcoat with acetone, just wet a rag and wipe it off, it will not damage the OLD gelcoat, but keep it well away from fresh resin and anything painted.

[mal555]

as you will end up looking like some sort of Yeti, when you have wet resin on your fingers, and then touch some mat.

i like this bit.....:-)

[fandtm666]

All fantastic advise and much appreciated.I grab the ply from misterplywood
and @$55 a sheet was happy with that .Now for the resin , which should i grab

epoxy resin or polyester resin

[BM]

Use poly. It will have originally been made with poly. No need to use epoxy, which is very expensive and unnecessary.

[Nathan Tuskes]

use polyester resin and for this job(transom, stringers, floor) your looking at 3x 20L drums at a guess , also while your at FGI id grab a 20l drum of acetone ($80 roughly) compared to paying $25 for 4 litres of the stuff and youll use a bit(well i have), cleaning rollers and wiping down all the original fibreglass surfaces before you glass onto them.

[fandtm666]

Ok little update.

Have been cleaning down the hull and what a bich i was thinking while trying to do the bottom.There must be an easier way i have to flip the bloody thing.

Now the problem that i was facing is that being anti social has its draw backs IE: no mates to help throw 500kg up side down.

so for the last week while sitting outside having a smoke i would stare at it trying to work out how 1 man can do it.

Well this is what i did .

I built a frame around the thing and braced it all and then started to jack one side up and as i was going installing support braces so it would not come back down and suish me.

No once it was at a height that the block and tackle would help i hooked up the block and tackle on one side and a rope setup on the other side and slowly pulled her over and layed her down.

So now i can clean and paint the bottom of properly and then do it all in reverse to put her right way up.

[fandtm666]

70480704817048270483704847048570486704877048870489 7049070491

[Nathan Tuskes]

nice work lateral thinking at its best!!!

[Rip it up]

Any updates on this project?

[fandtm666]

Any updates on this project?

has been a while

yep the job has progressed although a little slow

hull is done and ready for paint - transom - stringers and floor laid
pod installed

you can see some pics here

http://fandtm666.wordpress.com/the-process-pictures/#

[odes20]

Mate just discovered your thread! Rebuilt all stringers and raised my transom on Yalta 2000 2 yrs ago. You are doing an awesome job! congratulations!

[fandtm666]

thanks odes20

its been alot of trial and error though with a few pieces, i found the trickiest
part was building a brand new rear gunnel to match in with the sides
because i took out the splash well and lifted the transom all the way i
had to build a new section and i must admit the first try i fooked it bigtime
but got it right the second time.

Now hopefully she should be all done just into the new year

[fandtm666]

well a little update


finally got the top deck painted today and apart from two drips came up nice.
The orange peel is not that bad so i can get away without a 2000 sand and the gloss straight of the gun is nice.

i used jotun 2pack gloss white , first few coats done at 20% thinner then final coat at 35% thinner.Cant see the gloss to well in the pics because its still under cover for 4 more days as it completely cures.

http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/24/img0605si.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/24/img0605si.jpg/)
http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/266/img0604ih.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/266/img0604ih.jpg/)
http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/233/img0603fn.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/233/img0603fn.jpg/)
http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/69/img0602rw.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/69/img0602rw.jpg/)

[Ornamental]

You're doing a top job mate. I took on a project like this near 20 years ago so I know how you feel. A whole year to complete on weekends when I was able to spend time on it.Yep I remember the itchyness and stickyness of doing it and would I do it again. NOPE. But it was the only way I could afford to do it back then and you do get some job satisfaction out of it. Keep up the good work as the end is near. Will be good to see the finished product.
Cheers
Nivo

[Rip it up]

I love jotun two pack. Hope it treats you well on the hull.

On the home stretch now.

[fandtm666]

hull painted and a little peeved i got 2 runs bloody clinks held the paint and looked great then all of a sudden it ran , hopefully i can sand them out and re-paint that area and it wont be noticeable.

I was going to paint the bottom black but looking at the photo now i think i will
just go full white and add pin stripes.

http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/72/img0610lk.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/72/img0610lk.jpg/)
http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/62/img0609te.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/img0609te.jpg/)
http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/59/img0608la.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/img0608la.jpg/)

[Rip it up]

Looking good. Can you post some better pics soon?

[Rip it up]

Has it splashed yet?

[fandtm666]

Has it splashed yet?

In a month or two the top has been mounted and fixed now just need to Finnish the trailer
and take it up to brissy for the new screen then its all done but work and wife's medical treatments
take precedence that's why it has taken so long.

This build was no so much of wanting a boat but a need to have something to occupy me and clear
my mind whist dealing with the wifes condition.

[fandtm666]

well boat is done bar the screen and i have finally got the most important part

The new build plate saying that she is a 2013 build so im really happy now and feel like i have actually accomplished something.

91918

[WalrusLike]

My god that is a sweet looking job. The hull lines are beautiful aren't they.

Thank you for sharing.., would love to see more photos and hear about getting her in the water.

I hope that your wife is returned to beautiful health just as your boat was. Best wishes and thanks for sharing.


(Using Tapatalk on iPhone so can't easily 'thank' or 'like')