Dixie Transom Repair

[randlemanboater]

I knew that the transom on my little Dixie fishing boat would need to be replaced in the near future, well about 2 months ago I expedited the inevitable by backing the lower unit of the outboard into a small hill resulting in the sound of a breaking transom.

I thought about a pourable transom repair, but the design of the Dixie didn't seem conducive so I went to cutting out the old rotten wood.

I left a lip at the bottom and on the sides to help hold the new wood in place during the rebuild.

The original transom was one piece of 3/4 plywood from top to bottom and then another 3/4 piece halfway down to a splashwell. I am going back with the same minus the splashwell.

I used cardboard to get close on the shape for the new wood, then trimmed and sanded until it fit nice.

With the new wood just set in place it is very sturdy, after glassing it all back together it should be good as new.

I went around the edges and ground off the gelcoat and roughed up the glass so the new resin will stick.

I practiced clamping the full piece of plywood to the transom today, going to apply resin tomorrow.

 

[tsubaki]

Lookin good!
Thanks for the pictures.
And I love the clamps!

One of our area Lowes actually carries 3/4" marine plywood.

 

[randlemanboater]

Thanks.

Dave made the giant clamps yesterday, the rest are his welding clamps, we used about 1/3 of what he has.

In all my studies, it seems that using non marine plywood is what to use if you are fully encapsulating with resin/glass. The plain plywood will soak in more resin.

 

[phatdaddy]

Nice job. U going with epoxy or poly? When i did the fuel hatch cover, the notched spreader with a thickened epoxy worked great.

When I saw the thread title, I thought u were talking about a couple of big washers. That s usually what a transom rebuild around here is

 

[randlemanboater]

I am using poly, I have had good results with the Bondo Resin I can get at Walmart.

As you can see in the first pic, I had already done a "reinforcement" that worked great until I backed into the hill...I blame the fire ants, they are the reason I was moving the boat without tilting up the motor.

 

[randlemanboater]

Today we mixed up resin and liberally coated the back and sides of the new wood as well as the inside of the transom and clamped it in place. Started clamping from the bottom and squeezed up, got a nice even ooze from the top seam. Pretty confident we will get a good bond between the transom skin and the new wood.

Hard to tell what this is, but the green part is the outside gelcoat of the transom, the wood forward of that is the new wood, looks like a good seal all the way across.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Looks good.

With a flat transom and easy access like that, wood was the way to go. V20s don't have a flat transom.

A little confused about the "marine grade' comment. Looks like you have marine grade there.
Marine grade refers to Exterior(glue) AB grade kiln dried Douglas fir. Douglas fir is denser than pine, which is what most home construction plywood is made of. The AB means that one face is clear of knots or repairs and the remaining layers have all knots repaired. This means there are zero voids in the plywood. Also there are 7 layers vs 5.
Some people mistake the run of the mill green pressure treated plywood for "marine". It is typically BC or CD grade pine.
While you CAN get Marine grade pressure treated AB fir, it is used for bulkheading, docks, Deck under carpet, it would not be used when fiberglassing.

 

[randlemanboater]

You can count on me being confused on things. I always thought "marine grade" meant treated. My mistake.

This plywood was rated BC and was the cheapest thing Lowes had...it is pretty nice looking stuff though, maybe they had it miss labled?

 

[cfelton]

Looks Good! Its a lot of work but you did it right! I did the transom on my V about the same way in 06. I used three pieces of 3/4 inch marine grade plywood , doubled in the center. Instead of clamps I drilled about a dozen holes in the outer skin and pulled the resin and glass coated plywood up tight with heavy wood screws. Worked really well! Reglassed the inside and gelcoated it to match. Removed the screws and glassed over the holes. My neighbor has a body shop, he color matched the gelcoat and sprayed Emron clear over the transom last. Looks like brand new! Haven't had any trouble, solid as a rock.

 

[randlemanboater]

Got the second piece of wood glued in Friday, hoping to finish it up this week...the fish are on fire on one of the local lakes, we caught 15 in a half day last Thursday.

Two at a time...

 

[randlemanboater]

Got the corners tied in with cloth and resin, it looks like air bubbles in the corners but it is just the pictures, got a very solid bond.

 

[randlemanboater]

I got one layer of glass cloth with resin over the inside surface a couple weeks ago before we got the arctic blast...hopefully this next arctic blast won't be as long or cold and we can get back to it and get her finished...the fish are out there getting hungry right now!

 

[cfelton]

That's good eating! Good job on the transom!

 

[randlemanboater]

In never did post the finish of the rebuild, I thought I took some pics of the final steps but cant see them on my phone for some reason but it is done and I have been catching fish out of the old boat. You can sort of see the finished product in a few of these fish pics.

I also bought an extra mount and wires plus a shallow water transducer so I can run one of my Garmin 741XS units from my big boat on the little boat, it is amazing what you can see and catch if you have a quality bottom machine on board...plus when the Garmin is on the Dixie, it doubles the value of the boat.

 

[Destroyer]

Lookin good. Lookin reel good.