New member, new V20 owner

[Cali-V]

A little up-date with some good and some bad.

I pulled the fuel tank, not fun but not as bad as I thought it would be. The worst part was the tank had about 30 gal. of a funky gas and water mix that I had to pump out. The tank is in good shape. Just a cleaning and a new sender and it is good to go. I do not want to re-install it with foam, I was thinking about maybe 4 laminated 3/4" Ply peices running from stringer to stringer and lam'ed to the bottom to support the tank (Cut outs in the center to let water drain). Maybe some 5200 on the supports and 2 2x4's on top to secure it?

Now back to the transom.
I still have not taken the motor/outdrive off. I did drill a few holes to check the thickness and condition of the wood. Most of the wood is dry, even fresh pinkish-yellow, however I did drill a hole just bellow the outdrive seal and the classic "wet soil" came out. I am thinking this could be a good thing because now I am set on complete transom replacement rather than trying to strengthen the weird two piece core from the factory. I am thinking of cutting out the inner skin and old wood and leaving the outer skin. Then building up 4 layers of 1/2" ply/epoxy sandwich, one at a time (to follow the curve) then glassing the inner and tying back into the stringers and patch holes on the outer. A lot of work I know but this would give a nice solid transom to hang the bracket and O/B off of.

Any thoughts?

 

[Cali-V]

Update time.

Nothing too exciting again but I have been getting dirty. After removing the motor and outdrive (and 20 lbs of kitty litter to pull up all the oil I spilled into the bilge while removing the motor ) I started on the transom. I cut away the stringers and the motor mount stringers (P.I.T.A.) then cut through the inner fiberglass and pulled it away. This left the wood mostly intact. Pulling the wood away from the outer glass was difficult until I happen upon a google link of some one doing something similar. I slightly modified the technique and was very happy. I figured I would share in case anyone else is looking for help on pulling wood away from the outside fiberglass skin with out damaging the hull. This is especially helpful if, like mine, most of the transom wood is still solid (I only had a few small patches of rot). I had all ready removed the bulk of the wood and even sanded away a lot of it when I thought to record the process. Here is the removal of the center section.

I cleared away as much of the inner skin as possible by running a 4" angle grinder with a masonry cut off wheel around the perimeter of the wood. I then threaded a large eye bolt into the wood just until it hit the outer skin. I then attached a 2" ratchet strap from the eye bolt to the bow support in the cabin.

I then slowly put tension on the strap. The point here is not to use the strap to pull the wood away but just give a consistent pull while a hammer and wedges do the actual separating. As I was able to drive the wedge further down I would tighten the strap to keep tension.

After getting about 2/3 to 3/4 of the wood separated, the strap can then be used to free up the last bit. I should mention this is much easier on good wood because the eye bolt will pull right out of the rotten stuff. Once this comes off all it needs is some time with the sander to finish the job. I have been using 24 grit disks. Actually pretty easy to do but it is still a miserable job with lots of splinters and cuts.

I should have everything prep'd out to start laying in the new wood and glass by then end of the day tomorrow. Hopefully a new transom by the weekend. The on to item # 3 of 340523980495230 to fix before she is launched.

 

[Destroyer]

Now THAT is a great idea... using a strap like that. Thanks for the tip. I'm sure that there are people here that can/will benefit from it.