Holmes 14' Valco project! Edited with lots of pics!

[aeviaanah]

That is probably a better idea...I was thinking of doing the floor a couple inches above the bottom...in which case I could run a PVC pipe under that...probably cleaner. Then I could run an elbow to where it exits for anice clean look...

I was thinking maybe if I put the pink foam on the floor and then ran a couple angle supports on the sides and near the bottom of the seats I wouldn't need any vertical support for the floor...make sense?

Yea that makes sense. This is what I am doing as well. You may need a runner across where the two boards meet in the center. Typical plywood is 48 in wide...your boat width is larger, meaning it will have to be in two pieces. The deck area between the front seat and middle seat should be supported enough, the deck at front will need a ledger angle. I will just cut 2 pieces of angle iron about 4-6" long and rivit to body of boat. If you raise deck a few inches above bottom you could add fishing pole holders under the deck. I was afraid the boat may be too unstable as the higher the deck the farther the center of gravity. A 12' boat isnt that stable to begin with.

What kind of conduit/elbows you using? Maybe a plastic water line would suffice. Irrigation stuff? I just realized that picture of your boat was photoshopped lol....I like the paint job idea!

 

[Jdholmes]

I think I should be able to do it in one piece by rotating the plywood lengthwise...the space between the seats I don't think is wider than four feet...I I'll have to measure, so basically using the board as a 8x4 instead of a 4x8 if you catch my drift.

I don't want to do the bottom floors any more than a few inches up for now. I might do a rod holder a little later. I want to keep it as simple as possible to start.

The conduit I was looking at was just a PVC sewer pipe about an inch in diameter...look at the plumbing supplies at lowes or home depot...it is easy to cut and has all kinds of different angled elbows you can use to come back up from the bottom of the boat to an exit at a nice gradual angle. The thing with running wire is you want a nice slope up - sharp angles will make it harder to push the wire through. You also want it a wide enough diameter that it will have lots of space for as many wires and their possibly large ends as you will need.

 

[aeviaanah]

I think I should be able to do it in one piece by rotating the plywood lengthwise...the space between the seats I don't think is wider than four feet...I I'll have to measure, so basically using the board as a 8x4 instead of a 4x8 if you catch my drift.

I don't want to do the bottom floors any more than a few inches up for now. I might do a rod holder a little later. I want to keep it as simple as possible to start.

The conduit I was looking at was just a PVC sewer pipe about an inch in diameter...look at the plumbing supplies at lowes or home depot...it is easy to cut and has all kinds of different angled elbows you can use to come back up from the bottom of the boat to an exit at a nice gradual angle. The thing with running wire is you want a nice slope up - sharp angles will make it harder to push the wire through. You also want it a wide enough diameter that it will have lots of space for as many wires and their possibly large ends as you will need.

Are you decking from the bow to the first seat or to the second seat? From the bow of my boat to the second seat was around 72" I had to use the plywood length wise. Ill be waiting to see what you come up with. I'm with family right now, otherwise I'd be workin on the boat.

 

[Jdholmes]

This is where I am at right now.

I will post the two problems in my next post.

 

[Jdholmes]

Here are my two current issues I am trying to deal with.

1. Getting the lower shift rod to reconnect to the upper...I can get it all lined up and seem to be in right and tighten the screw...then when I begin to let go the rod just slips right back out...

2. Having a heck of a time with the transom removal. After digging around with my drill and buck knife I found out why. They apparently put huge staples between the first and second layers of plywood before putting it all in....from the back...nice of them. :x It means there is no way I can get it all out in one piece...luckily I dont need it for a template, it is pretty straight forward. Here is a pic of the staples. This is not going to be fun. I am thinking return the drill and buy a rotozip to cut it up with...

 

[aeviaanah]

Sorry I cant help much with the motor, dont know a thing about em. This is why I just got back from Bass pro...i put a deposit down for a 2012 Mercury 4stroke 15hp. Should be ready in a few weeks. Just go to town with the transom, youll get it out!

 

[Jdholmes]

Finally got my transom out! What a job that was!

I ended up buying some rotozip bits for my dremel 4000. I cut along the borders where the aluminum lips were, this seemed to do the trick. I didn't go all the way through cause I didn't want to mess up the aluminum back of the boat by mistake, so I just went almost all the way through and then ripped it with my hands. After I got the big pieces out the others weren't much work. Took about 15 minutes. I will post pics in a bit.

As far as replacing the transom...if you can see in my pics above it was done in a T shape and by the way turned out to be five pieces connected by staples and pressure.

I think I would rather just do one big shape that goes down further to the bottom of the boat. Would this be better or worse for any reason?

 

[Jdholmes]

Ok! Well, seems like there are a lot of looky-lous here and not a lot of responders, so I figured I better just go out and start figuring things out...actually I am just spontaneous and didn't want to wait.

I couldn't find wood with thick enough to use for the transom so I knew I would have to laminate something. Most of the woods wood have been too thick with two layers, and the only one that would have worked was pine...pine is soft...pine is bad.

Sooo...how to make a 52" wide transom 1 1/4 inch thick? I decided to use five layers of 1/4 inch oak ply. That should do the trick. Using contact cement and clamps.

I am going to go ahead and put the nix on the old T shape they used orginaly and make a deeper rectangle...this one will be 52"x13 1/2" which will bring it down to just below where the bottom starts curving in. Best of all it will be one solid laminated piece at 1.25" instead of 5 pieces hodge lodged together with staples and pressure.

Will of course post pics of the process.

 

[Rat]

The laminated transom will be much stronger than dimensional lumber, good decision. Also, make sure the glue you are using for the lamination is water proof and seal the whole thing up very well. I would go all the way to the bottom of the hull with the transom as well. This adds a little more weight but also adds a degree stiffnes to the transom. This will also make it easier to add bracing and such later if you want to. You can attach accessories (bilge pumps, battery boxes etc) to the transom with screws without having to go all the way through the hull with bolts.

On the shifter for the motor. There is a detent in the shaft that the connecting bolt must engage. The upper lower shaft slips into the bracket and the bolt must be inserted after the shaft is inserted to engage the detent. So, plug the shaft in, insert bolt, tighten it all down. If you try to insert the shaft with the bolt in place the shaft will not clear the bolt and the bolt will not engage the detent; it is a very close tolerance fit.

 

[Jdholmes]

Thank you for the reply!

Glad to finally get a response on the shift rod thing!

So to be clear, the bolt you are talking about inserting /after/ the rod is inserted...this is the silver screw in the picture that goes into the brass coupler?

Because if so, I had just left it in but loose....almost all the way out but not out. That could very well be the problem...my head doesn't see the issue, but maybe it is a magic thing that is beyond my comprehension...I shall try removing it completely.

As far as bringing the transom to the floor, the 13.5 inches will bring it fairly close. The strips are already cut so I will stick to that. For additional stiffness I will cut a couple small blocks, seal them and connect them to the hull with a strong adhesive...this is something they had done previously and I ripped them out as they were rotted. So I will have those plus a much deeper transom than was originally there...should be much better.

Planning to do contact cement for the layers adhesive and seal with three layers of spar urethane.

 

[aeviaanah]

Hey whats up man, stoppin by to check on ya. Sounds like you did close to what I did with my transom board. What you mean by laminate tho? I used 3/4" ply and glued to 1/2" ply making 1 1/4". My transom board also goes close to the bottom, I think I have two inches of clearance. I had to cut a little bit out for access to the drain plug.

Good to hear you are gettin that motor figured out....I'm gettin ready to paint the inside today...that is, if nothin else comes up. Ill start coating the transom boards as well.

 

[Jdholmes]

Hey!

When you take separate pieces of plywood and glue them together it is often referred to as laminating them.

The lowes here did not have 1/2 and 3/4 inch in a hardwood...yeah, I was disappointed at the poor selection of wood here in Vegas. Home depot was the same. I come from the east coast and there is a lot more options there. Also neither of the stores here seemed to have the pink closed cell rigid foam insulation like back home. All I can see is the plain styrofoam.

Look forward to your progress pics! *nudge nudge* I have some to post today as well.

 

[Jdholmes]

Had an 'Oh Crap!' moment a little bit ago. I went down to start on stacking the wood for the transom...I lined up a piece for the fun of it and there it was..."Oh, crap!'...

The wood is going to be just above the top of the drain hole...which is great...but it also means I can not get it into place without removing the transom brace that is riveted to the floor! I really do not relish putting a hole in the bottom of my boat, but I see no other option.

So...once I drill that brace off, can I just replace it with stainless steal bolts and seal it with some 5200 or am I going to leak? Thanks in advance for advice!

Oh and here are pics as promised!

 

[aeviaanah]

I had to take the gusset off as well. Go ahead and grind em off from the bottom of the boat, then beat it thru from the outside in.

You can go and buy some aluminum low profile tinners rivits. I got a few, if you cant find any shoot me your address ill send ya some. They should match your boat as they match mine. You will need a setting tool, its basically the profile of the rivit. I took a piece of round bar and drilled a hole this goes on the head of the rivit...then someone else can beat the shank which swedges it out and creates a seal. Since its the bottom of the boat, you may not need the tool, it will just flatten the head of the rivit...taking away from its nice appearance. If you decide to do the bolt idea, it shouldnt leak with 5200 but a aluminum rivit will look better and last longer.

 

[Jdholmes]

Alright, got the transom all glued together. Still need to treat it with spar urethane. I was kind of dissappointed with the way the contact cement turned out for gluing the transom boards together. It isnt horrible but it certainly has some spots where it didnt take and the edges are lifted up. I had to cut away part of the bottom and that took care of most of the loose points, but there are still a couple points along the top edge that arent stuck together well as I would like.

I am not too worried about that though, I will feed a little in and reclamp it. I guess the problem was that the wood must have absorbed it a little too much in some spots. I did coat it with two coats to try and make a non porous layer, but I guess an extra may have been necessary for a perfect bond.

I had read that clamps werent necessary with contact cement - not true...definitely needed the clamps.

I had to remove the bracing for the transom in order to fit the board in. I dont think I will be able to use rivets again, as I didnt get it perfectly centered. Now in some spots there is almost a double sized hole. Any suggestions on this? Maybe fill it with JB weld and then drill a new hole through that?

Here are some new progress pics.

 

[aeviaanah]

lookin good man, you can get close ended pop rivits. just measure the size hole you have and buy a rivit accordingly. tinners rivits come in a variety of sizes as well as pop rivits.

 

[Jdholmes]

Was looking at an ad on craigslist that came up yesterday for a 25 hp evinrude Longshaft or a 20 hp merc short shaft electric start. Either one for $500...

Considering switching out my 9.5 Johnson for one of those maybe...opinions?

Here is the link with pics. https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/boa/2643289291.html

 

[aeviaanah]

Was looking at an ad on craigslist that came up yesterday for a 25 hp evinrude Longshaft or a 20 hp merc short shaft electric start. Either one for $500...

Considering switching out my 9.5 Johnson for one of those maybe...opinions?

Here is the link with pics. https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/boa/2643289291.html

Go check em out, have em start em both up...Make a decision then.

 

[fool4fish1226]

For that price buy both of them

 

[Jdholmes]

Thing that worries me is I haven't heard great things about older mercs...

And the evinrude is a long shaft.

Anyone have experience with those issues?