I've joined the rotten transom club

[Pete_a]

Hey guys I'm new here
Thanks to everyone who makes this site possible. I bought an 88 donzi ragaza last yr. I've rebuilt carb, rebuilt trim cylinders, gimbal bearing and bellows, engine tuneup, intake gasket, and buffed her to a nice shine.

Unfortunately after doing bellows I'm still getting bilge water, very small amount. Filled bilge with water today and noticed small screw holes by a fish finder sensor and threads of drain plug, both very slight leaks. The water inside transom can be seen in what appears to be inspection holes by transom ubolts. I drilled some holes and have damp wood up by inner transom plate.

My questions are, why would I be seeing water pooling by ubolts if it's coming from the screw holes almost at bottom by drain plug left by previous owner? Can the water work up that far to show visible water, guess so after many yrs exposure. I couldn't see water leaking from transom plate. I just want to make sure it's not the top cap seam by the integrated swim platform.

So my plan is to fix this winter. I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade so I enjoy this work. I plan on doing transom only as previous owner replaced the floor. The floor is solid, but owner never cleaned all debris up which makes me question his work. It was a good price and has been a good boat that came with many extras and interior recently redone so looks nice. Just when I thought I'd be good for a while. I have no garage of my own but space at work to do a transom but even though I'd love to do a total gut and restore I don't think theres a means for that.

My wife said I had permission to buy a new boat but idk. So what to expect? My budget is 500 on transom, I hope that's enough for a transom replacement and new seals. Included in that budget is new trim pump lines. I'd like to do some engine work, but it seems great. May do an oil pan gasket and prob rear seal would be good but idk could always pull it again later. Anyone else recommend any other motor work? Oil is always clean on it so it's a good engine.

 

[Pete_a]

No Title

Here are pics, also would like to look at the exhaust y pipe for corrosion. I know with that and other parts I'm looking at 1k or more but I still think better than newer boat with other potential problems. I resheeted the doghouse last wknd and experimented with fiberglass. Used bondo jelly, lol never again with the jelly but was a learning experience.

 

[mickyryan]

500 not even close to cost to fix try about 1500 honestly cause its never just a small fix
500 would probably get you all the materials but then ohh snap you broke a bolt in the housing , another 150 to fix that and then ohh hell might as well put new gimbal bearing bellows and ujoints while ya there , see what I mean it starts as a simple fix before ya know it you at like 3 grand

 

[tpenfield]

I think that the materials for the transom would be within your $500 budget . . . but . . . You mentioned that the floor was 'fixed' by the previous owner, but the work is somewhat questionable. You should check the stringers and bulkheads to see if the floor fix was just a cover-up to more problems.

 

[Pete_a]

500 not even close to cost to fix try about 1500 honestly cause its never just a small fix
500 would probably get you all the materials but then ohh snap you broke a bolt in the housing , another 150 to fix that and then ohh hell might as well put new gimbal bearing bellows and ujoints while ya there , see what I mean it starts as a simple fix before ya know it you at like 3 grand

Yep. Bail Out Another Thousand haha. Thankfully I did bellows and gimbal but I know what you're saying. When I got boat it ran great on muffs and first time out found out bad intake gasket No means to sea trial at time. I knew it'd be work and it's been enjoyable fixing and learning. What would you recommend I replace?

Motor mounts, just the rubber not actual mount? I'd like to replace gimbal ring steering pins if needed, I forget technical term. I know this is much easier with motor out and the pin is very pricey. This may have to wait until motor is rebuilt someday. Replace trim lines and possibly y pipe

 

[Pete_a]

I think that the materials for the transom would be within your $500 budget . . . but . . . You mentioned that the floor was 'fixed' by the previous owner, but the work is somewhat questionable. You should check the stringers and bulkheads to see if the floor fix was just a cover-up to more problems.

Yes, if possible I'd love to do a total gut job as it'll need it sooner or later. I can swing the extra costs if needed, just trying to not go too crazy.

I'll be using regular 3/4 ply from box store no marine ply. I plan to seal it well and this isn't a forever boat. I dream of a v8 someday

 

[gm280]

Pete_a, :welcome: aboard. Nice to have you as a new iboat member....

We all have been exactly where you presently are. So a lot of knowledge and personal experience here to offer help and suggestions. It does sound like your transom is suspect. And even with the previous owner replacing the floor, I am not sure I would ignore it as a protential problem. We've seen a few boat projects where the PO just installed plywood over a total shot floor and pass it off as good. Not only is that not good, it puts excess weight in the boat that isn't needed or wanted. So if you have to pull the boat down for a transom rebuild, you may want to check the floor AND the stringers and if needed, change them at the same time. Yes that will prolong the boat being water worthy. But it seriously saves you a lot of time in the long run and provides you with a solid, lighter, quality boat quicker. JMHO.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Welcome aboard.

You're already to step 3 of the 12 step process.......

Step I and 2 being discovery and denial. Step 3 is acceptance.

If your transom is gone, stringers are probably gone too. Not hard, just read the stickies. We all will help when you get stuck.

Use Auroco ply ACX if your lumber store carries it. Menards does, Lowe's and Home depot no longer do.

 

[tpenfield]

A good exterior grade plywood is all you need. Lots of boat manufacturers don't use the pricey Marine grade stuff.

I had to shop around a bit to find true exterior grade, as many of the big box stores had only 'exposure 1' rated, which is not a good choice. Anything 'interior' rated is a really bad choice.

There was a thread on here recently of a guy who had done a partial fix on his boat, thinking the other areas that needed attention would last a while longer. To his surprise, he was back fixing the rest of it only after 2 years. It seems with moisture and rot, it is a slippery slope.

 

[Pete_a]

Gm280 and Scott, thank you for the advice and greetings. I'm tackling this before it's a real issue, so far boat runs great and outdrive is solid. I'm guessing when transoms go very bad you could get stress cracks on the gelcoat and if alignment goes way out a bad coupler? Lol the denial factor disappeared when I noticed I have no wood behind ubolts. What's driving me nuts is thinking that the unplugged screw hole did this over a period of a decade or more. My first thought was water getting in through the cap by the integrated swim platform as the seam line usually sits in splashes in the water at rest.

Ted you have a very nice boat in your sig btw, when you mention exterior you dont mean pressure treated do you? Thats whats in the floor now and i would think itd shrink a lot when it dries. Im assuming untreated but rated for construction exposure.

Thanks again everyone for the help and support, not much action here yet as i plan to take it back out before season is over and apologies if im long winded. Talking helps with the acceptance stage, haha.

When i get to any work ill be sure to post pics

 

[tpenfield]

Ted you have a very nice boat in your sig btw, when you mention exterior you dont mean pressure treated do you? Thats whats in the floor now and i would think itd shrink a lot when it dries. Im assuming untreated but rated for construction exposure.

Thanks again everyone for the help and support, not much action here yet as i plan to take it back out before season is over and apologies if im long winded. Talking helps with the acceptance stage, haha.

When i get to any work ill be sure to post pics

I had to replace the main bulkhead and part of the mid-section floor structure on the boat in my signature. So, I did some research on plywood and looked at the actual wood that was used in my boat.

The APA ratings are

Interior
Exposure 1
Exterior
Marine

A lot of the construction grade plywood is Exposure 1, which does not have as good a wood as Exterior. Exterior or Marine is what you want. The original wood in my boat is 'Exterior', so that is what I used to replace the wet/rotted wood. Pricing of Exterior grade plywood rivals the other grades, and is a lot less than Marine.

APA literature says that Exposure 1, Exterior and Marine all use the same waterproof adhesive for the plys. The difference is in the wood quality of the laminates.

 

[mickyryan]

if I recall exterior grade wont have plugs exposed as does some exposure 1 , also exposure 1 is what you would use if it might get rained on 20 times due to being outside but will be covered by something else could be wrong but that's the way I remember being told by a carpenter on a construction site I had asked.
he also made a point to tel me to get the roughest plywood I could find " texture" wise because more surface area for the resin to grab, made sense but I never found anything except t1 11 and wasn't using siding for my stringers lol.

 

[atv_freak]

Another Donzi!

Take a look at my thread for some pictures of what might be under your floor (though it sounds like my transom is in worse case)...

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...ull-repair/10230125-1990-donzi-dl-190-rebuild

Like everybody has already said, get the drill out and take some samples of the stringers and motor mounts.

 

[Pete_a]

Another Donzi!

Take a look at my thread for some pictures of what might be under your floor (though it sounds like my transom is in worse case)...

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...ull-repair/10230125-1990-donzi-dl-190-rebuild

Like everybody has already said, get the drill out and take some samples of the stringers and motor mounts.

Hey nice to see your thread. Thanks posting the build. My boat is very similar. You prob didnt expect your floor to be that bad im sure. I noticed water in the holes by ubolts. How did you find out you had a problem and were you aftaid of causing further damage such as cracking gell coat? Im finishing the boating season with mine. I cant imagine how much faster my rot wouldve spread if i kept it at a slip

 

[atv_freak]

The transom on mine was so soft that the gimball housing could pull away from the transom just enough to let quite a bit of water into the bilge. Tightening up the bolts would have just squished the transom together so there wasn't much I could do besides tear into it. Glad you can at least finish the season with yours!

 

[Pete_a]

Ah i see, yes mine is still pretty solid. I almost want to put it off until next yr but worry winter weather will wreck it. Ah but one done, we'll both have nice donzis. Im thinking about adding extra space for storage in front of rear seats. Would like full width of boat by a foot in depth, but fuel tank is there so maybe just two side compartments. I get bilge water in my ski locker as there's a pvc drain pipe there, so that compartment is of no use for me. Did you notice that with yours?

 

[atv_freak]

Yes, I had a pvc pipe underneath the gas tank going from the ski locker to the bilge... it was broken though so I had a bunch of water sitting underneath the gas tank. I guess I didn't get a chance to use it enough to get any water in the ski locker.

 

[Pete_a]

So guys im looking at supplies and thinking a total gut job. Buying roll of matt, 20yrds 1708, 10gal resin, foam, fillers, and 5gal gelcoat. Im guessin around 1k shipped Not what i first expected but id been talking just transom. Still worth the money, just surprised how much resin and glass runs.

225 for plywood and supplies, fig 5 shts.

So guys does this sound on par? Id like to repaint drive, possibly replace steering pin as seems much easier now than later. I dont know how long y pipes and trim hoses last. Any other ideas? If a rear seal is easy on the 4.3 i may do that and a pan gasket. Idk dont want to get overboard as i can always pull motor again just want to do some preventative maintenance.

 

[gsxrdan]

Yeah get into it!

 

[tpenfield]

$1K sounds about right for materials.

Replace things that are in bad shape, but not otherwise.