Transom is OUT - do preventive maintenance

[abl1111]

After beating the hell out of my hands and arms for two days, the transom is out.

A few tid-bits:

I was blown away by how easy it is for water to, over time, get in and rot a wood transom. I would recommend everyone doing some preventive maintenance and completely pull out every thru-hull in the transom and re-seal, or do that epoxy-thing - you know drill out larger an fill w/ epoxy and re-drill etc. It will save you aggravation , $ and work in the long run.

All the drain tubes coming form the fish boxes and the bilge are very suspect. On mine, they were either pitted badly, or leaking already. Two bolts that held a power steering ( an i/o ) bracket did a lot of damage.

To remove major sections of the transom, I used (2) tools; ( note: I did this from the inside ) a circular saw and a Sawzall w/ a wood blade. I would cut 12" square sections, cutting just the wood transom and being careful NOT to penetrate the fiberglass skin, and then wedge a long 'Wonderbar' between this pc. and the fiberglass transom. Then drive another thick wedge in, until I would hear it splitting away from the transom. Then remove this pc. The rest is all hammer and chisel to remove the sticking ply.

It is a bitchy job, but I removed my transom in 8-10 hours total working time. Now, to the next step - preparing a new transom....

[ocuyler]

What, no chainsaw?

It is tough work, but the best way to be truly intimate with your SeaCraft. Whoever coined the phrase "marriage is a lot of hard work" probably didn't own a SeaCraft with a bad transom.

[Finster]

I finaly got the 5th layer of glass in on the out side of the transom.....yipee. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

I had to drink two beer just to numb the thought of all the other stuff that follows........next step 6 layer of glass on the inside, can't hardly wait. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Least I had one nice day to work on it. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[ocuyler]

Chris,

That's alot of glass. How nasty is that job?

I gotta tell you about this guy up the street that Tom and I met this winter. He was doing a redo of a 22 Mako CC. He had twin 175's on it and it sunk twice last year at the dock. So he closed in the transom - nice job. He did an OK job on the paint.

So he got the new Armstrong bracket and starts drilling holes and water was "pouring" out. He failed to seriously consider redoing the lower transom (considering the boat had bottom time). We didn't have the heart to tell him how stupid that was. How's he doing?

My point. Your doing a great job for a good reason. Plus you're not "wasting" your time. Yours is a SeaCraft! Keep up the good work...

[Finster]

Thanks Otto, I just continue to pick away at it, not much else you can do.
I keep having to flip off my smartass neighbor that keeps asking "when we going out next week?" [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

By the way I had to laugh my ass off at the new signature. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[RingLeader]

Hey now, not all of us that are restoring Makos are as dumb as that guy! I may be close, but at least I put some thought into this thing! Hehe!

What a dumbass, his stupidity in putting twin 175's on that small boat should have told you something from the start!

[ltdan]

Sound's like thing's are going good for you Finster,just keep an eye on your stock level of your cold beverage of choice(michelob). don't want any slip up's there [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] .... I support the chainsaw theory [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] LT DAN

[ocuyler]

I support the chainsaw theory

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">WAY too funny.

[ocuyler]

RingLeader,

Good to see you back here on classicseacraft.com. My comments were not about Mako guys, but about how bad we felt for him cutting corners, which, as I'm sure you've read on this forum, is a no no.

From what I've seen on your site, your "people" have got it together.

A Mako owner, a SeaCraft owner and a Contender owner walk into a bar....

[RingLeader]

Otto, I hear ya man. If you do it right the first time, it should be better than new when finished!

I thought for a while and couldn't think of a punch line for your joke above!