stringer repair question
 

hello all. i'm restoring a 1977 pantera and i have the floor removed and the rear bulkhead out. the rear bulkhead was rotten.

i have a new florida marine tank coming and i've been grinding in the bilge to make ready for the stringer repair/replacement.

my question is this: do i save the existing stringers and fill in/patch them and then wrap them in glass or do i cut them out and completely replace them?

they are made of 2 by 8 dimentional lumber. they are solid in all areas except where they are lapped at the rear bulkhead.

here are some pics:

I would cut and replace. its actually no mor time then to try and mess around with repairing those. You only want to do this once.

fixx
 

+1,,yep cut them out and install new...use a air chisel with either a panel cutting bit or a muffler bit..you will have them out in a hour..

cut them out and ground the hell out of the bilge. making ready to install new stringers which i'll make from plywood.

i also cut out the battery boxes as there were signs of rot and they were glassed in half assed.

they were rotten on the bottom and i'll use the old ones to template new ones.

here's some pics:

Something tells me them stringers werent original, mine were plywood for sure.

they were absolutely original and are 2 by 8 dimensional lumber all the way to the bow.

i have the second pantera ever produced and i'm sure they modified their methods as time went by.

i bought the boat from the second owner and i also know the first owner so i know the provenance from day one. no work was ever done to the boat.

i kinda like lumber over plywood. no glue to get wet.

Making some headway! Looks like your getting into the thick of it!
Jr.

i just had to put forward stingers in my 10meter.i used a combonation of marine grade 3/4 plywood and 1+6 fir boards.the fir boards were easer to work with

I may be wrong, but from what I was told, dimensional lumber is no where near as strong as laminated ply.