Re: 1984 Skeeter Champ 16' Restore
Dang, how do you guys make fiberglassing look so easy?!?! This should be a pretty funny story and worth the read. I apologize for the length. The new transom is in the boat (barely), but first some preliminary:
I mentioned yesterday that I spent quite a few hours chipping out resin from the keel. Here are some better pictures of what I was looking at. In this picture (excuse the finger over the camera), you can see where I have been chipping away. You can also see the remnants of the "hidden" stringer that was capped off. The existing stringer stopped right around where the shade/sun line is at. It's hard to see, but this hidden stringer is dead center in the keel but the existing stringer was lined up just to the right of the center line. I really think that at some point in time, somebody had replaced the stringers (but did a half-azzed job).
This is the stuff that has been coming out of the keel. I'm fairly certain it is plain resin, but either way it's been a real PITA to remove.
Now on to the transom. I didn't particularly feel like messing with the keel and cleaning out the rest of the hull so I decided to go ahead and put in the transom. I had to run in to Lowes to pick up some 2x4's and some nuts/bolts so that I could make the infamous transom clamps. I also finished up shaping the transom for the best fit as possible. At this point, everything is looking pretty good...
... but then things went South in a hurry! I initially took my time and tried to make sure I had everything in order and at hand. I had a bucket of acetone, extra gloves, scissors, my brushes, squeegees, and roller. The setup was perfect (or so I thought). I laid out the new transom and cut two pieces of CSM. Here is where the problems started.
When I cut the CSM, I cut it with a little extra on all sides thinking I would just fold it over. I didn't have a second thought about it. After cutting the two pieces, I set them aside and mixed up about 20oz of resin and began coating the wood. No problems here! I let it sit for a few minutes and then put the first piece of CSM on it. I mixed up another 16oz of resin, wet it out, and rolled it smooth. At this point I thought everything was going smoothly...
I let everything set up for a while and then flipped the transom over to start on the other side. I took the same approach; soaked the wood, laid out the CSM... oh crap! I now had CSM overhang on BOTH sides of the transom. Folding it over was out of the question now. No problem, I thought. I would just cut it off after it has set up a bit.
I let everything set up for a while again and said "oh crap" again! I had flipped the transom and the semi-cured side was directly on top of my table saw. Afraid it was going to cure and be forever stuck on my table saw, I started to scramble trying to think of where I could stand it up. If things were already bad, they were soon going to be worse!
I rigged up a couple of posts to lean the transom up against and put some wax paper around it so that it wouldn't stick to the posts. I went to pick up the transom... and fibers started sliding everywhere. I had to kind of squeeze it between my forearms (which meant resin all down my arms!). Then, as I started to set the transom down, I remembered all of the extra overhang CSM. CRAP! I was already committed at this point and just sat it down and told myself I would fix it later.
After I had sat the transom down, my gloves stuck and pulled up fibers. I grabbed my roller and tried to lay them back down as best I could. I then rushed off the get some acetone on my arms before the resin cured on my arms. I also decided to go ahead and eat dinner.
After dinner, I went out to assess the damage. I ended up with some bubbles around the edges, but the for the most part the transom was ok. I let it cure up the rest of the way and then put it back on the table to try and take care of the edges. I cut off all the excess CSM and as much of the bubbles/delamination as possible. I ended up with about a 1/2" edge around the visible side of the transom that had no glass (luckily, the contact side with the hull was 100% covered!). The wood was still soaked with resin so I'm hoping I can get by with the tabbing (let me know if you think otherwise, please!).
Ok, so with that major headache over, I mixed up 32oz of resin and mixed in enough cabosil to make PB (not sure how much cabosil it took; I used a plastic spoon and just added 4 scoops at a time until it was right). I slopped it down, pressed in the transom, and installed the clamps until it just started to ooze out. I was going to use the excess to make the fillets, but there just wasn't enough to it (I should have mixed at least 40oz, but that's hindsight).
And that is where I stand. Darkness was falling, so no pictures of how it looks, but I'll get pictures of the mess tomorrow. We have baseball and softball games tomorrow, so it looks like no boat work will be done tomorrow. I still need to fillet the transom, tab it to the hull, and lay the 1708, but for now I think it's looking alright. It's not perfect like you pros always show it, but it's in there. WHEW!
