91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

[Coryb]

I am attempting to rebuild the stringers in my Sea Ray and thought I would share with everyone else. Over the winter I decided to investigate a couple of soft spots in the deck and found that every piece of wood in my boat was either rotted or soaking wet. Basically everything under the carpet was completely saturated with water. I could grab a chunk of foam and squeeze enough water out to fill a cup. Very disappointing! Here are a few pictures of what I found during the first inspection and were I'm at now after a few days of work. As I'm sure a lot of you know, tearing this old crap out is a real pain in the butt!

I still have quite a ways to go, but after watching all of friscoboaters video's, I think I can get it done. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'll post more pictures as I go.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

Welcome to iBoats!
Take plenty of Measurements and pics to refer back to. They will be invaluable when you start building back. Keep posting pics and questions and we'll be here to help when we can.

 

[Coryb]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

I am to the point now where I need to start grinding everything. What is my best option for removing the old gel coat that was used in the bilge area and in my front seat boxes? thanks guys

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

4 1/2" grinder, backup pad and 24 grit resin coated sanding discs. Get it all at Harbor Freight. Make sure to wear a Hooded Tyvek suit, Full face respirator, coat yourself in Baby Powder, rubber band the wrists and ankles and put a wet towel around your neck Under the tyvek suit or...You will itch for Days!!!!!

 

[HiltonFerg]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

I found the flap disks to be more useful. They're also a HF purchase and about $6

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

Have you tried the discs with the backup pad? They tend to last longer, and more aggressive

 

[Coryb]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

Thanks for the info. I have everything but the discs that use the backer. I think I might try those also. I will be sure to keep posting updates and pictures

 

[Coryb]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

Well it's been a couple weeks since I've had time to work on my boat, but I finally had some time yesterday to do some grinding. There are a few spots where the peanut butter seems to be extra thick and in areas where it doesn't seem that it needs to be. Is it necessary to grind that all off down to the hull? Also, the pictures below are of my engine mount. I feel like this is probably a stupid question but, Is it ok to pull the outdrive and hoist just the front of the engine up just enough to replace the wood mount and then realign the engine after replacing the wood and glass. I would like to avoid pulling the engine this year, but if its not recommended to do what I'm asking then I don't want to do it.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

I think you'll find it's going to be difficult to do the required repairs with the engine in there. Also reinstalling and realignment is critical so do what you thinks best but IMHO it's better to get it out of the way. I'm not an I/O owner so maybe the I/O experienced owners will come along and lead you in a different direction.

 

[Coryb]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

Well, I'm hoping to get some good advice and info after this post. I finally have all of the grinding done below deck level and I'm think I'm ready to start putting stringers in. As I was doing a final inspection of the hull, just to make sure everything was scuffed up enough for glass I found something that is going to cause me more work, but hopefully not too much more! I felt a couple of spots that felt like small knicks so I checked the bottom of the boat and found this.....


I have no idea how this happened. I made sure I was as careful as possible while removing the old wood and foam. I don't remember prying or banging on the hull or doing anything that would of caused this. You can kind of see how it is spidering also. My question is what is the proper way to repair this? I thought things were going pretty smoothly but now it seems they are not. Also, I've noticed that where the boat sits on the bunks the hull is flexing a little. This area would be to the outside of the stringers so I don't think it's going to cause issues when reinstalling them, but I'm concerned that after I put the deck on and fill with foam, there might be some seperation between the hull and foam after I take the boat off the trailer. It seems that maybe I've gotten my self into a little mess and would really appreciate any info you guys would give me.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

What kind of trailer do you have? roller or bunk? What does the area inside the hull look like where the damage is? Don't worry this is very minor damage and can be repaired fairly easily. If the hull is flexing a lot you may need to reinforce it with a layer of 1708 biaxial cloth, again this is not that hard to do. Will cost a few dollars more but easy to do. Take some pics of the boat as it sits on the trailer and some pics of the inside of the hull where the damage is and we'll be able to guide you to the proper solution.

 

[Coryb]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

What kind of trailer do you have? roller or bunk? What does the area inside the hull look like where the damage is? Don't worry this is very minor damage and can be repaired fairly easily. If the hull is flexing a lot you may need to reinforce it with a layer of 1708 biaxial cloth, again this is not that hard to do. Will cost a few dollars more but easy to do. Take some pics of the boat as it sits on the trailer and some pics of the inside of the hull where the damage is and we'll be able to guide you to the proper solution.

OK, so here are a few pictures of how the boat sits on the trailer as well as how the damage looks on the inside. Really, its kinda of hard to see but it kind of looks like gouge marks, which I still have no idea how I would of done this... Hopefully these pictures will give you a better idea on what I need to do, if not, I would be more than happy to take more pictures until we get the ones we need!

 

[Coryb]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

I wanted to post one more picture of the inside, This picture shows were the flex is compared to the stringer location. Black lines are the bunks and the red lines are the stringer locations, also the circle area is where the flex seems to be which doesn't flex where the stringers are. The flex is directly above the front bunk mounts on the trailer. hope these help.

 

[ricohman]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

Your pics are so small.
Maybe use a photobucket account and paste the img so we can see.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

Was this boat Foam filled?

 

[zool]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

I have the exact same boat up at Lake Wallenpaupack in PA, it has the grey/red/white interior with rear sunpad and merc alpha/130.

Im going to tag along, as you're confirming my worst fears, its covered all winter, but exposed during the summer as it has no mooring cover...I finally get to see whats underneath... op2:

 

[Coryb]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

Was this boat Foam filled?

Yep, it was indeed filled with soaking, dripping wet foam!

 

[Coryb]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

I have the exact same boat up at Lake Wallenpaupack in PA, it has the grey/red/white interior with rear sunpad and merc alpha/130.

Im going to tag along, as you're confirming my worst fears, its covered all winter, but exposed during the summer as it has no mooring cover...I finally get to see whats underneath... op2:

Cool, I like the boat quite a bit, probably the only reason I'm fixing it, well that and I only paid $800 for it. It needs quite a bit more tlc to get it where I'll be completely happy with it but then I'll probably want something bigger. I had no idea to the extent of the rot until I opened the floor up. And the quality of the original build seemed very bad. Hopefully your boat doesn't have the rot that mine did.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.

I highly suspect the foam was structural. A lot of MFGS of that era designed their hulls in such a way so that when the foam was inserted into the hull and expanded between the deck and the fiberglass hull it really firmed up the hull and made it stiffer. You will need to do the same thing when you replace the stringers, deck and transom. You could add a layer of 1708 to the interior of the hull bottom if you want but I'm not sure it necessary. Since your trailer is a bunk style you're getting pretty good support but I would probably beef up the support a bit more.

 

[Coryb]

Re: 91 Sea Ray 170 stringer rebuild.



What would be the best method for fixing this? I plan on putting a layer or two of 1708 on the inside to patch the hole, will I need do any glass work on the outside or just sand down and use a filler or something?