Hi Raab. The issue many on here are tap-dancing around is that given the way boats are constructed, if he transom is bad, the stringers make contact with the transom & then the plywood under the deck makes contact with the stringers. Water/moisture flow down hill. Most likely all/most of these components have what is known as dry rot.
Resin repair products are very expensive.
My expectation would be that a $500 boat is a parts boat with the hull going to a landfill. Dunno if you can use the boat as-is; getting insurance may be an issue
Certain F/G boats are made w/o these wood components. Many AL boats are made w/o wood.
Resin repair products are very expensive.
My expectation would be that a $500 boat is a parts boat with the hull going to a landfill. Dunno if you can use the boat as-is; getting insurance may be an issue
Certain F/G boats are made w/o these wood components. Many AL boats are made w/o wood.
windsurfer
Member
Why not use it as is? With an inboard engine bolted to the stringers there's not much load on the transom. It's a $500.00 trailer with a free boat that runs. I'd only do it if I was going to do a total re-build and pod. Many $k.
stephennicholls531
Active Member
I intentionally went down that same road with a $500 trailer and a ‘free’ 17.5’ 1977 Double Eagle boat. It took me - working on it as time and $$ permitted - from 2009 to 2017 to get every stick and plywood sheet of wood replaced with new, and to convert the boat from inboard to an outboard on a pod.
Good thing I have a very patient wife, because I spent a ton of hours doing this rebuild. It also cost a TON of $$$ to do it, but - for me - it was absolutely worth the effort. Even the wife thinks so - now....
So, unless you have the patience, are willing to learn a lot about fibreglassing, woodworking, and have a nice, warm, safe place to do the work on it, don’t even try. You’ll need a whole lot of all those things - including a patient partner and much more - to succeed. PM me if you want more info on a project like the one you are contemplating.
Good thing I have a very patient wife, because I spent a ton of hours doing this rebuild. It also cost a TON of $$$ to do it, but - for me - it was absolutely worth the effort. Even the wife thinks so - now....
So, unless you have the patience, are willing to learn a lot about fibreglassing, woodworking, and have a nice, warm, safe place to do the work on it, don’t even try. You’ll need a whole lot of all those things - including a patient partner and much more - to succeed. PM me if you want more info on a project like the one you are contemplating.
brutus
Well-Known Member
part time lol,transom and stringer replacement is not that bad on that size boat,its a dirty job but if your handy,have a bit of funds and work on it does not take 8 years to do lmfao.look at the other tread where the ex fly guy is redoing the hourston 26FT he is moving a long pretty good.is your sangster worth doing that kind of work,prob not.But getting an 18 ft boat in good shape (no rot,repairs,or $ to put on it ) is going to cost you a lot of money
stephennicholls531
Active Member
Yeah - it took me eight years, but I only worked on it when I had the time - and could afford to buy the materials and the parts. So, no loans from the bank, bought and paid for one bit at a time.
brutus
Well-Known Member
Nice, all i was saying is people make it sound like its a 6000 man hr job, well its not, its like a reno, take out whats no good, fix and remodel what need to be done, bolt a pod on, add power and you good to go, yes it take funds and free time, but it can be easally done in 160hrs, and thats for a slow moving handy man .finding a older boat with no issues take a lot longer and lots of $
Raab
Member
The materials i get a pretty good discount through work. And I am an automotive mechanic. Not saying i have all the money in the world but its easier to go bit by bit than dropping 5000 to 10,000 on a boat.
I can find you a parts car and turn it into a daily. Only thing holding me back is my knowledge of fiberglass
Raab
Member
You make a valid point. I dont see a lot of cheap 18ft boats. I think im going to start stripping it and see where it leads me too.
Raab
Member
So im going to start on it this weekend. I will strip the boat down to a hull and see how everything looks. My 1st question to you is that why did you make the switch to outboard?
brutus
Well-Known Member
Good for you, its a dirty job dont get me wrong, if you dont mind geting dirty and work at itits not as bad as people make it outbto be. As far as fiberglass work is concern,google is your friend use it.
casper5280
Crew Member
Check out friscoboater on YouTube. He has a whole series start to finish on how to repair your boat.
https://www.rotdoctor.com/
Lot's of good info & supplies. Their resins are slow cure giving you lot's of time to work versus polyester resin which cures VERY fast. Their CPES rein can be used to saturate rotted wood. You can built your own hollow stringers out of F/G & glass them to the hull. This is how the original construction on my 1978 Chris Craft was done; no wood below the water line. F/G mat is the easiest to work with but it doesn't work well with epoxy resin. Be sure to clean & ruff-up any existing F/G before attaching new F/G to it.
Should be a great learning experience...............
Lot's of good info & supplies. Their resins are slow cure giving you lot's of time to work versus polyester resin which cures VERY fast. Their CPES rein can be used to saturate rotted wood. You can built your own hollow stringers out of F/G & glass them to the hull. This is how the original construction on my 1978 Chris Craft was done; no wood below the water line. F/G mat is the easiest to work with but it doesn't work well with epoxy resin. Be sure to clean & ruff-up any existing F/G before attaching new F/G to it.
Should be a great learning experience...............
finaddict
Well-Known Member
Take a lot of pics and post your progress. There are some very skilled and experienced peopl eon this site who can give you great advice and the rest if us like to watch your progress. Good luck with your project. Cheers, Fin.
Since you have decided to proceed. You may wish to consider:
Determining the condition of the motor and the drive. If they are original, they are ancient by boat standards. Just because the motor runs does not tell you much. A boat motor can spend a lot of time at high rpm compared to your average car. Can you get parts especially for the leg? As you are a mechanic this should be right in your wheel house. I would want to be sure that I will not be putting a lot of money and sweat equity into the hull and then find I have expensive/reliability problems in the motor and/or drive. Some parts for the motor must be marine rated, (spark suppression etc.) so you do not blow up the boat if there are gas fumes in the bilge. Some auto motor parts will work but are not safe or intended for boat use. Is the bilge power vent system working? Boats in the ocean are not like cars. A very reliable motor and drive can be the difference between life and death. With a $500. car and iffy motor/drive train, you just pull over and call the auto club. You will also need a reliable kicker. I have had to come in on the kicker a couple of times over a lifetime and was glad to have it. An 18 footer is rather large to paddle in current, wind and waves.
Do some research on your boats construction. Even some older boats have all glass stringers for example. If the stringers are glass and good or wood and good and the deck is glass or glass over wood and good, I am not sure I would be cutting out the whole deck and may just work on the transom. Very good chance however, that it is all wood and bad and you will need to remove the whole deck and everything rotted out under it.
Pull the drive and motor and remove the transom seal and check the edge around the seal. Drill some test holes in the transom from the inside but do not drill into/through the outside glass. Look for water or punky wood in the drill bit. This should tell you the extent of the water/rot damage in the transom. You could do the same with the stringers that the motor mounts attach to if they are wood. You could also drill through the deck for an inspection camera, especially where the stringers attach to the transom. Alternatively you could cut inspection ports which are more destructive but will tell you a lot more. If the deck is glass over wood a large man can tell a fair bit by jumping/walking around on it. Does it move, is it spongy? One of my buddies once unintentionally tested my glass over wood deck by dropping a 20lb lead ball on it from 4 feet up. Luckily, all it did was bounce, did not even crack/mark the glass coating.
Up to this point you will not have spent a dime or all that much time, but you will have much more information.
Determining the condition of the motor and the drive. If they are original, they are ancient by boat standards. Just because the motor runs does not tell you much. A boat motor can spend a lot of time at high rpm compared to your average car. Can you get parts especially for the leg? As you are a mechanic this should be right in your wheel house. I would want to be sure that I will not be putting a lot of money and sweat equity into the hull and then find I have expensive/reliability problems in the motor and/or drive. Some parts for the motor must be marine rated, (spark suppression etc.) so you do not blow up the boat if there are gas fumes in the bilge. Some auto motor parts will work but are not safe or intended for boat use. Is the bilge power vent system working? Boats in the ocean are not like cars. A very reliable motor and drive can be the difference between life and death. With a $500. car and iffy motor/drive train, you just pull over and call the auto club. You will also need a reliable kicker. I have had to come in on the kicker a couple of times over a lifetime and was glad to have it. An 18 footer is rather large to paddle in current, wind and waves.
Do some research on your boats construction. Even some older boats have all glass stringers for example. If the stringers are glass and good or wood and good and the deck is glass or glass over wood and good, I am not sure I would be cutting out the whole deck and may just work on the transom. Very good chance however, that it is all wood and bad and you will need to remove the whole deck and everything rotted out under it.
Pull the drive and motor and remove the transom seal and check the edge around the seal. Drill some test holes in the transom from the inside but do not drill into/through the outside glass. Look for water or punky wood in the drill bit. This should tell you the extent of the water/rot damage in the transom. You could do the same with the stringers that the motor mounts attach to if they are wood. You could also drill through the deck for an inspection camera, especially where the stringers attach to the transom. Alternatively you could cut inspection ports which are more destructive but will tell you a lot more. If the deck is glass over wood a large man can tell a fair bit by jumping/walking around on it. Does it move, is it spongy? One of my buddies once unintentionally tested my glass over wood deck by dropping a 20lb lead ball on it from 4 feet up. Luckily, all it did was bounce, did not even crack/mark the glass coating.
Up to this point you will not have spent a dime or all that much time, but you will have much more information.
Last edited:
Wild Bill
Well-Known Member
I'm a mechanic as well and many of my "projects" have been due to the lack of disposable income and ability to learn.
I'm going to guess it has a Ford 302 engine and Merc alpha 1 outdrive, not bad pulling that combo apart compared to a Seized together Volvo. Yeah it's dirty, and materials not that expensive if you use polyester resin.
Going with an outboard and podding it raises the bar as far as expenditure however gives you more floor space in the boat as the biggest benefit on a budget build. Original Engine and outdrive condition would be the deciding factor as well as same regarding outboard price and condition, price of building a pod or having one built etc.
Research exhaust manifolds and risers, cooling systems, fuel tanks and so on.
If the original drive train is decent just fix the wood and go boating!
I'm going to guess it has a Ford 302 engine and Merc alpha 1 outdrive, not bad pulling that combo apart compared to a Seized together Volvo. Yeah it's dirty, and materials not that expensive if you use polyester resin.
Going with an outboard and podding it raises the bar as far as expenditure however gives you more floor space in the boat as the biggest benefit on a budget build. Original Engine and outdrive condition would be the deciding factor as well as same regarding outboard price and condition, price of building a pod or having one built etc.
Research exhaust manifolds and risers, cooling systems, fuel tanks and so on.
If the original drive train is decent just fix the wood and go boating!
stephennicholls531
Active Member
I made the switch from inboard to outboard on a pod because you free up all that square footage that the motor and doghouse take up...and that seized up Volvo-Penta motor and outdrive was way too expensive to rebuild. I don't know if you noticed from the photos, but I also changed out the side windows from the "camper -style" to regular angled windows. That gave me about three feet more of free gunnel space on each side to play fish from. These are all considerations that you're going to be faced with, so plan out what you want to end up with... a comfy family cruiser, or a serious fish killing machine. Cheers - and good luck
Im currently redoing the transom on my 22 foot sangster, almost done. Out came the 302 and leg, replaced the plywood, glasssed over the hole (outboard going on).
About to start building the pod from aluminum this week hopfully.
My advise in short would be get lots of resin, im nearing my 5th 5l of resin&hardner. And probaly see another 2 more jugs.
A fiberglass roller does wounders for mushing out air from the fiberglass..
If you use west systems epoxy get the pumps for it... makes mixing easy... pumps are sized different so one pump of resin is the right ratio for a pump of hardner
About to start building the pod from aluminum this week hopfully.
My advise in short would be get lots of resin, im nearing my 5th 5l of resin&hardner. And probaly see another 2 more jugs.
A fiberglass roller does wounders for mushing out air from the fiberglass..
If you use west systems epoxy get the pumps for it... makes mixing easy... pumps are sized different so one pump of resin is the right ratio for a pump of hardner
casper5280
Crew Member
Did the floor and 2 stringers and rear transom on my 23 Hourston and went though 6
5gal jugs, 6 buckets of chop strand/cabasil, and a **** load of matt and 1708
5gal jugs, 6 buckets of chop strand/cabasil, and a **** load of matt and 1708
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