1984 Grady White Seafarer Transom Rebuild

[VeroWing]

Finally stopped raining for a few hours yesterday. I applied an epoxy/cut fiberglass/wood&fiberglass flour paste on exterior transom where I extended transom 3" higher. Going out now to smooth it some and see how it looks. I braced a straight-edge across the top before applying filler so I would have a nice flat top on it.
Received flare tool yesterday from captj13 yesterday, so I want to try and get rear cockpit floor installed today. Well, guess I better get off the computer.

[VeroWing]

Smoothed filler on extended area. Shaping up pretty good. Laid out the twin outboard locations. May have a conflict with lower mounting bolt locations. Looks to be close to floor line. Will know more tomorrow after floor install.




Sized up some blocks for epoxying in rear cockpit floor tomorrow. Gave them a good coating of epoxy.

[VeroWing]

Sanded edges of removed section of cockpit floor, and edges of remaining floor where I cut for removal. Beveled the edges around 1 1/2" back on each side so when floor section is reinstalled there will be existing 3" bare fiberglass at seam, where I can lay strips of new glass and epoxy.
I already cut, epoxy coated, and numbered backing blocks that will be used to attach floor section back in. I drilled holes around perimeter of sanded areas only through the existing fiberglass where I had bevel sanded. Next, I dry fitted floor section back into place to be sure all was lined up properly.
Looks good, pulled floor section back out, placed attaching blocks by their locations, laid out ample screws and drill with screw tip attachment, and then mixed a batch of epoxy paste. I used a 6" spackle trowel to coat half of one side of backing blocks. Attached epoxy coated face of attaching blocks halfway to underside of existing interior floor and sides at cut seams with screws. Once blocks were screwed into place, I coated other half of glue face with more epoxy paste. Next, laid in section of floor removed earlier. Temporarily clamped it in place, made sure it lined up with existing lines, corners, and seams. Once in place, screwed it into place, squishing paste in seam at attaching point. I removed excess epoxy and cleaned up for the day.
Tomorrow, or next day, I hope to epoxy this reinstalled section to new transom. Below are some pics of todays' work.

[VeroWing]

Epoxied the rear lip of cockpit floor to the new interior transom. Oversize drilled the holes for four (4) cockpit drains, as well as bilge drain. Next filled these holes competely with epoxy paste and will let set up for a day or so. Then I will drill correct size hole into epoxy and "epoxy in" brass sleeves into these drain holes. This way if brass sleeves ever deteriorate and leak, transom wood will remain completely encapsulated and safe from water ingestion.
I plan to use this method for all attaching screws, eye bolts, etc., gong into transom. A little extra work now should pay off for decades in the future.



This is the thirteenth day I have on this project. Should not take many more to complete.(I hope!)

[VeroWing]

Today removed clamps and sanded high spots around seams. Mixed another small batch of epoxy paste and evened out seams some. Tomorrow I'll sand a little and wet in a few layers of fiberglass over all seams.



Also drilled 1" hole in the previous 1 5/16" drilled and epoxy paste filled bilge drain hole. Notice approximate 1/8" layer of epoxy separating opening from wood. It is ready for installation of brass drain sleeve.



This is actually the last day of structural work on transom, and after today it will be all cosmetic finish work, with the exception of installing cockpit drain sleeves.

[tech_support]

The repair looks very good. Excellent work

[VeroWing]

Thanks Joel. I should be down to see you about some type of paint for the splash area in a few days. I'm first going to try and add pigment to epoxy and apply over seams to gelcoat edges only. Should be interesting.
Today I used trimmer with 1/4 round bit to round off exterior edge of transom notch.



Sanded all the seam areas to slightly concave and then wetted in layer of approximately 1 1/2" wide lengths of fiberglass, cut from left over pieces. Also wetted in layer of fiberglass, overlapping vertical lip on splash area cockpit floor, up and over new top of transom notch. This should tie everything together nicely. I have to check my notch thickness, and if I have the room, I'll add an additional fiberglass layer to this area.

[VeroWing]

Flushed out all the seams, and did an extensive sanding and smoothing of seam areas. After making sure of no high spots, mixed a final fairing putty and applied over all the seams.
After letting this set up for a day or so, I'll do the final sanding and smoothing. Getting ready for final surface color application.

[ccscorpion200]

What can of fairing material are you using and where did you get it? Thanks

[VeroWing]

What can of fairing material are you using and where did you get it? Thanks

The fairing material is a special dry mix added to the epoxy. I purchased it here on this website. They preblend it, so you just add it to your epoxy to whatever consistency you want. It goes on nice, sands easy, and smooths to a nice finish with no edges, etc..

Below is info on it. Mike


http://boatbuildercentral.com/proddetai ... =E_bf_.5lb