Transom Repair or Replacement

[Lowejumbo14]

I recently purchased a Lowe 14 foot "Jumbo" Semi-V boat. It has deep sidewalls and is about 46 inches wide-so it is very stable. It some point in it's life the P.O. cut down the 20" transom to about 16" and fitted a crude cap on it. When I took the cap off, I found the majority of transom wood to be solid on the right and center sides, but had delaminated on the left side under the production installed cap. It does not appear to be rotten-just delaminated.
Instead of replacing the transom, which would require the removal of a shelf that runs the width of the stern and removal of a million large rivets, I have purchased a supply of penetrating epoxy and syringes to inject it in the side wall and other areas. I plan to lift the boat onto it's left side so that the penetrating epoxy can be pulled into the wood using gravity.

Am I wasting my time. Should I just bite the bullet and replace the transom wood even if I have to remove and replace a zillion rivets?

Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[DaleH]

Without pictures ... that could work. Even take a long electrical drill bit of 1/16" or so and drill some holes down into the wood so the epoxy can penetrate. Another tip, 'warm' the wood with a hair dryer or heat gun (on low!) and get the wood good & warm - not hot. Then mix the epoxy and inject, as when the wood cools it draws air into its pores so it will help suck the epoxy in. Do NOT heat the epoxy ...

I'd also seal the top of the wood really well too.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

You can drill a series of 1/4" holes near the bottom of the transom wood and check the condition of the wood that comes out. Dry light colored is good, Wet dark colored bad.

 

[nccatfisher]

I would agree with checking well. I have never gone into a transom that was better than I thought. Most were always worse. There is nothing worse then putting forth the effort of fixing one and think you have only to find out you didn't and more damage was done.

I do metal fabrication and more of it is aluminum than anything. Of half of it will be in the transom area and much of it was either because someone ran a boat with the wood completely deteriorated and it cause structural damage to the aluminum. Or they did poorly engineered external patches and caused damage to the wood.

 

[CedarRiverScooter]

How about a picture so we can advise better?