Confused - CPES, Git Rot, or replace wood and be sure?

[ssv1761982]

1982 Glastron - needs transom work. I think I caught it early but after reading for a while, then cutting the cap off the transom and drilling holes I am not sure what I have, besides a problem.

After the tap on it test, the bottom 3rd of the transom on the passenger side sounds hollow.

After cutting the top off the transom, the wood seems OK at the top. Toward the edge I start getting black crap as I drill down through it. It is not real wet but there definitely is moisture there. I drilled a few holes through the back of the boat about a foot down. The area toward the left side seemed to have nothing behind the fiberglass. I stuck an ice pick in and came out with black crap, once again it was not dry but not bleeding wet.
The rest of the transom I drilled into was solid wood.

Could I take the easy way and fill it with CPES and then their other epoxy?

It seems a waste to cut out all the good wood but I am thinking that will really be my safest route. Take out everything and start with all new wood.

The boat is a 1982 that I bought new, it has always been stored inside and only left in the water about 1 week a year on vacation. I am a little suprised to find this rot, but what do I know. As you can tell, I don't go through a lot of boats.

[flabum1017]

The best thing to do is replace the wood and be sure. A lot of work, but at leat you won't have to worry about your motor becomming an anchor

[1BadAction]

sounds like the holes drilled for the engine weren't sealed correctly.

if you want to do it only once, do it right. if you want to tear into it again sometime in the future, cheat. IMO.

[Streamin101]

Got a pic?

[afr]

no other way
time for a R & R
your choice should be materials
wood or composite
poly or epoxy

[afr]

no other way
time for a R & R
your choice should be materials
wood or composite
poly or epoxy

:cool:

[Quinten]

:iagree: R&R, it may seem like a lot of work, but between the fact you like the boat and the price of a new one, it's a small price to pay.

[ssv1761982]

The bolt holes for the motor are all solid. To the right it is solid top to bottom. To the left of the engine is where is starts to get soft, a few inches down from the top. The farther down you go the worse it is. I put the shop vac on the holes and could get a little water from 3 of them.

I have been wanting a chain saw, I guess this is as good of reason as any to get one.

[flabum1017]

Before and after pics of my Baja Transom. You never know what you'll find till you get it all out.

http://a407.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/48/l_6b7e2763e21651a899674a62f477ba8e.jpg




http://a173.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/74/l_db99ed17881b1f69a1510bd27b6ffb2c.jpg

[j_martin]

A lot depends on how big is the engine. If it's under 100 horse, you could get away with the CPES fix, followed by LL resin.

Even though I replaced the wood, I'm using Dr. Rot products on the boat. I've got a little water intrusion in the kneeboard system, and I'll fix that with CPES, and injected resin. I replaced the wood in the transom and laid it in with LL resin. It got a little more expensive, but I am really impressed with this epoxy. I goofed in setting up the filling leads, made them too small, or they got crushed. Anyway, this epoxy, slowly put in at the corners as it would take it, got into every crack and filled it. It even found any thin spots in the fiberglass, and a couple of ounces wound up in the bottom of the boat. Actually, the path's it took showed me how the water got into the bottom and wrecked the battery and fuel compartment to start with.

I don't think I would have gotten away with the learning experience with normal layup resin. This resin's long pot life, and it's unusual thinning phase before it kicks. made it work when I blew it in setting up the injection procedure. It took over an hour to get it all in, instead of the ten minutes planned, and all is good. Another thing is that the Dr. Rot folks are really helpful, and know what they are doing in the wood repair area.

Most of the water that got into the fiberglass stringers got into the wood above them following barbed nails that were used to tack in the original wood before glassing. (Nail and shoot glass now, rather than weight and wait.)

You have water getting into the wood from somewhere. It could be a screw in the transom, or water getting into the stringers and floor, and somehow getting into the transom. It could be a chip in the gelcoat over glass that was sprayed too dry. If It's a pretty boat and you want to keep it awhile, I would cut into it and fix it right.

One thing, though. Don't cut into the outside skin on the transom. The transom is replaced from the inside, or as I did, from the top. Inside is easier, from the top does less damage to the esthetics. The outside skin is the primary connection to the rest of the boat, and is sprayed in with extra reinforcement at the corners for that attachment. It can be repaired to usable, but probably not to it's original strength.

You may note the chain saw pictures on my wet transom thread. One thing you need to know is that I've been using chainsaws for almost 40 years, many of them professionally in the woods. When I showed that picture to the guys at the saw shop, they were totally amazed that I didn't do any damage to either the boat or myself. They called it "brain surgury with a chain saw."

That ain't no toy in my hands. That's one of my production saws, with a razor sharp production professional chain on it. I can spear that saw into an oak tree with one hand. It took me 2 hours to get 90 percent of the wood out of the high performance transom with that saw. Consider that before you go buy a chain saw and attack your boat.

hope it helps
John

[sho305]

I agree that cutting the skin is a last resort, and more difficult to finish back off at the end. One I did I used epoxy and soaked the wood, poured it right down the edge of the wood when done to fill a void the factory left...all things they did not do and theirs lasted 20 years, most of it in the lake all summer. So I figure I way overdid it for that boat. You have to be real careful of anything that attaches to or through the transom, one pinhole and water is in. Most I have seen rot from the motor holes that were not sealed well or never resealed in a decade or two. I would say all new wood is the only way to go, its cheap but does take a pile of hours. The right tools and some knowhow help a lot though.

[j_martin]

One trick I'm using is I have applied penetrating epoxy to the inside of all the holes drilled through the transom, so much that I'll have to run a forsner bit through them before I can get a bolt in. Should cover my A$$ should the sealant fail.

John

[sho305]

I did that with mine, I drilled them large and taped the outside shut. Jacked the trailer up to lift bow and put epoxy soak coat in with a Q-tip a couple times, then again with glass fibers mixed in. Then drilled the extra back out to get bolts in there and liberally applied 3M 5200 to bolt hole inside and out when I mounted motor. Some say don't put sealant inside, I say I've had a boat fill with rain to the bolts while in the water so I don't trust pumps. Hope I can get it back off if I ever have to, I even put it on the clamp to keep the motor from moving/vibrating on the transom and possibly causing a leak at some point. That 5200 is something else. Also measured the glass while transom was out and mounted the pitot right at the bottom where there is no wood, with short screws and 5200. I drilled those out bigger and epoxied them to seal then filled with epoxy filler...drilled again to fit screw threads. That way water can't get into glass and then mounted it with 5200.

I read about putting the tubes in the transom holes, but I did not have anything handy to use for that so I glassed them. The drain hole I lined the hole with glass and then put a rolled up piece of paper in there to make it round/mold it. It is still there, mounted plug flange on outside with 5200 and drilled/filled those screw holes also. If any screw/bolt leaks on it the wood should be safe. All that sealing really did not take long at all, just think ahead a little and set them up to do all at once.