1994 Spectrum 16 Sport Rebuild? - Bouncing ideas around

[thill]

DaveG,
Thanks for the replies! Not sure how I missed them.
I peeled off the carpet in the back, and the wood is still solid enough, but it's soaked like a sponge. That has got to go, but the deck is the easiest part of the whole rebuild.

I'll be curious to see what's under the consoles, as the windshields line up nicely. The floor is only 1/2" ply. I'm surprised at how solid it is.

The big issue is that transom. I'm stopped, really thinking it over before going any farther. Once I crack it open, there is no turning back. The core will be easy but trying to figure out which way will make it easiest to put it back together.

Maybe I'll follow your idea of just splitting the top, as that would certainly be the easiest to weld. BUT it would be visible, and I only have a MIG with Argon... HMMM... I need to keep thinking. If it were a different build, I would SeaCast it, but this one doesn't lend itself to that.

UGH. I need to keep thinking about this one.

 

[Daveg]

 

[Daveg]

As long as you have a good grinder you can get away with a mig

I agree it's a pain to get through. You only have to do ir once.

 

[thill]

Thanks for that under-floor shot, Dave.
I see that yours has the ski-locker or storage area, too. It's that center area with the semi-circular cuts on the bottom. Mine has a subdeck under there, and a hatch over it. I'm definitely putting that back in.

Your picture really helps. I didn't know what to think of that area down there. But seeing it all exposed gives me confidence to move forward with the floor. The transom.... UGH. I still hesitate.

Tomorrow, I'm going to remove all the foam back there and make a decision. Time to get to it.

Thanks again.

 

[thill]

Dave,
Thank you again for that picture. It really helped me a lot yesterday. Mine is exactly like yours, except there is roto-molded plastic inside the ski-locker area.

My flooring is still solid, but the back plywood is super-saturated. Waterlogged and very heavy. I decided to run a shallow saw cut just behind the consoles, and I popped the heads off the rivets and lifted the cockpit flooring out.

What I found surprised me. Under the floor was Tyvek house wrap. Huh?? Under that I found DRY floatation foam and shiny, new-looking stringers! WHAT?!?! You NEVER see that in old boats! The Tyvek idea is brilliant. I can't believe it actually worked, but the proof is in the pudding. This really makes my life a lot easier when it comes to replacing the deck.

It was dark and rain was coming, so I covered it up and called it a night. I'll take pictures when I get back to it. Thanks again for the floor picture.

I still need to man-up and start working on that transom. I plan to dig that rear foam out and assess from there. If you can find a pic or two of the transom work, that would be awesome. Maybe I could return the favor somehow, besides plentiful praises and thanks.

 

[thill]

Not sure if I posted this, but I got my title and registration for this boat finally. It's all mine. Now to get it back in running condition.

 

[Larry01]

Thank you for sharing that. This one isn't dented in like that, but there is some flex there when I bounce on the motor. I bet it looks just like yours on the inside.

Good idea about going with aluminum. How thick was the plywood? (2) layers of 3/4"?

1-1/2" or 2" square Schedule 40 stock ran me about $100 for mine, and not hard to do, especially on the ground. On the boat, you have to be more careful. I recently raised my transom this way, and I'm extremely happy with the results. It's not pretty, but it's crazy-strong:
View attachment 113417
View attachment 113418

How hard was putting it back together? Any more pics? You sharing is awesome. It really helps knowing what I'm getting into!

Thanks.

Have you considered the option of just removing the top cap of the transom and chiseling out the old plywood and replacing with a liquid resin filler. I have not used it myself but have seen a couple of you tube videos showing the how to. Looks like a viable alternative to me.

 

[thill]

Thanks, DaveG!

I finally decided to dive in and get it done. The hardest part was figuring out how it went together. Once I figured that out, taking it apart wasn't too bad. When I got to the transom itself, it was complete MUSH. Worse than mulch. It came out by the handful. Nasty.

The way they did it was destined to rot. Untreated plywood buried in foam. It probably made the transom nice and solid, but unless you kept it in a garage, there was no way that wood wasn't going to rot. I had a lot of foam to dig out, but finally got it all cleared away.



Once I got it apart, I cleaned and vacuumed everything out, then got my wood cut and fitted carefully:



As you said, 2 layers of marine ply fit perfectly, cut out of one sheet, thankfully. I laminated the pieces together and put in a few screws to hold it until the glue dried:



Took some trickery to get it in, but I'm very pleased with the results. Rock solid, even before bolting it in.

I soaked it down with Thompson's Wood Preserver/Waterproofer twice before installing, and then again once it was installed. Water beads off of it like a new car. I have had very good success with this product for many years.

I test-fit the transom and splash-well back on, and it fit perfectly:


A big decision is whether I should put on an aluminum skin over the plywood before foaming in the seat bases? If I skin it, there may be a disconnect in the structure. Foaming directly would certainly be stronger. But I don't like foam directly against the wood. Hmmm...

Since I have soaked the wood with preserver several times, I think I'm going to go ahead and foam it directly, then make sure it is carefully sealed so water won't creep down into the new foam from the top. I'll have to pay attention to that later.

Also, I need to deal with the permanent installation of the transom cap and other metal structure. I could certainly rivet it as mentioned above, but I have a wire-feed welder and argon gas. I think I'm, going to pop a few rivets to hold everything in place and then weld it.

One thing I discovered when cutting it apart, is they mostly used short welds, not much more than a tack in most places, 2" or less. But at the corners of the motor cut out, it's solid welds from top to bottom:



I'll have to take it slow and not mess up. And I need to fix where I cut welds to remove. I could make angle brackets, but I think I'm going to weld. I wish I had a TIG setup!




I'll just need to take my time and try not to melt anything or set any fires.

Well, that's the update.

 

[thill]

Have you considered the option of just removing the top cap of the transom and chiseling out the old plywood and replacing with a liquid resin filler. I have not used it myself but have seen a couple of you tube videos showing the how to. Looks like a viable alternative to me.

Larry,
Yes, but it was not suitable for this transom design. I've done numerous SeaCast transoms and love the product.

This one had to go the traditional route. A lot of stuff to deal with under there.

 

[LDUBS]

Wow -- Impressively done.

 

[thill]

We'll see! Have to get the floor down, splash well and transom cap welded, and a zillion other things.

The part that has me thinking is the welding. I didn't think about fire, with the wood right behind the welds. If it starts smoldering back there, I'm not sure how I would put it out. It would be pretty upsetting to replace the transom, get it all welded back together, and then have it slowly burn a section out of the new transom from behind the metal!

I guess I should keep the hose and maybe the pressure washer handy. I might be able to get enough water back there if ii catches.

But maybe I worry too much. I hope so!

 

[thill]

Someone asked about the transom that came out. Here is a pic of what I removed:



Yeah... that transom needed to be replaced.
It's amazing that it held that 70 HP motor without being all bent up. Really good structural design in the metal. That's why I'm going to weld it back together rather than other methods.

 

[thill]

I got a bit more done this afternoon. I cleaned up the floor, got all the old rivets out, and got it ready for flooring. Then I measured carefully and cut out the panels. I'm picky, so it took a while to get them fitted nice and tight as I wanted. Worth the effort in my opinion:



Now I need to remove the decking and soak it with wood preserver like I did the transom.

Once again, I test fit the transom and splashwell parts, and they fit even better now:


Sorry about the dark pics, it had gotten dark.

I also spent a few minutes setting up the MIG with a fresh bottle of Argon. I set the machine from memory, and the first two practice passes were pretty ugly, but helped me get the feel for it again. The top pass I was all over the place and a little too cold. The second pass was smoother, but I slowed down a bit too much and it sunk in, as it melted the base metal. The settings are good, I just need to speed up a bit. You have to move with aluminum, and you have to speed up even more as you go, as the metal heats up. I should be ready to go once when it's time:




The other thing I need to do is re-foam the transom area to restore the original floatation. I have to fill two of these areas after I replace the aluminum barriers permanently:




I bought foam yesterday, but that will be awhile after everything else is ready.

Then my last big decision... Do I go with texture, vinyl flooring, or similar carpet as original?

The reason carpet is interesting, is there is so much carpet on the sides, under the consoles and do on that it would save a ton of work to just match it.

On the other hand, I could do a textured floor like the Starcraft back in the spring. That was a pretty nice floor, and the guy who bought it loves it. Vinyl is another option, but I don't want the seams or edges curling up.

I want the boat solid and clean looking, but I'm not trying to make it look brand new at this point. Maybe, if I like it enough, I'll go back and clean up and replace areas to make it all look new.

Anyway, that's the update for today.

 

[thill]

Dave,
Oh man, you got in my head!

This afternoon, I marked out the stringers on the plywood and then soaked them in preservative.
That being done, while things dried and between coats, I decided to prep for welding. Got everything ready as the sun was going down. Decided to put up a light and just do it. It's what? 4' of bead, maybe, including me cutting out the splash-well base?

For some reason, the welds were really fighting me. Balling up, globbing, just not acting right. I adjusted speed and temp and it got a little better, but it was fighting me the whole way. I kept thinking of your words above, about needing a grinder, and I shook my head thinking you may have been right. Maybe it was the alloy?

I ground the hideous welds down and they had terrible porosity. Could I be THAT bad? Maybe the breeze was carrying off my gas. I went to adjust the flow, and AAARRRGGGHHH!!!! I must have shut the bottle off last night. AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!! I was welding with NO shielding gas! Idiot! I had my headphones on, listening to music, so I hadn't noticed the lack of hiss. IDIOT!

I turned on the bottle, set it to 20 and laid a smooth puddle immediately, although the settings were now pretty far off. Enough for tonight. I'll grind out the mess I made and lay some decent welds if it stops raining tomorrow. Can't believe I fought it so long. What a waste of wire.

Put all the tools away, put the MIG in the shop and covered the boat just in time. It's raining pretty hard now. I'll look at it with fresh eyes in the morning.

That's the latest. Nothing much to see except for some hideous welds.

 

[Lost But Happy]

Been a helluva journey so far and she's lookin good!

 

[thill]

It rained most of the day today, so I hope to get back to welding and laying the new decking tomorrow.

Something I just discovered is that what I thought was Tyvek that had been under the floor plywood was actually just white plastic tarp. I like the fact that the foam beneath was nice and dry, so I'm going to replace it before screwing down the floor.

I'm rying to decide whether I want to put a hatch over the in-floor locker or just leave it solid. More storage is always great, but a nice tight floor may be more important. There will be a lot of storage in the front deck area, so it may not be a big deal.

I'm considering adding a back deck to the boat, similar to my Princecraft.

In the front deck area, my plan is to leave the current U-shaped configuration, but make a drop-in insert to change the front into a completely flat platform, like a bass boat with a mount for a pedestal seat. I did this in a boat in the past, and it worked very well. I never took it out, once I put it in, but it's nice having the option.

 

[Lost But Happy]

I'm trying to decide whether I want to put a hatch over the in-floor locker or just leave it solid. More storage is always great, but a nice tight floor may be more important. There will be a lot of storage in the front deck area, so it may not be a big deal.

I'm a fan of storage lol. One bonus is that locker sits low in the boat, so it would help some with center of gravity.

 

[LDUBS]

I'm rying to decide whether I want to put a hatch over the in-floor locker or just leave it solid. More storage is always great, but a nice tight floor may be more important. There will be a lot of storage in the front deck area, so it may not be a big deal.

I'm a fan of storage lol. One bonus is that locker sits low in the boat, so it would help some with center of gravity.

I vote same as @Lost But Happy. If you put it in I bet you will use it.

 

[Axhammer]

Did you decide which motor you are going to use?

I like the old OMC three cylinder two stroke motors, and you mentioned you have a 60 Evinrude

Years ago I had a 17’ Aluma Craft lake boat with a 1969 Evinrude 55 that ran excellent.

It would pull me up on one ski pretty good at about 215 lbs,

A good running three cylinder 60 would probably be good match for that boat.

Nice work you are doing there, it’s a nice little boat well worth saving!

 

[thill]

This is an upcoming decision I need to make. I have several motors on hand I could choose from:

1. 1989 Mercury Mariner 60 HP with power trim
2. 2001 Evinrude 50 with power trim
3. 1994 Johnson 60 HP with power trim
4. 1999 Evinrude 70 HP with power trim

The boat is already rigged for Mercury with a new set of controls, so the Merc is a bolt-on. But it needs the carbs rebuilt, and I don't know how it runs yet, but I only have about $400 into it.

The 50 is a super-nice motor, very clean and good-running, but enough power? $800 into it

The 60 is good looking, but owner said it has no power. Probably carbs. $600 in it.

The 70 is a very nice motor, very clean and good running. I have $1,500 in it.

I think the main decision is between the Mariner and the 70. One I have to play with carbs and get it running right, and the other, I have to re-rig with Evinrude controls.

Decisions, decisions...