Heath,
Removing the grid STINKS, lol. In order to get is semi flat you have to remove a TON of glass. I seriously think I have ground out minimum, 1/8-1/4" of the hull. I'm guessing I have about a 1/4" left. The were a air pockets everywhere, which is not shocking seeing that the entire boat was laid up in woven roving. HA, I think you and I, when done, are going to have two of the strongest, Wellcraft Scarabs out there.

As far as the new grid, I'm going to be copying how Apache and Cigarette do it. I'm going to run one 3" tall stringer straight back from where the center right and left stringer is. As in the one that runs along the fuel tank, under the cockpit. Then I will ad another stringer about 5" tall between the center engine stringer, and the stringer I just described. I've got 25 yards of Kevlar that I need to use. So I'm going to use that to tab in all of the bulk heads and stringers. That is, unless its a major pain to wet out. Then I will just stick to the 1708.

I've looked at a lot of grids for the engine area. I can't find anyone other than Wellcraft that did the diagonal set up. I think even the Larry Smith boats did a grid similar to what I described.

Well it's finally out. I've been putting off removing the center stringer for a good month, because I knew it wasn't going to be fun. As you can see, everything there is WET. The top down image is the bottom of the center stringer. The piece I'm holding is part of the grid work.

While the center stringer tapped good and was dry about 1/2 way up, everything below that is was rotten and wet, and yes HEAVY. This portion of the stringer is all of 80 pounds. It's amazing how much weight in wet wood this thing had in the back. I'm willing to bet that even though I'm adding superchargers and stouter drives, I think the boat will be lighter in the transom than it was when I bought it.

Nasty huh? How many layers of glass do you think are on the center stringer? I would imagine that’s gotta be the strongest piece in the boat with the weight it has sitting on it. Thanks to you I’m dreading grinding that grid out of there now lol. Have you checked out the bulkhead in the fromt of the engine compartment? I hope yours is dry. Keep plugging away man.

I took tonight off myself and came home to rejuvenate. I think I’ve aged 5 years in the last 3 months on this old boat, legs hurt, knees sore, ankles constantly ache. We’re gonna work some more tomorrow night. Won’t it be nice when they’re done, or closer to done lol.

LOL, are you talking about this bulkhead?

I had some work projects today. I'm with you though, I needed a boat break, my knee was killing me as well last night. Kneeling for hours sanding, is not fun or relaxing. I've got about 2 more weekends in the bilge, then I can finally start glassing it back together.

I forgot you were into the stringers under the cockpit. So the bulkhead no longer exists huh? Did you decide if you were going to cut the floor to get to the outer stringers?

Yeah, I'm removing the floor. I've got a plan to salvage it, we will see if it works. That's a good month away though. I want to have the transom glassed in before I remove the floor.

That's good. Are you planning on reusing the bottom water pickups or going with the transom mounted ones?

There was a guy by the name Jonas (screen name 38KV) that had a early 80's 377 that was a notched transom. He replaced his transom with 3" of solid glass and he either ground out or filled in all the grid system in the bilge. He put in a pair of 700 hp 540 and SSM #6 and I think the boat ran 90. I tried to find the pictures of the transom and bilge but they don't show up anymore . this is the thread where the picture was ( Just wanted to share this pic... ) but no pictures. Is there a way for the admins to pull up pictures from old threads?

Buh-BAM..

38 KV Scarab Pics, info...