Fixing Holes

[dropbear68]

Hi guys, I have removed an old volvo sterndrive from my boat and am running an outboard, once the Volvo was kicked out I was left with one hole big enough to throw a basket ball through and a couple of 2 inch size round holes, so what Ive done is on the outside I fitted a new piece of 18mm ply which I have epoxied to the transom, screwed and layered with fibreglass this piece is about 500mm wide and 20 inches in hieght so its top to bottom, as far as the inside is concerned I have made a new inner transom from 18mm ply , do I just forget them holes coz there going to be covered and glassed both sides anyway or do i go the extra mile and fill them, I guess the only way to fix the holes is to cut some ply discs and epoxy them in until there flush , the cruncher with all this I had to cut into the top deck and the transom to make the outboard well, should I brace the transom to the floor? I still have the engine hole to do something with and its looking like becoming storage at the moment, I figue I could make a pair of nice thick triangular pieces of ply maybe two pieces of 18mm laminated together wedged between transom and floor and glassed in, should be heaps strong enough? Im running a Evinrude 85HP V4, am I on the right track?

 

[jigngrub]

Duct tape, you're going to need lots of duct tape! Spray anything down you don't want the duct tape to stick to with WD40.

Seriously, I would completely remove the old transom core with all the holes in it and install a new solid transom core. Then patch the holes in the fiberglass hull with the appropriate materials.

You will need to brace your transom top and bottom, I/O and stern drive transoms are a different animal than an OB transom. OB transoms have to be much stronger.

 

[jbcurt00]

Yes, you have a bit of work ahead, removal of the I/O setup and conversion to OB isnt a straight forward swap.
Does the wood core for the I/O extend corner to corner of the boat?

How about a few pix of the boat, inside and outside shots of the transom and the work you've already done

 

[gm280]

What you are asking is not a simple fixing a hole. It is the transom replacement now. There are tons of such replacements on these forums to help you do just that. Patching such huge cutouts in not the way I would tackle the issue. I would replace the transom beefing it up to take the load of the OB you are going to use. But that is just my opinion...

 

[dropbear68]

Yes the transom runs from side to side, its glassed on the inside too appears to be about 30mm thick, the transom is as strong as a elephant, I have smacked it with hammers and prodded with sharp tools looking for rot, too me its sound, Ill take some pics and post up