Pulled my engines last week to update wiring and to paint and found me a gigantic headache! Rotton transom! I cut the glass away and started to scoop out the bad stuff. Thank God it's only in the transom. Formula (I have an 88 357 sr1) did a pretty good job of keeping all the seporate peices of wood compatmentalized. The stringers are solid and dry because they are seporated from the transom with a thick layer of glass and matt. The only thing I need information on is, is there another matarial that can be used in a transom other than wood? Also thinking about switching to bravo from TRS while the transom has no holes in it...Anyone interested in selling two drives and transome assy's let me know. Hey you guys have any tricks on getting the good wood out? I was thinking of using a router to cut 10" squares and chisling the layers out. I will post pics as I go. I know it makes for good education. Most of the good info I got to start this job I got from older threads on this site. I was also wondering the best way to cut these stringers in order to get the new transom in.
Thanks for any help along the road...Joe

When I did the cutting on mine I used a skill saw and set the depth to not cut the outer fiberglass and cut little squares and chiseled the wood out. Not a great deal of fun. Good Luck Dwight

Skill saw cut into squares and use a air hammer chisel becareful and go to town. Messy but will come out quick just don't go through the back. Good luck.

http://transomrepair.com/zk/



I just replaced my stringers and the forward bulkhead with "Coosa" Foam ...will not absorb water or rot ..

Also ...you need to check the stringers where they meet the forward bulkhead .... mine had rot froom the bulkhead back about 2' ..from there back was solid as a rock ...m

http://www.coosacomposites.com/

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...hlight=project

To get the good wood out and also glass I would use a power planer. It will work very fast for you. I have used the Dewalt one and it seems to be up to the tast. I used a skill one and it did not have enouugh power and just bogged down.

Since you have to make a few layers of wood to get things to fit you can make the wood out of 4 pieces (two for the first layer of wood and two for the next) and stagger the joints. Or you have to cut out the stringers also and then put in new ones of those as well.

Jon

PS that last transom lasted over 15 years. How long do you plan to keep the boat? I would just build it the same way and this time make sure that you seal up all the holes as you bolt everything back together. Do it correctly and the transom will last for ever with wood.

Jon

I tend to agree with Jon ..... the seacast was very pricey .... If I did use the wood I think I would use the West System Epoxy for the bonding between the sheets .... that stuff is pretty good ...cost more but I would use that .....m

I have decided to go with the wood. I'm sure that I will do a better job of sealing up the end grain then the factory did, and you guys are right it lasted 18 years with a substandard job. I got the port side chisled out last night. Went better than I thought it would. Skill saw set to the right deph was the key. I cut the back of the center stringer to check the condition and it looks solid but has a small amount of moisture in it. Is there any way to dry it up? I was thinking that I can cut the tops off and use some kind of chemical to draw any moisture out. I still have no idea weather to cut the stringers back or to cut the top section of the hull (above the rub rail) off to slide the new transome in or to section and stagger the transom in 4 seporat pieces. Also I have decided to convert to bravo, I have done this job before and It will definataly enhance the value of the boat. Plus I can set it up the way I want to with reguard to X dimension and so forth. I made a smoke'n deal on all the Bravo stuff I need for the conversion. Just going to sell off all of my trs stuff wich is in great shape still. I promise pics on the next post.

Thanks Guys...

There is no way that I would cut a slot in the top of the deck to slide the wood into. It would be a total PITA to fix. I would rip out the back part of the stringer way before I would do all that work.

Jon

I'm a body man that's the rout I'm fimiliar with., but I definatly agree it would be very time consuming. My only consern is to do it right I'm afraid to cut the stringers. If you cut them and repair them are they still as strong as before? Is there a certain angle that they should be cut at? If you look at the first pic in the post you can see that these ****things go more than half the way up the transom. I would love to cut them! An old timer who did this stuff in the past told me to embed a stainless plate at the sections and cut the stringers (like a house door hinge). I was not planning to cut a slot, I was going to remove the rub rail and make two cuts on the corner of the upper deck and just remove the whole upper back section and reglass the two corner cuts later. Either way it's all a real **** buster. Back to chizl'n tonight...looking forward to your replys. Thanks for the advice audio it's very much appeciated