I fixed my transom and survived!

[knobblyoldjimbo]

One of my projects this weekend was to fix my transom.

I did the following:

1. After trying unsuccessfully to remove the pintle screws I ground them off to remove the pintles

2. I hit the screws a lot (as mentioned by Darcy) which eventually broke away the inside piece of alum moulding.  I had rear hatches which made the whole game possible so first order would be to put these in!

3. I did a lot of pulling out and cleaning up of all the rubbish from inside.  There is quite a big 'lip' all around the deck to hull joint.  I elected not to remove this.

4. I made a piece of 6mm marine ply backing - odd shape but got it so it was close to the transom.  It had to be narrow enough to go through the hatch.

5. I had some triax cloth (three layers, different angles) which makes a nice thick pad of glass.  Cut two pieces.

6. Mixed epoxy resin.  Jimmy Buckland said 5:1 by weight - well I did try and it did certainly get hot!

7. Got the first piece of cloth wet, nice and sloppy.

8. Managed to get it into the hull without dripping too much on the surrounds (if you have to cut new hatches in don't install them until you've put the wet cloth inside - tends to bung up the threads).  Used latex gloves (about 20 of them!) to push the piece onto the transom.

9. With the ply I cut up a lot of fibreglass tape (didn't have any chopped strand) and mixed it into the resin.  This provided a bit of 'bog' to put onto the back of the ply.

10. I put the ply against the mat against the rear of the transom.  I then screwed a s/s screw through the back and into the ply to hold it in position.

11. I wet out another piece of mat and bogged it against the ply.  It was much bigger so it also bogged against the transom. 

12. I put some more 'bog' into the drain hole and a couple of pieces of fg tape against the pintle mounting points.

13. Next morning I drilled through the ply.

14. I got some Sikaflex that's been in the freezer for years and pulled some up into a syringe and squeezed it into the holes.

15. 35mm x 6mm bolts with two washers (one standard, one large) and a nyloc nut.  Doing the top screws was VERY hard because I'd left the lip in place but eventually got the thread on and bolted it all up.

16. Got the cheapest Bunnings Colourbond spary paint and gave it about five coats.

I think the fact that the original plug for the drain holes that I did with epoxy filler seemed to be loose may have been the main reason for the leaks!

Testing next weekend.

 

J