Need help quick marine plywood

[johnny be good]

Sorry for the title but after reading all the info I could on replacing my transom on a 28' Chapperall 350 Merc. Alpha1 I need to start laminating soon. I read where for transom work a good quality exterior glue ply would be OK if I coat it good with resin before laminating to exterior shell. I hate to sound cheap but they want $90.00 a sheet for marine ply and I need 2. I think the marine grade is when you need a good finish ply. Also it seems to be 50/50 on epoxy over poly so I think I will go poly and use more since its a little more reasonable. I was very lucky the transom never cracked, it was exterior shell, 2 inches of wet sawdust then interior shell, made for easy demo. I will post pics of project soon. Allways check your transom for softness. Thanks for all the help to get me this far doing well. John

 

[109jb]

Re: Need help quick marine plywood

I have done complete floor and transom replacements in 2 boats, one aluminum and one fiberglass. Not one square inch of marine ply was used in either. On the Aluminum boat I laminated the ply for the transom using epoxy because I happened to have epoxy from another project. On the glass boat I used poly. Either way is fine IMO.

 

[tallcanadian]

Re: Need help quick marine plywood

You can go with an outdoor grade plywood. Also you can use PL Premium to bond two pieces of plywood together. I wouldn't just adhere the plywood to the transom. Go with fiberglass and resin, either polyester or epoxy. Good Luck.

 

[johnny be good]

Re: Need help quick marine plywood

Thanks guys just what I wanted to hear I'll start the process tommorow. I tried to post pics. hope it works I have an old camera it still takes 3-1/2" floppies. First pic. is an exploritory hole exposing water soaked wood. then half removed, then all removed, one pic. shows the covenient hole for the trash wood to go out and last is my rig for moving the engine forward. The 4x4 is solid oak and I only had to lift the engine 1 " to move it foward or I would have never used a cable come-a-long. Had no way to remove engine completly but I have plenty of room to work. I am waiting for some rain because I think the water is comming in from the engine vents on top because the wood is soaked all the way at the top. I am not fixing anything till I check for leaks from the top. The boat hasen't been in the water for 6 mos. and it is soaked. Will send more pics. as I go

 

[johnny be good]

Re: Need help quick marine plywood

One more picture. Though someone might want to see the boat I am working on. It is a 1988 Chapperall 28.7'