Re: Couple of questions
Re: Couple of questions
One more reply (and some more typing, I'm long winded lately). I don't see a location in your profile, but there's a shop in MN here that does some similar things.
A friend of mine took his 30 foot trojan to them for a stringer replacement... just one stringer that didn't originally get covered with glass and rotted. He'd already done a replacement of the back cabin wall with PT ply. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to help him a lot with that, so it took a long time and was hard for him to do, and it didn't help that the boat wasn't near his home.
So he was overjoyed to find out this place would do a new stringer for him for under $2000. He had to remove the decking (it was loose boards on a frame with carpet, cabin interior) and some hardware himself to save cash.
They took the boat in March I think, and he told them whenever was fine as long as it was done by the time he wanted to pick it up in the beginning of June.
You can guess what happened. He called them about once a month to check if it was in work and how the schedule looked. They said "haven't started it" the first few times, then "got started, schedule looks good". Then they called him to say it was a lot more money than the estimate. They went on about how they'd have to pull the starboard engine, and redo the motor mount, etc.
The only thing was, the stringer being replaced was the starboard inboard stringer, which isn't under the motor. Hmmm. Okay, after some clarification on what the heck they were supposed to do for him, the original estimate went back to ok, and the repair shop said they'd have no problem getting it done on schedule.
Fast forward to June, with my friend calling regularly to check on progress, and the shop saying it would be ready. He called to pick it up on the agreed day and hour, and they said they were just "finishing up". So off we went in his tow vehicle.
Arriving at the boat, we walked up the temp stairway and smelled styrene... someone was still glassing. Irritating after all the lead time he'd given them, but we were determined not to get too pissed off at the place since we had other places to be.
So we waited a couple hours while they finished their glass work and took a small vacuum inside to start cleaning. We waited until they were mostly done to get in and have a look at the work. Small problem: The new stringer had no weep holes like the old one. No way for water to drain to the bilge once it got on the outboard side of the stringer. Hmm.
We discussed that with the repair shop and they agreed to fix it. The next thing we saw was one guy from the shop walking into the boat with a cordless drill... my friend figured "wow, this sucks, but I don't know how else those holes will get there". So some drill work later, the holes were in place. And not glassed. The repair shop didn't seem to think any waterproofing of the new weep holes was necessary.. it's not like the stringer is going to absorb any water through the freshly cut holes in its bottom, right?
After some argument they agreed to put some resin inside the holes. We still don't know how good a job they did.
An hour later we could finally hook up the boat and start towing, up north another couple hours. My friend put the deck parts and carpet back in place and it looked ok... the deck boards no longer fit quite right though, new ones would be needed to solidify the deck. He did get to that at a later time. Plus a support was missing... a kind of half frame that was supposed to help hold the deck up at the right height. That was a stupid mistake, so he called the repair shop to ask them was was up. They said it was a mistake and they'd make it right. They said they'd send a guy up to the marina to fit and glass in a board (3 hour drive). My friend didn't want to haul it down and back up again.. that was $250 in gas or so.
So that done we put the boat in the water. So far so good. The engines still ran funny at that point, we replaced the carbs later.
First outing with the boat and about six divers on board we hit another snag.... the freshwater system didn't want to work, so no head and no sink water. The switch was tried repeatedly and nothing happened.. after some thought, my friend realized the pump was supposed to run until it pressurized the system.. so it would start on throw of the switch, then once pressurized turn off until the sink or head was run. We didn't even hear that run.
So, up came the deck boards and carpet again, to find the problem: The installer of the new stringer had cut the wiring to the pump. In the middle, where it was convenient to get out of the way. Apparently they took a wire cutters to it and rolled the wire back out of the way, where we didn't notice it while inspecting the work. So no power, no pump, another dumb mistake by the shop.
Fixing that, we at least got the pump to run.. we could hear it. Still no water though. We were familiar with that, this pump needed to be primed, sometimes with a bucket and funnel, before it could push enough pressure to get water to the sink. So we figured no problem, we'd wasted enough time, and we'd deal with it next time.
Next trip we had the same problem, and we decided to prime the pump. Once we made sure it could pump water, we tried to use the sink. No dice.
Turns out the same installer who cut the wire and moved it out of the way also cut the HOSE FOR THE FRESHWATER PUMP and moved it! So when we ran the pump, it was pumping water out of the fresh tank and into the bilge, rather near the new weep holes. We could hear the bilge pump running to get the water out of the boat.
I understand splicing the wiring when you're done, it's only two 14 gauge conductors, but splicing a water hose?
After all this, my friend was less than happy, but since he did technically get the work he wanted done, he didn't want to deal with legal action against the shop, especially since he didn't have a written description of how the work would be done, and getting the boat inspected by another shop would cost nearly what the repairs had cost him due to fuel prices (not that many repair shops around).
So he fixed the remaining problems himself (they never did come up to the marina to glass in the missing part) and used the boat. He took it to another shop for engine work later, but that's another story of bad customer service.
I won't identify this shop except to say they're known around MN for doing the boat restore for the "pimp my boat" promotion at the Minneapolis boat show they did a couple years back.
/threadjack over
Erik
. Anyway , pick-up the boat, cover it up and wait for warm weather. I get to looking at the work and can tell the deck isn't glassed , just raw edges @ bilge. I pull up some of the new carpet and all there is is carpet glue. I called the boat shop and am told that's the way they do it. I tell them that's not what I was told prior to work. He said-She said. Sorry for the long rant,but I need a couple of answers. Assuming they want to make it right(or better) what would be the best for the $ already spent. Would pulling the carpet and epoxying the PT ply be OK. This would leave the underside raw and also the stingers and cross supports which I'm sure weren't encapsulated . Or should I push for them to basically re-do the whole shebang. Thanks for any input.
