16' Fiberglass "Model Unknown"

Hey guys I’m back with a new boat. The 12' Aerocraft is fixed and water worthy, I have just been really busy. This is a boat and trailer combo I picked up for cheap. I was only looking for a trailer when I came across this combo for DIRT CHEAP, so I had to jump on it because after taking the 12' out I had realized that it was WAY too small for what I wanted to do with it. Anyway this boat and trailer do need some TLC but they are now mine so TLC they will get. It was last registered in 95' so that says a lot.
The owner had either put his dog's **** in it after picking it up out of his yard or the dog jumped up there and literally took "SHITS" in it, disgusting right!?!? It was a full plastic grocery bag if that says anything. Anyway after I got it cleaned out I looked at it for a while and thought about what to do with it. So many things ran through my head of what to do. It is 54" at the base of the hull so it is nice and wide and will be sturdy on the water. There is one thing that I will need some advice about. The transom has cracked, I will attach pictures of both sides, and the prior owner gave me fiberglass and the resin used to patch it so that is a plus. Please give me some advice on this one. I was thinking of wrapping it and then after it feels sturdy bolting an inner and outer transom cut from OSB or treated plywood. Let me know what you think and if anyone has come across a problem and fixed with a solution that worked... even better. Thanks guys.
So here are a few on the profile of the boat... It was propped up because I had just cleaned it and was letting it drain.


Here are the tires on the trailer dry rotted and nasty they will need to be replaced, also the grease around the first picture is because there was not a cap on the bearing so I replace to be safe? Let me know.


Here is a top shot of the boat from front and rear.


Here is the hitch and wench, I will probably replace both because of rust and age.


Here is a crack in the fiberglass in the middle of the hull. It is not a structure crack so I assume a small patch will fix it.

Here is the transom from a distance and the two cracks that I was talking about.

Left side of transom...


Right side of transom...


Thanks again for checking it out. Let me know of any advice anyone wants to give on the bearings and the hull crack and transom cracks.

Oh also if anyone knows about the block pedestals in the middle of the hull. I think there is foam in them as floatation. If anyone has ever seen them like that and has any advice on possibly taking them out so I can deck the boat low in the middle. Thanks...

You might want to take a couple of "core samples" of the wood inside the transom, if the top is busted like that, there has probably been water infiltration into the wood.

Oh my, from what limited amount I can see from the pictures, that's a mess. It really looks like it was patched by someone who only had half an idea of how to 'glass.

My suggestion?

1. Take the transom apart and remove the wood core.

2. Grind off the piss poor patch job someone did on the fiberglass.

3. Grind out the cracks. Just clean them out, don't make them much larger. You want it rough and jagged inside the crack. If there's fibers and what looks like ripped fiberglass, leave it in there. if it overlaps and touches, even better. The resin will rebond it and the fibers will add strength to the repair. If there's any body fill in the crack, you want that gone....

4. Line the pieces up and brace them like that

5. Fiberglass resin and mat the cracks with pieces just a bit bigger than the crack. You're looking to fill the crack with resin and mat on the first go and bond the two sides of the crack. I'll usually first wet the cracked area and then push some small, loosely torn pieces of fiber into the resin and then add the strip. The idea is you want fibers in the resin to give it strength. It's kind of hard to describe, but makes sense when you see it. The more random the individual fiber bits orientation are, the better. More directions means more load paths which means more strength.

6. Now reinforce the crack front and rear with 1-2 layers of mat and resin. Make the first piece slightly bigger then the crack, the second piece slightly larger than the first piece. You're looking to reinforce the damaged area and blend the repair to the level of the original transom. Make sure you rough up the smooth surfaces you're going to lay up over with something like and 80 grit to give it good tooth to grab. I usually lay the first piece and then bed the second piece in while the resin is still wet. Be careful not to try and work to big of an area at once. If the resin kicks off while you're laying it up, you're hooped. I usually drill holes though a damaged piece on either side of the crack to bond the front and rear pieces to each other for more strength, but I don't recommend doing that unless you're somewhat experienced with fiberglassing.

7. Sand it down to blend the edges, add a little filler if you want it to look nice also. You're just trying to make it look nice here, not remove much of the thickness. If you did the figerglass layup properly, they're shouldn't be a great deal of thickness added. Some, but not much.

8. Reinstall or replace the transom wood.

Darned near good as new by then and will take an outboard like a new transom.

I prefer fiberglass mat to fiberglass cloth for all my repairs. It can be made to lay flatter and is more versatile. The only places I use cloth is when I'm building something in a mold. Then, the cloth gives a very strong piece since it's what would be termed "parent material"....

Thanks for the information guys. I have never fiber glassed anything before, but I like to think of myself as a "handy" individual with some good common sense. I am also a visual learner so I like to watch people repair something, like this, in real time so I know what I will be in for. Also the posts and suggestions make the job easier. Great White that's great information. I will use this, most likely to a T, once I am ready to repair it. Here I am thinking I stole the boat from the seller..... Then I read your post and talk about a slouch in my chair lol. It will just take some hard work and time to make it mine is all. I will definitely keep you up to date on the repairs. I will watch a few videos on youtube to get an idea of how to glass. I tend to watch "how to" videos over and over until I know "how to" step by step without thinking about it. Thanks again guys and I will update with pictures when I start the repair. Any suggestions on how to open it up? Should I cut the whole top of the transom off? A any suggestions on how to reinforce, the cracked areas, once I repair it per say with wood, or aluminum at the joints to prevent the same thing happening. I will have a short shaft 25hp Evinrude and a Bass Pro Shop Prowler 55lb thrust trolling motor. I guess what I am getting at is the weight. I don't want it to crack again like it did before so would it be better to reinforce it with another material?

Nope, no other reinforcing is needed if the glass work is done properly.

I would check to make sure you have good quality resin and mat/cloth too. The stuff you get at the auto parts store will do for some jobs, but repairing a critical piece, like a transom, I would get the good stuff. U. S. Composites has everything you need (except maybe the wood and hardware) to do a transom repair like that.

Okay great! Thanks Wings I will have to look them up. Also about the transom, it seems as if the wood in the transom is only about 10 to 12 inches wide. Should I cut the whole transom off and replace it with a full piece of wood and glass it is? I want it as strong as possible but I also don't want to do unnecessary work, or to over do it. I will be weighing the boat down once finished with decking and the whole nine yards so I don't want to have to much weight if you know what I mean. Thanks. Also I was fishing on the shore of the pond I live on last night at dusk with a top water frog and caught this little lunker. Sad enough this is the biggest fish that I have caught out of the pond, but I know there are bigger large mouth in there because the owner said he has caught 6 and 8 pounders. We will see this summer. :lol:

Action762 said:

Okay great! Thanks Wings I will have to look them up. Also about the transom, it seems as if the wood in the transom is only about 10 to 12 inches wide. Should I cut the whole transom off and replace it with a full piece of wood and glass it is? I want it as strong as possible but I also don't want to do unnecessary work, or to over do it. I will be weighing the boat down once finished with decking and the whole nine yards so I don't want to have to much weight if you know what I mean. Thanks. Also I was fishing on the shore of the pond I live on last night at dusk with a top water frog and caught this little lunker. Sad enough this is the biggest fish that I have caught out of the pond, but I know there are bigger large mouth in there because the owner said he has caught 6 and 8 pounders. We will see this summer. :lol:

Click to expand...

Repair would be better than replace in your case...

Okay thanks Great White will do. So Today just when I wrote that last post it started to rain a little. So as it let up I thought why not try my luck and try to catch another nice fish from the same lily patch I caught the one in the pic last night.... So I did... and it weighed in at 6lbs 5oz. Really a nice fish!!! Sorry nothing about a boat but 99% of the people on this site are avid fisherman so yall can definitely appreciate this fish :lol:

Okay so here are some pictures of what I did today. It was a lot for such a little amount of time today but I ran out of sunlight and tools. I was using a grinding wheel to cut into the fiberglass to open the transom cap. I also went to get a second opinion of how to go about opening the transom at a local marina repair shop today. He told me pretty much the same advice that was given to me here and a little more. As I started to open the top of the transom I could smell the wet rotten wood that was inside. From top to bottom it is rotten and soggy. You will see... just horrible. It is going to be a little more of a time consumer than I thought but it is what it is. This is what I wanted to do so it will be done okay on with the pics right lol...
Okay so this was a little goof on my part. I took a chisel to get the wood supports from the old seats off that were "partially" glassed on and put about a dime size hole on the right side of the boat right at water level. Oops.
Inside

Outside

Okay so these next few are the outline of the area that I wanted to cut. It was an inch from the top of the transom. It was the same outline on the inside.



So I made the cuts, both inside and out. After the cuts were made it was loose and I lifted it up to take a peek... YIKES... to say the least!!!



The next few pics is when I pulled off the cap to the transom, this is what was under it... :shock: shitty glass job and in the middle it looks like he poured the glass resin down in there to "reinforce" it... billy job :?





This was the eye bolt that was on there holding the plugs for the bilge holes ... I pulled on it and turned it a few times and it pulled right out. Its not hard to believe why its so jacked up.

So once I pulled the cap off and inspected it I found that it was going to be much harder to dig out the bad wood so I made the decision to cut the whole transom, on the inside, out. I know that sounds like I cut the whole transom off but the pictures will make it make sense. So this is the inside "thicker" part of the transom. The wood went all the way to the bottom of the hull but there was a part of the top that was thicker than the bottom, I guess it was put in after, *cough* half assed *cough*, to reinforce the crack. But it was only one layer of glass and it was NOT done properly!! So I will have to go back and get new wood and make it right! Much more work than I had planned on but I will be able to get it done before summer is over!


If this next pic says anything about how rotten this wood is and what a bad job was done to "reinforce" the transom, that is the fiberglass...... :shock: REALLY lol it bends like a piece of paper...

So as you can see from the background this is where I ran out of light. It was about 7:30pm here and I broke my last grinding wheel. I went to ACE Hardware to get another grinding wheel and they were closed. So I will have to finish it up tomorrow. I was thinking about not covering it up because you cant really make this worse. But there is a chance for Tstorms tonight and Id rather not fight with even more wet and sloppy trash!


Ok so that is all I got done for tonight. Let me know what you think of my work so far. Tomorrow I will be cutting the left side, as shown, the same as the right, clearing out the rotten wood and prepping the area for new wood and glass and make the measurements for the wood so I can get the materials. I will also be cutting the 3 flotation block out tomorrow and smoothing the area so I can lay flat foam to cover for the blocks being cut out. Let me know what you think. Also any advise on the wood to use for the transom? The gentleman I spoke with today said there is an actual "transom wood" butt is pricy as hell. I am trying to make the best material buy at a cheapest cost so Lowes or Menards is where I will be getting the wood and gluing them together and actually REINFORCING it the correct way. Anyway let me know what you think so far. Those who take a look let me know what kind of fiberglass mat I should use as well because I do not know, and what kind of resin. Thanks yall.

Hay Action, nice boat you picked up there. Too bad about the transom but it looks like you will be able to handle it. I just wanted to say about you wheel bearings is that those are buddy bearings and you only lost the rubber cover on that one hub. I have seen a lot of boat trailers run without them. But to be on the safe side I would remove the bearings and inspect them. Determine if they are still good or not. Replace or repack and go on down the road. I think when the buddy bearing first came out that they did not have the rubber covers on them.

Hey I just wanted to say good job on the removal so far.....To me glass is easy to work with.....great white gave you some good advise. One thing I will add is, when you get ready to rebuild the transom I highly recommend clegecell instead of wood....or a combination of both. The clegecell is a very light weight material and when you add glass to it It becomes very strong. If you choose to use wood make sure its marine grade. There are all kinds of way to do the glass work.....if you want a glass finish you really need to do it in layers and sand in between then follow up with gel-coat for a smooth finish. Make sure your working within the limits of the products you choose, and measure exactly the proportions of the product. Good luck with your project.

Thanks Bigwave, you know I can count on your advice. I have read your post on others threads and its always good. I will have to look into the clegecell and see what my options are. Price is the biggest set back right now because the money is not a problem its convincing my wife to let me buy it... **** those wives #-o lol. Thanks Brazos I looked at them. the right side had the cover still. It is on my agenda of things to do once its time to work on the trailer. We had no problems trailering it 120 miles home and they were not even the slightest bit hot. But yes thanks I looked into them and I will either replace or repack but I may need your advice when I get there so keep a close eye on my project. Thanks again guys make sure to look tonight I will post some more pics with the progress for today.

So I had every intention of working on the boat today but my wife had a different plan for me. So tomorrow is another day and is supposed to be in the 80s like today was. I will post some pictures tomorrow night of the progress.

Hey guys, so yesterday was very productive to say the least. The wife was at work and I got pretty much everything I wanted to get done, done. I don't know if I was using to much pressure or if I was just buying cheap grinding wheels but they continued to break at the center were the arbor tightened down so I probably spent 60 bucks on just grinding wheels yesterday, but not a great big deal just pissed about using so many. Anyway yesterday I took out the center floatation blocks and grinded the rest of the transom and pulled the wood out, "MOST", of the wood. I stopped because it took all day really to get the wood out. It was a bit tedious to say the least because I did it all with a small chisel and a long screwdriver and a hammer. Anyway here are the pictures.
This is a long shot of the boat from the from showing the full work done...

This is a close up of where one of the floatation blocks sat...

This is a full shot of the transom, right side and left...



These next few pictures are showing the wood that I was unable to remove... if anyone has any advice or a better way to get it out of there PLEASE :shock: tell me because my way was not working at all!!! #-o



With the wood I tried to get it out by cutting it with a sawsaw... NOT A GOOD WAY btw lol, and like I said a chisel and a screwdriver basically taking the hammer and hitting the "sd" and chisel down and pulling away, or in the direction to the front of the boat and pulling all the wood out. It worked great for the large chunks of wood. Once I got to the small areas it was hell and again very tedious!! Thanks for looking. I also washed it out yesterday. I swept the chunks of wood and fiberglass up and sprayed it out with a hose. I woke up this morning and it was 55 degrees out, so I probably wont work on it today but any advice on how to get the remaining wood out would be great!! Thanks for taking a look talk to yall later. Oh I will go outside and take a pic of the "clean" boat lol so you can kind of see the end result from yesterday.

Okay so here is the pic I promised. Ill post one before with the blocks and one after so you can kind of see the before and after so far. Sorry I know it is a little soon for "before and after" pics but I am very proud of my work. I used to be VERY hand guy... ie being a carpenter and building houses... but when I joined the Army and got into law enforcement on the civilian side I kind of lost that "handy" guy side. So I love doing this to know that I am still that guy. Cheesy I know but what can I say... Talk to you guys later and please [-o< any advice for removing that wood would be great!!! Thanks yall.
Okay so I didn't have one identical to the last but this is close enough you get the idea. the transom is right at the bottom of the picture.

And here is the latest pic. I know it doesn't look "clean" because the chips of pain and what not but it is lol. Thanks again for looking guys.

You can use a wire cup brush for the remaining wood....It should make quick work of the hard to get stuff.....wear full eye and skin protection.

HAHA again with your reputation of good advice bigwave. You know its funny I had bought one yesterday, both wheel and cup style, in order to strip the trailer. Thanks bigwave, if Florida was not so far away id buy you a beer but it is. The offer always stands if you are ever in my neck of the woods. Thanks again and talk to you soon.

I cant take credit for all the advise I give, but I will tell ya that most of the stuff I learned was from good guys and gals on this site. Keep plugging away and you will be happy with the end result.