Plastic transoms !!!!!!

[phillnjack]

I hope its ok as the consistancy is great for the bonding of the seam,and with the gun he has given me it
would be a very quick application.
He says he is gonna try and get me another gun tommorow and good few tubes of the stuff !!!!
there is 380 ml in each tube,so no idea how many i will need but he said he will get loads ha ha .

ive looked on the net and cant for any info as in good for fibreglass or not.
I do know its realy strong stuff.

i tried it by putting 2x4 on end on a bit of scrap exterior plywood, 20 minutes later there was just no way it was comming apart.
when i finnaly managed to break it apart the ply broke up not the bond,it dries rock hard like steel.
even the grinder didnt like this stuff,its realy tough.

if this is ok then it will be nice to do the job with 2 of us doing the seam so it dont set before i get all the way round.
I would of prefered a slower setting stuff then could say ive done absolutely every part of this project on my own.

But i have never heard of epoxy acrylate resin before, and no idea what styrene free means,is that a good thing or
a bad thing for me ?

I done a dry run on the two parts of the boat today and everything fits nice, the transom is a touch out of line due
to my new transom being about 1/4 inch thicker, that is not a problem at all just a very slight bit of grinding and
the heavy duty rubber fender can go back on no problem at all.
I re-drilled the holes for the engine as well today and so almost ready to go back together.
About 3 hours of meesing around doing a couple of repaires to fibreglass stringers and a quick application of 2 extra
layers of glass on the hull floor and its ready for refitting out, all sounds so easy ha ha ha


phill

[David Mason]

That stuff is OK. Not my first choice, but I think it will work in your application. You do not need total strenght from a structure standpoint when putting the two halves together. The bolts will provide a lot of your holding power. The styrene free is a good thing. That is like wax or no wax. I always prefer no wax unless it is a mold application of sorts.

[phillnjack]

Im realy happy somebody has said its ok as my friend just came round with 3 more tubes of the stuff ha ha .

It is a very strong stuff and today i got a bit of it and used the grinder on it to see what it grinds like.
seems a very nice finnish with the grinder.

I also done a little bit of an experiment on a pice of fibreglass scrap, and that has bonded realy good as well.

Today i put down a couple of extra layers of cloth on the hull so now its just a couple of repairs and then
the top goes back on.
Ofcourse being very warm here today 23 deg c the resin was going off pretty quick and i did run out on the very last piece i was doing so cut it short by an inch in one corner ha ha

I am very pleased with everytrhing ive done to this boat so far,once its all stuck back down then to just re-foam it,
stick the consol and engine back on and hen its gonna get a nice test down the river.

once i have found everything to be ok then i might even let the wife join me for a trip down the river ha ha ha

She has helped with the project by bringing me cups of coffee and toasted cheese and ham bagels to keep me going.
But then again she might have done that just to keep me at the garage and out of her way ????????

you guys on this forum have been a great help.

phill

[zul8tr]

post some latest pics of the repairs

[phillnjack]

Im just putting the pics on now
(i knew there was something i had forgot )

Starting to clean the hull of all the crud


its very dusty work grinding the glass back to like new, the scaffold board was for me to use to get along the hull without causing any damage, without the top on this is very weak area and the reason i put extra layers on the hull floor was to beef this up a fair bit before the stringers go back down and join to it.


But it has to be done so you know what your dealing with, and i found a crack in the hull while grinding.
i realy didnt know it was there before, and ofcourse i repaired this straight away with plenty of
cloth and resin and made triple sure its perfect now.

This picture shows me putting a jemmy bar under some piece of rubbish that a previous owner had used to
do a repair on the hull.
This is where i found the crack about 14 to 18 inches long and very very poorly repaired.

[phillnjack]

Template for the new transom board.


this pic shows the size of the drain plug versus the size of area filled with epoxy and glass.
Once i cut the hole for the new drain ,then no water can get to any of the wood if the seal should decay.


This one shows man at work on tea break..ha ha..
cup of coffee,cheese and ham Bagel, and a ciggarette to finnish it off nicely.
also notice only half of the transom on superstructure is cleaned !!!!!! tea break stopped work, but it
did resume after 10 minutes and got completely cleaned of all old marks and rubbsih ready for a new layer of glass to be applied for the new wood to bond to.
.
Here goes on a layer of 250 csm to give a nice fresh face for the new transom to sit against.

[phillnjack]

The new transom wood on the white superstructure is a fair bit larger than the silly little piece originaly on the boat.
The makers claimed it was going to be a full side piece of wood in there, i found it to be far from full and in
this pic it shows by the black lines of the original size compared to the piece im now using.


.

[phillnjack]

Test fit of the new wood on the white superstructure before any fibreglass is layed on it.
this was to make sure that i could get tabbing done everywhere on the board and the white



In this one i used a spare mid-section to redrill the engine mounting holes in the right places.
this was just a dry fit to make sure the seam all lines up when everything gets bolted back on.
luckily its all perfect and all inline 100%. The stainless plate is what i use as a transom saver !!!!!
But dont panic, i will be shaping this and making it a slight touch smaller.
.
.These pics show the stringer system all fitting on or near the hull floor, these will get bonded back to the hull once the seam has been completed and i will be using some epoxy paste stuff for these.


.

[phillnjack]

This picture shows one of the stringers was broken away at the side of the superstructure and cut with a saw in the middle.
This was not something i have done, it was like this and just covered over with fibreglass that was not
even attached properly, so the boat was never as rigid as it should of been when i got it.
This simple repair i still have to do, hopefully tommorow if i can get some more resin .
[ATTACH]53835[/ATTACH for some reason this pic has gone to bottom of page ????????
.
.

This pic below is the transom board being tabbed in on the hull.
It was already put against a wet layer of new glass that had been put fully across the transom from
top to bottom.
Once tabbed in it was then covered again in a cimplete layer of glass that also goes around the sides of hull by around 8 inches.
The small pices on the floor were just glassed in to hold the transom in place to save trying to get
huge clamps.
The method worked well as it had to be forced down behind these to give a real tight fit and then the beams at the top and bolts to close any other gaps.
The wet fibreglass layer behinde the bord was made very thick with cloth and resin to keep any imperfections in the fibreglass at bay and to make sure its a full seal.
The board was already fully encased in fibreglass cloth and resin and almost dry before it was put onto
the transom to be tabbed etc

.
.
(another quick tea break , so a cup of tea and a cheese and ham home made Bagel)
Behind the main board there is a small section of board where the engine fits.
This i call the centre section and this board is purely a template before the transom got cleaned and fresh glass layer put on,

after giving the complete transom a real good clean, I cut the real board, covered that fully in cloth
and resin ,then covered the mid section and the rest of the transom in a layer of cloth and resin, then
put the centre board in while this was still wet and then covered the centre section in a layer of cloth
and also the whole transom.
While all wet the main board was put up almost in place and then smothered in resin and attached to
the hull and all bolted in place.
So although you can only see 1 board on the transom of the hull there is infact 2 pieces of wood.
Then i once dry i did another dry fit to make sure everything was still going well and yes its fine.

a lot of the pics i have are almost all the same and a lot did not come out due to me getting a bit of resin
on a camera cover !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will take a lot more pics as the boat gets nearer and while its being put back together.

phill..

[zul8tr]

Hard work and excellent results. This repair/rebuild should give many years of satisfaction and pleasure. Nice documentation for you file.