1988 Sea Nymph GLS175 50 H.P Mariner

[ChainBoater78]

I have had the boat for about a year and a half now. When we bought the boat I knew there would be some little problems like leaky rivets and stuff along those lines that come with an aluminum boat. We used it all last year and it did great. a few issues here and there but nothing I couldn't work through and live with for now. One issue that really bothered my was the steering and shift cables were very stiff. Last week I decided to pull those off and see of I could free them up or replace them... There begins the journey.... The steering cable was froze in the tilt tube so in the process of trying to remove the cable i ended up having to remove the whole tube to free the steering cable. In the process of replacing the tilt tube I noticed a little play in the motor. Checked for loose mounting bolts..Nope good. then I started to get that sinking feeling.. So Friday I decided to lift the motor off and check the transom... Well Its a pile of mulch so I have decided to gut the whole boat and start fresh from the ground up. A buddy of mine insists that I can just get a sheet of aluminum to mount to the inside of the splash well and put the outboard back on and go fishing LOL. I do have some pictures of the transom and the before pictures and such but can not seem to upload them keeps telling me invalid file data any thoughts on this. Thanks guys I look forward to being part of the I boats community and having you along for my first restoration journey.

 

[Bondo]

I do have some pictures of the transom and the before pictures and such but can not seem to upload them keeps telling me invalid file data any thoughts on this.

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,... The easiest way I've found is to resize 'em to 640x 480, 'n post 'em on a photo hostin' site, such as photobucket, then link 'em back here to yer thread,....

 

[fishin98]

Sounds like you have a nice PROJECT BOAT....FISHIN season is almost here....I use TinyPic to post pictures, works fine for me.

 

[ChainBoater78]

Well not sure this worked like it was supposed to, but here are the pictures of the transom and my son helping build the motor stand

 

[ChainBoater78]

I Think I may have figured this posting picture thing out if this works I will upload the rest here sometime this afternoon.

 

[ChainBoater78]

Here are some more pictures of the transom and building the stand

 

[ChainBoater78]

The Plan for this afternoon is to get the rest of the controls disconnected and out of the boat and hopefully get most of the splash well removed.

 

[Frey0357]

Hello ChainBoater....nice boat ya got there! I too have a Sea Nymph that was in need of a "do-over". My transom was the same - Mulch! In fact I removed mine with a vacuum, and then poured it out into the wife's flower bed! Feel free to ask any questions that you want, there are a lot of great, very knowledgeable folks here to help!

When you open photobucket you can double click the photo, and when the photo becomes large left click on the image and "copy" it, then "paste" by right clicking in the post you want and you will find that the photo remains large and easy to see. like this:

That was my transom when I removed the only solid piece at the very top!

Now looks like this:

***You will want to check that spray foam that was used from the factory! You will likely find that it is waterlogged, the two things go hand in hand! When checking the foam, make sure to go all the way to the bottom of the foam block, that is where the water will sit.....mine was soaked!

Good luck and reach out for any help and questions you may have....

Frey

 

[Watermann]

:welcome: to the wonderful word of tin boat restoration Chainboater, it was a smart decision to do a complete job on the old SN. When you get a chance post up an overall pic of the boat.

 

[ChainBoater78]

Frey - What Did use to make the exact two inch's width? I am thinking a 1/2" sandwiched between two 3/4" Also my transom cap is trashed any suggestions on that one?

Watermann - I will get out there this afternoon and uncover her and get some complete pictures and post them up here .

 

[Frey0357]

Frey - What Did use to make the exact two inch's width? I am thinking a 1/2" sandwiched between two 3/4" Also my transom cap is trashed any suggestions on that one?

Watermann - I will get out there this afternoon and uncover her and get some complete pictures and post them up here .

Chain Boater: You are right on with your thoughts! 1/2" sandwiched between 3/4" Plywood, well sealed. Mine is actually 1.5" which consisted of (2) 3/4" boards. I would have liked to upgrade to the more "beefy" 2" but the aluminum envelope is sits in allows for the exact size of 1.5". Redesigning the aluminum would not provide a huge gain, for my boat.

Good luck, keep in touch and keep the pics comin'! Fishing season is right around the corner!!!!

Frey

 

[ChainBoater78]

Well I didn't get much done Got some of the foam from the port side transom area chipped out and got the starboard Transom area plate off But I did get some pictures and I had lots of help.

And Finally the infamous autoblender that will not be making an encore appearance in the upgraded SeaNymph

 

[Watermann]

Super nice SN you got there CB! Awesome to see the mates getting into the action too :thumb:

 

[ChainBoater78]

Awesome to see the mates getting into the action too :thumb:

Yeah I Love having them outside helping me but man it takes so much longer to do even the smallest things lol but the extra time is worth it a 1000 times over. I haven't had a ton of time to work on her the past couple days I did get out yesterday for about 15 minutes chipping some more foam before the wind kicked up and I had to chase foam chunks all over the yard :facepalm:. I have been using a drywall saw and an demo bar and the stuff seems to be coming out fairly easy, but I have been thinking would one of those Muti-tool type things be any good on something like this or at the very least the smaller areas and as I get closer to the shell. I plan on getting a 12v drill by Milwaukee to use for the surface prep kinda like a die grinder and they also make a 12v Multi tool so i figured if it work work decent I would grab one. Any thoughts on this??

 

[Frey0357]

ChainBoater: Good progress! I had "helpers" also with my foam removal, it was great working with them!

As for foam removal the drywall saw you mentioned is the same saw that I used to cut the foam into blocks or squares, and then I simply used a small kids spade shovel to dig under the foam an "pop" it out of place, that really worked well and made good use of my time. Keep at it and keep inspecting as you go... you might find things that you did not realize were there, like cracks and poorly seated rivets. I found several in my boat...

Keep at it, a little each day or two will add up and before you know it you are putting it all back together!

Frey

 

[ChainBoater78]

Keep at it and keep inspecting as you go... you might find things that you did not realize were there

I already found one thing that made me pucker a bit the transom around the tow rings was completely rotten as well, and I was pulling the kids and the tube last year like that.

 

[ChainBoater78]

Well it's been real windy and nasty the last couple days. I haven't even touched the ole SN. Yesterday was nice but I decided I need to do something to organize the little side garage I have to work out of it is 14x12 and not a lot of room to move around so I am going to take the rest of the week and reorganize all that so I can at least get half the boat in and work on her if it is nasty out.

 

[ChainBoater78]

Well It's been a long few months here. kids out for summer wife decided to go back to school full time to get her bachelors. Attempting to start my own business, and all the other day to day crap that comes with this adult thing we couldn't wait to get to when we were younger. I haven't even touched the ole gal since my last post until last evening. I got all the foam cut out of the voids on either side of the splash well, and today I will get the rest of the back end tore down and decide where I want to go from there. do I replace the transom at that point then move on or do I gut the whole thing first then replace everything all at once that needs it, thoughts, suggestions? here are a few pics of the voids, definitely had some water getting in there but foam was surprisingly dry.

 

[Watermann]

Yeah sometimes a little break from the project is good if you have a couple boats already that is. :lol:

I strip the boats clean, inspect, repair and rebuild.

 

[ChainBoater78]

Alright I got the rest of the transom out and cleaned up. I found quite a bit of pitting where that rotten wood sat for so long, so I'm not sure what to do about that. I kinda have mixed thoughts. should I just coat it real good with caulk or 5200 or similar then but the wood against that or should I get a new sheet and put another layer in before the wood. Maybe some thin foam like a sill seal between wood and metal as well? Today I will be getting the seats windshields and consoles out and hopefully get the carpet out before garbage day tomorrow.It also appears that there is a thin sheet of metal underneath the wood for the floor is this common or what am I looking at? Thanks for reading and for any suggestions tips and or tricks guys. Have a great day.

A few Pics of the rest of removal...