haute
Active member
Hi Guys,
After a season on the water, I thought I'd post the rebuild of my transom.
I'm rebuilding the transom for three reasons:
1) The actual transom on my boat is the same thickness as the hull, and I want greater rigidity
2) The previous owner mounted the electric on the starboard side, and for someone who tills with his left hand, that made things *super* awkward for me. So when I moved the electric to the port side, there was no hull thickness to really mount the electric to. I tried shims and all sorts of crap like that and after nearly losing the motor a couple of times in deep water, I wanted to fix that situation.
3) I want to raise my motor by approx 1" to bring the anti-vent plate near level with the bottom of the boat. Doing this on the stock transom is nearly impossible.
So, here is what the transom looked like when I bought it:
Some closer images of the transom:
I decided to go with some sort of reinforcement across the *entire* transom, both inside and out, while keeping with the stock reinforcement.
In terms of materials, I went with 2 x 3/4" pieces of G1S (Good One Side) plywood for the outside transom, and 1 x 5/8" G1S for the inside of the transom. The two pieces for the outside were glued together with carpenter's glue, allowed to set, then any voids were filled with epoxy. The entire piece was then sealed in epoxy.
On the inside of the transom, I wanted the reinforcement to mirror the outside so that meant I had to accommodate the knee brace, which was jigged and routed, covered in epoxy, and checked for fit:
The back piece was then checked for fit as well:
The most current step was to mount everything up, clamp, and drill the holes. From there, the holes were bored out, so they can be filled with epoxy. Here's a shot of my buddy filling the holes:
... and that is where it sits now.
The next step will be to fold and cut a 1/8" piece of aluminum sheet to cover where the motor will go. This will wrap from the bottom of the inside to the bottom of the outside, with 1" aluminum bar under it to give my motor the 1" lift.
So after filling the over-bored holes with resin, here is what it looks like:
Fitting up the pieces to drill through:
I decided not to use voidless plywood, so I needed to fill all exposed voids with resin. Here's an example:
The resin I used isnt UV protected inherently, so I used an entire can, with multiple coats, of Rustoleum UV-protecting semi-gloss clear coat:
Example of holes drilled through the resin. Unfortunately, some resin cracked and settled a little less than flush, so I went back after this and repaired them, even though this shot shows flaws:
To ensure the bottom is water-tight, I used rubber grommets on the inside of the the exterior and interior transom pieces, sealed with 3M 4200. So, that means outside to inside, wood - 3M - grommet - 3M - transom - 3M - grommet - wood:
Here's everthing bolted up, testing fit before the aluminum plate:
Next was the aluminum plate/motor riser. Here's a shot of my buddy folding the aluminum plate:
Here's a late-night shot of the finished product. Note the 3 x 1/2" aluminum bars under the plate. This is how we raised the motor. After the riser, the anti-vent plate of the motor is now 1/2" below the bottom of the boat, rather than > 2" as it was previously.
There is some extra folded plate which I will add for the electric trolling motor. I will post some day-time pictures of the finished product later.
Hope this helps some of you!
After a season on the water, I thought I'd post the rebuild of my transom.
I'm rebuilding the transom for three reasons:
1) The actual transom on my boat is the same thickness as the hull, and I want greater rigidity
2) The previous owner mounted the electric on the starboard side, and for someone who tills with his left hand, that made things *super* awkward for me. So when I moved the electric to the port side, there was no hull thickness to really mount the electric to. I tried shims and all sorts of crap like that and after nearly losing the motor a couple of times in deep water, I wanted to fix that situation.
3) I want to raise my motor by approx 1" to bring the anti-vent plate near level with the bottom of the boat. Doing this on the stock transom is nearly impossible.
So, here is what the transom looked like when I bought it:
Some closer images of the transom:
I decided to go with some sort of reinforcement across the *entire* transom, both inside and out, while keeping with the stock reinforcement.
In terms of materials, I went with 2 x 3/4" pieces of G1S (Good One Side) plywood for the outside transom, and 1 x 5/8" G1S for the inside of the transom. The two pieces for the outside were glued together with carpenter's glue, allowed to set, then any voids were filled with epoxy. The entire piece was then sealed in epoxy.
On the inside of the transom, I wanted the reinforcement to mirror the outside so that meant I had to accommodate the knee brace, which was jigged and routed, covered in epoxy, and checked for fit:
The back piece was then checked for fit as well:
The most current step was to mount everything up, clamp, and drill the holes. From there, the holes were bored out, so they can be filled with epoxy. Here's a shot of my buddy filling the holes:
... and that is where it sits now.
The next step will be to fold and cut a 1/8" piece of aluminum sheet to cover where the motor will go. This will wrap from the bottom of the inside to the bottom of the outside, with 1" aluminum bar under it to give my motor the 1" lift.
========== UPDATE ==========
So after filling the over-bored holes with resin, here is what it looks like:
Fitting up the pieces to drill through:
I decided not to use voidless plywood, so I needed to fill all exposed voids with resin. Here's an example:
The resin I used isnt UV protected inherently, so I used an entire can, with multiple coats, of Rustoleum UV-protecting semi-gloss clear coat:
Example of holes drilled through the resin. Unfortunately, some resin cracked and settled a little less than flush, so I went back after this and repaired them, even though this shot shows flaws:
To ensure the bottom is water-tight, I used rubber grommets on the inside of the the exterior and interior transom pieces, sealed with 3M 4200. So, that means outside to inside, wood - 3M - grommet - 3M - transom - 3M - grommet - wood:
Here's everthing bolted up, testing fit before the aluminum plate:
Next was the aluminum plate/motor riser. Here's a shot of my buddy folding the aluminum plate:
Here's a late-night shot of the finished product. Note the 3 x 1/2" aluminum bars under the plate. This is how we raised the motor. After the riser, the anti-vent plate of the motor is now 1/2" below the bottom of the boat, rather than > 2" as it was previously.
There is some extra folded plate which I will add for the electric trolling motor. I will post some day-time pictures of the finished product later.
Hope this helps some of you!
) to trace it all out at once, not half, then out.
