Re: fiber-glass transom repair
Your going to need to remove EVERYTHING in your way to do this right.Also you should sure up your hull to make sure it doesn't flex as your working and distort your boat.
I used an angle grinder,with a coarse sandpaper disk to erode the glass and wood away from the inside of the transom.
I started at one side of the transom and slowely worked my way all around the edges of the class until I hit solid wood.then I basically, very carefully, tore out the inside layer of glass exposing the wood.
I then ground and pried the wood away from the outer glass transom skin.
Be very careful doing this.. if you cut through the transom it will make for allot more work!
now when I say "grind" I need to be really adamant about grinding..
grinding is with the flat side of a disk not the thin edge. The thin edge is quicker but can cut through rotten wood and fiber glass like a hot knife through butter!
the key here is to take your time,read everything you can and expect this to take some time out of your summer if you plan on doing a good job! You can honestly expect this to take as long as two weeks or more if you never did this before.
It will all go by fast.. just take it one step at a time and don't lose your head.
Now that you have the wood and old glass removed on the inside of your transom, make a template of the outside of your transom or pattern scribe a template on the inside of your transom. Cut and trim as needed but get a tight as possible fit inside as you can.
Then glass your fool heart out!
Thats it in a nutshell, you'll have to do a little trial and error as you go! read, talk and type till you have enough information to take the first few steps, expect it to be hard but be confident! you can do it!
Fiberglass can be shaped and sanded,also layers added and re sanded till you get the desired shape and strength. Removing the material is the hardest part.
