'98 Glassport 170V fiberglass Bass Boat Overhaul

[honda460ex]

First off I want to thank everyone on this site for all of your great info! This site is the best when it comes to anything boating related and everyone on here makes it so... Here is my project. I bought this boat back in February last year. I got it for just $2,000 so I figured it was going to have some issues. This is my first boat I have personally owned. I never have had any experience with fiberglass but I like to learn new things, I can usually pick up fairly quick, and I am a decent mechanic. So I figured what the heck, if it has some problems I can figure it out... When I got the boat home I began going over it and realized the back of the hull had been cut and bracing done around the transom with aluminum plates. My heart then began to sink because I started to feel overwhelmed very quickly. I then began reading every ones posts on here and following some amazing projects you people have done. Once again, WOW, and THANK YOU! I have learned so much from your experiences! I milked the boat through last year and decided this winter I would gut at least the back half and rebuild the transom and rear stringers. I am going to try to post my pictures of the progress I have made thus far over the next couple of days. Anyone who sees anything I am doing wrong or have any better ideas please chime in and let me know. Like I said, I am a newby at this.

Thanks!

 

[honda460ex]

Re: '98 Glassport 170V fiberglass Bass Boat Overhaul

 

[honda460ex]

Re: '98 Glassport 170V fiberglass Bass Boat Overhaul



The bow of the boat would not trim up last year and I thought I had a prop problem, which I still may, but after tearing the boat apart it was no wonder... It's unbelievable how much water I had in the foam and wood up front.

 

[honda460ex]

Re: '98 Glassport 170V fiberglass Bass Boat Overhaul



So far I have 25 yards of CSM, 15 yards of 1708 biaxial, 5 gallons of resin and 4 tubes of PL Adhesive. thoughts? Hopefully going to sand out where the old stringers up front used to be this week and maybe get them glassed in first of next week. The hull in the back was weak also. That's why a few of those pictures show glass strips. I am building the chimes up. They were cracking and even had a leak last year. The manufacturer did a horrible job of glassing in the rear. Way to many air pockets! A couple air pockets were a foot and a half to two feet long right in the chimes.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: '98 Glassport 170V fiberglass Bass Boat Overhaul

Welcome to iBoats!
Looks like you're doing a great job so far. They're called chines not chimes. Reinforcing them is a good idea. You will need to get at least 10 more gals of resin. You will also need approx. 5-10 qts of Cabosil and 1-2 lbs of 1/4" chopped milled fibers to make "Peanut Butter" to glue in your transom. Check out the link in my signature for drawings on how to fab your stringers, deck and transom. You are correct about bubbles in the glass being bad and it looks like you're doing a great job on that. Hopefully you took a lot of measurements before you removed everything. Your hull WILL flex and it is critical that you keep it in it's original shape or the Top cap will NOT fit back on once the deck has been reinstalled. Measure the Cap now and check that the measurements on the top of the hull match up. You can use nylon straps to pull and keep the hull in shape while you're working on it. Once the deck is installed it MUST be correct. Keep posting pics and questions and we'll be here to help.

 

[honda460ex]

Re: '98 Glassport 170V fiberglass Bass Boat Overhaul

Thanks Woodonglass! I appreciate the help. Lol, and thanks for correcting me on chines... I would have been calling them chimes until the day I die otherwise... I do have a couple questions. I have seen some drawings similar to yours suggesting the use of PL adhesive instead of the PB on the stringers and such. Any reasons for that? Would there be advantages or disadvantages of one or the other? Also, I made a little drawing for a dilemma that is fast approaching. The way my transom was glassed in by the manufacturer I don't know that I agree with it. That is what the picture shows. The problem area I point out in the picture is where they simply wrapped the fiberglass mat around the transom and didn't make filets or PB it at all. Seems like a pretty tight bend in and out to not get any air pockets in the fiberglass. Any thoughts? I am a major rookie here so forgive me if this is extremely wrong thinking, but could I cut the wood transom at an angle at the base to make it fit with the two angles in the hull and then PL it underneath? Then wrap the fiberglass at an angle a little less like 120 degrees? Or should I just count on using PB to fill in that entire area all the way across and then glass it? Once again, I greatly appreciate the help!