1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

[britisher]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

You mentioned about putting in cross bracing before and aft of the ski locker. When I was removing the wood on mine, I found there was a small cross brace before the ski locker. It was only small and appeared to be timber rather than ply. What perplexed me was that it was glassed to the floor. How the heck did they do that, unless they glassed it to the floor using the locker hole as the access point?

 

[rickryder]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

I plan on putting the ski locker back in and adding some cross-bracing at the front and back of the locker just below the deck.

I used 3/4" for the stringers and will go back with 1/2" or 5/8" for the deck - haven't gotten that yet. Heavier, yes - but not as heavy as the old water logged, rotten wood!

Make 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood that hang into the ski locker opening enough to catch the lid,coat them in resin,let cure,cover with csm and wet out,let cure,....put some PB between the pieces and screw them to the bottom of the deck after you csm the bottom...glass them in as part of the deck.... That's how I did mine and it worked out very well... I went with 5/8" ply for the deck....nice and solid!

 

[93bayliner1800]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Wow! looking good! I find myself looking at your pics and having STRINGER Envy! lol mine will be there soon.

 

[havoc_squad]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Got any extensive pictures of the before situation on the boat, drive system and all?

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Got any extensive pictures of the before situation on the boat, drive system and all?

Ask and ye shall receive...

I've cleaned up most of the anti-fouling paint, but here's outside


Original Motor


Interior


Outdrive. A little corroded, but not too bad


4.3L Swapped

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Close up of motor being lifted out:


Borrowed a friends hoist:


The floor was really soft around the ski locker and behind both of the back2back seats. Which ultimately led to rotten stringers and transom. So.... DEMO

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

In my first post I mention having a few setbacks at the end of the season.... well, in case you were wondering:

Your distributor drive gear should not look like this:


Also, the coupler shouldn't look like this!



(Moral of the story on these last two is if you let your friends drive your boat, make sure they know where the hell they're going)

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Found the last couple of pics of the floor situation before the demo:

 

[havoc_squad]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Hmm, it seems VERY little has changed in 4 years of production model building for 170/180BR's. Mine is 1993, thankfully the rot stayed contained on my boat to the gas tank section and the starboard rear 2 feet in front of the battery compartment area.

Did you have any rot nearby the water drain hole for the gas tank that might sit adjacent to the 3.0L motor mount stringer? The hole I had the issue with went through the wall between the 3.0L engine stringer mount and the gas tank compartment area, not the main floor bilge drain hole system.

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Hmm, it seems VERY little has changed in 4 years of production model building for 170/180BR's. Mine is 1993, thankfully the rot stayed contained on my boat to the gas tank section and the starboard rear 2 feet in front of the battery compartment area.

Did you have any rot nearby the water drain hole for the gas tank that might sit adjacent to the 3.0L motor mount stringer? The hole I had the issue with went through the wall between the 3.0L engine stringer mount and the gas tank compartment area, not the main floor bilge drain hole system.

Hmmm... Well I can't remember specifically in that area what was good and what wasn't. But on the whole, everything was pretty much mush and came apart pretty dang quick because it was so far gone. That area, while rotten, wasn't as bad as the main stringers and the deck behind the seats and back to the transom.

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

After tabbing in the stringers, all I have to say is - DANG that 1708 sure sucks up the resin.

Seem to have a few air bubbles in some spots I'm pretty sure that didn't have em when I finished up.... Thought I read somewhere about someone stapling the stuff first?

 

[TJS]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

I am following your project. I am now getting back to my Baja with the same situation. Are you using Polyester or Epoxy products.

 

[Bumperlt12]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Look sir. Some of us are watching this thread close waiting for update pictures. Help a brother out. Really, really unacceptable..

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Well that last one made me chuckle!

TJ - I am using polyester products.

So, update... well, I'm not the best fiberglass installer in the world - that's for sure. But, hey if the thing lasts another 10 years, that's fine with me and I'm fairly certain it will. Anyway, by then I hope to buy a new boat!

Test fitting the gas tank


Gluing in the false floors in ski locker and under gas tank.


Glassed over false floors. The PB adhesive made a big mess as you can see... and I'm not a perfectionist (10 more years, right?)


Here is the templates I'm using for the deck


I bought some enamel to use for the ski locker and under the gas tank. Weather is crappy today so I'll probably try to cut out the deck. I ended up just going back with 1/2" for the deck and will have to add some supports in some key locations.

 

[britisher]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Your boat looks identical to mine. I have a couple of questions..
You appear to have sistered the two main stringers. I know they are approx 12' long and ply comes in 8' lengths. What thickness did you use? I think SR used 1/2" but I was thinking of doing 3/4" as others have spoken of beefing up these. I was thinking of sistering near the rear of the baot rather than the back as there is more wiggle room where the stringers sit.
The other question is about deck thickness. Why did you decide to go back to 1/2". I was thinking of using 5/8" for added strength.

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Indeed - I am watching your thread as well.

I went back with 3/4" stringers. I figured I'd keep the joint up front and just use a continuous stringer from the back to the front bulkhead. They get pretty short from that point up to the bow pretty quick, so I just glued/glassed them to the longer ones from the back and did not butt them together. Then I did butt/sister them together up near the front to the small bit of existing wood. Not sure that it will really matter either way though.

I decided to go back with 1/2" because I kept the front bow boxes and some of the deck if you look at some of the original demo pictures (I think I have those up there). I plan on just adding any supports where needed - but really with all the additional glass I think I'm going to use, it shouldn't be very bouncy.

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

Coming down to crunch time. My goal is to have it all finished up by Memorial day weekend. Just got in my new u-joint bellows and a couple parts for the rear end.

I'm having a hard time deciding how to attach the deck to the stringers.

I had originally planned on just putting PL on the stringer tops, marking the stringer location on the deck pieces, drilling pilot holes, squirting some sealant (or resin) down the hole and then putting in screws, essentially screwing the deck to the end grain of the stringers.

Well, then I'm having second thoughts about this as I've already put in a good bit of time and I don't want it to go to hell quickly. So looking at other threads, we've got 1"x2" cleats on the stringer top edge, this is then glued and glassed (I assume) to the main stringers. The deck is then screwed to these cleats. Alternatively, just a thickened resin is set on top/or PL glue on top depending on your taste and the deck is glued to the stringers and not screwed.

What's a guy to do?

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

I also meant to add, of course, that the deck will probably just follow Wood's recommended deck glassing procedure.

 

[britisher]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

My boat is pretty much identical to yours and I too in the early days wondered how to secure the new deck to the stringers. As most of my wood was a rotten mush, it was hard to impossible to see how SR had originally constructed it. That said, the Friscoboater thread uses solid wood cleats attached to the stringers . Doing it this way gives you more 'width' to PL or PB and screw the deck to the underneath structure. Trying to attach the deck just to the stringers gives you very little 'width' to work with, compounded by the fact that to cap the stringers with glass you will need to 'round off' the stringer tops to do it. Hence you will have even less attachment surface area.

 

[ncbovid]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray Bowrider 180 Transom, Stringers & Deck

So - cleat method...

Give cleats a good soaking of resin, let cure
PL Glue/clamp cleats to stringers
Screw cleats to stringers
Fill in screw head holes with 5200 or PB

Not sure if Frisco put any glass on the cleats or just then covered them with the Red Gard?