"Chris" wrote in
:

Taking the advice of "This old house", I've done a tear down job for
"This old boat".... Lets see, I cut 3 feet of the top half off to get
at the transom from above. What I found while taking all of this top
off was interesting. Wet wood, and more wet wood. The very tops of
the two sides were dry, but it wasn't more than 6 inches down when the
wood seemed wet. Not to mention, upon removing the hardware, almost
every bolt or screw I took out had visible deterioration wherever it
was in the transom. For example; the ski hooks would have been
interesting, I could see a skier stuck with all the rope.. ha ha.

I've now got all the old plywood out of the transom (2 - 3/4 inch
pieces), and I'm going to clean / prep the area for the rebuild. It
would seem logical at this point to take the advise of putting in
whole pieces rather than parts. Clearly, without opening the top of
this fiberglass pop can I would have never been able to get to take
the transom apart.

I'm not quite sure why after all this great work that you'd go back to
the same poor contrction of the original design. Wood is bad, it rots.

Construction adhesive is a terrible idea (IMNSHO). As others have
suggested, use all epoxy resin and saturate the edges with warmed resin
to seal them. You are using marine ply aren't you? If not STOP NOW...
regular ply will be rotten again in no time flat. I used regular ply to
replace the wood parts in a jon boat transom. I soaked the edges in
urethane and then gave it about 5 coats, it's starting to rot in about 2
years.

You should still look at the Sea Cast product. It will be less work,
fill the area completely and you won't have to test fit and fiddle with
the plywood. When you'd be done, you'd have a completely wood free
transom, no rot, ever. Engine mounting holes will not be a place for
water to leak into the core, nor will the inevitable ladder, speedo,
depth sounder, trim tab, and other holes taht get drilled in the
transom. Every one of these holes is a potential place for water to get
back in and cause wood rot... Lose the wood, really!

--
Steve (remove anti spam XYX in return address for correct email)
http://www.gulf-stream.net