18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

[SylvanTroller]

Just bought my first boat and ofcourse she needs some work. I have seen the other threads on transom repair and will use ACX or marine plywood, epoxy and 5200. Has anyone done a transom ona 18.5ft Sylvan Sportsmaster? How difficult is it to disconnect the outboard, steering, etc? I have plenty of experience working on cars but they dont need to float! Planning to lift the kicker off by hand and use a chain fall for the Yamaha 70. Looking to get her done correctly but lose as little fishing time as possible.

 

[hotrod53]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

I replaced my transon on my 1978 16" SeaMaster, not a bad job. Mine was rotted completely, it took me a day and a half chunking that thing out of there. Eventually I could get it hooked under the edge and got the big piece hooked. The biggest problem was that it was swelled in the channel, I used a wonder bar and kept chewing away ai it.

If yours is like mine, you have a channel that it sits in. You have to remove the corner pieces, the edgeing trim and nails, a couple of brackets for steering, and a whole bunch of long bolts with nuts on the inside. Of course after lifting the motor off, my son and I lifted our 50hp off, it was heavy and oppy because of the swiveling transom bracket.

Eliminate the idea of using anything but marine plywood, its way stronger and much more stable, using outdoor plywood is a waste of your valuable time. Bite the bullet and spend the $75 a sheet for the good stuff. I purchased epoxy resin on Ebay, less than $20! Use full strength to glue the two pieces together .. you'll need 3/4" plywood. You can cut the epoxy with alcohol and paint the entire transom with it after it is glued together.

Would I do it again, absolutely. I gutted my entire boat, doing the entire floor was much harder than the transom. If you can, make a plate to fit between your motor screw clamps and the nice new transom so you don't dig into it. They sell these plates but a friend made mine out of 1/4" plate. Also, plan to paint over the epoxy in the splashwell and not leave it natural, it will eventually begin to darken. When you unscrew the splashwell screws, and there are a ton of them, don't be suprised when the splashwell pulls away a little, it will go back in place with the screws when you're done.

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

Thanks HotRod your floors look like they turned out great. I am gonna get started tonite or tomorrow, a day and a half is encouraging. The previous owner did the floors but I am planning to re do those and most everything else, after the season ends and the snow is flying. The previous owner noticed some deflection in the transom and re-enforced it with 2x6 and plate aluminum!?! Probably was more work doing the re-enforcement than it would have been to do the transom. This will add to the number of fasteners I will have to remove! Going to take the family out for a slow troll and enjoy the day and get to work tonite. I will get some pictures up and keep updating. Thanks

 

[hotrod53]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

I'm anxious to see your progress. If I were to do it all over again, I would have used marine plywood on the floor too. Marine plywood is SO much more rigid and stable due to the extra plys, yet you pay for it in $$ and weight. My floors were 1/2" CDX when I pulled them up, the fishing deck was 5/8", that's what I put back down. I purchased 2 part fiberglass resin and coated everything and sealed the edges and the joints with fiberglass coating for the floor, epoxy for the transom. I hope that it will last a while. The CDX I noticed has a slight flex that marine would not have had. I had a hard time finding fasteners, fortunately a local industrial supply was able to get me what I needed .... there were a lot of them!

Finished product before the rear fishing seat:

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild



Some Progress today. Took off the Yamaha 70HP and 9.9hp kicker. Removed a great many screws, still many to go. Got the caps off, and the transom is water logged and falling to pieces. Attached a pic of the boat and one of the rot, will keep chipping away at it as time allows. So far so good, cant wait to see how it handles in the water when the back end is solid!

 

[hotrod53]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

Yep, you're a little beyond needing the transom replaced ... LOL. You're going to have to chunk it out a piece at a time like I did. Mine was more sopping wet, yours at least looks dry. I chunked out one edge until I could get access to the bottom channel that the transom sits in and eventually could get under the edge and lift it all up and out with the wonder bar. You'll spend a lot of time getting tiny pieces out until you get to the bottom.

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

Ok- Just a quick update, old transom out. New Transom constructed. laminated together and one coat of epoxy applied, next step repeat coatings and start the rebuild. Will post some pics when i have more time. Thanks to my uncle who gave up his labor day to help, supplied the epoxy, 5200, and extra seat for the boat and other stuff.

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

New transom is in, mounted the motor and kicker plate, fixed the splashwell where it had cracked and special thanks to my buddy who fashioned new cap, plates and a backing plate for the kicker. Ruined a shirt and pants as I used 5200 on every fastener from out to in and in to out (yep thats all of them), then proceeded to drag my shirt across them. Decided that after the amount of work I put in even Poseidon wouldn't be pissed if I peeled off the old name (I am still a little skeptical about putting a new name on, however). Still have to hook up the controls, electrical, mount the batteries, gas tanks, and clean up. BTW 5200 takes forever +7days to cure and forever +48hours to not be tacky, but if it keeps my boat dry on the inside I'll be extactic.

 

[hotrod53]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

sounds like good progress, looking forward to the pics.

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

Splashed her on Saturday, what a difference. I attached a piic of the old transom and will have to upload pics of the finished product. Now I need to get some fishingin and clear out my garage as the winter will bring new floors and carpet!

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

Been a little bit since I have been on here. I will get those "new transom" pics up. Also the floors are coming out in smaller pieces than the transom, the PO did me a solid and used hollow wall anchors to attach a "new floor" over the old rotted floor. Fun times getting that apart and out. Pics to come.

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

Some pics during the floor removal. Cant seem to locate the transom pics. Will keep em coming as I go along.

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

Its coming apart. I have removed the consoles, and will pull out the bow seats/compartments then the remainder of the floor. The foam doesnt appear to be waterlogged (at least most of it) i read on here about core sampling with a pipe and will get on that. Here is a pic with the consoles out and one I snapped of the inside of the new transom.

 

[Streetgang]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

Dude,

breathe a bit, u are not going out on the big or little lake soon, eh, it is the end of the year

so many folks have done the same job u r doing I suggest take a moment or 2 and do some "searching" on any topic you want...it is all here..... so much history, experience, knowledge just for a few moment of searching

...just sayin

 

[SylvanTroller]

Re: 18.5 Sylvan Sportsmaster Transom Rebuild

Homie-

Thanks for the post I am sure it was well intentioned but it doesn't necessarily read that way, hopefully you can get a laugh out of the following;

Thanks for the head check, although I occasionally have time to work on the boat in my garage and get it ready for spring I will slow myself down. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Thanks for the motivational statements. After all I did not realize the wealth of knowledge on this forum so I joined really thinking "i was bringing something to the table" (sarcasm).

There is not that much info on the specific make and model I have so I figured I would share my experience for the next newbee like myself. It may only take him a year or two to realize that a Starcraft is pretty much the same boat or that most aluminum boats are essentially the same and are thusly repaired in the same manner. But if that guy cant figure it out more water for us and likely more fish in it!