1979 Grady White Offshore 24 Restoration

[noreaster222]

Greetings. I was advised to make a restore thread here on Great Grady because there is a wealth of knowledge.

I'm a first time boat owner with minimal experience in boats. I picked this boat up at a very reasonable price on the trailer knowing it would need a new transom and an engine.

I've been reading and watching a lot getting to the point where it's time to start cutting and ordering parts.

For cutting I am inclined to do the routine inside cut, however someone chopped up the bilge area for a plastic access hatch. I'm thinking about cutting in from the transom and around the old and new bilge hatches, then cutting out a new hole for another aftermarket hatch(or build one). My current theory is to remove both livewell/battery box then the normal cut out plus removing the the bilge hatch.

Would it be reasonably easy to do this and glass from the transom to a few inches forward of the bilge hatch with all new glass? I will attach a picture so you can see what I mean about cutting out the bilge hatch

Aside from that I'm looking for a parts list for redoing the transom/necessary quantities. Also and recommendations for which brands to go with.

This place isn't to far away: http://www.boulterplywood.com/

I'm looking at Merranti A/B BS1088 3/4" 4' x8' mahogany $120 for the transom core

I've also planned to make it a full transom and add a flotation bracket. I work at a welding shop, if I can get enough information from current experienced Grady owners I'd like to build my own bracket

 

[VeroWing]

I see you made it over here to GreatGrady. Those pics you posted are kind of hard to make out much, maybe you can take a few of the complete splash area from a few more feet away so we can get a look at what you're working with. When I did my transom rebuild I came about half way back from the transom (approx. 10-12") and cut across splash area from port to starboard and removed whole section. This works well because you don't have to cut/repair the top caps, which saves a lot of labor. Just remove hatch in splash area, and lids on aft corners. So you've decided to close in the complete transom, how do you plan on topping it off and matching sides? You'll also have to consider the strength needed in the new transom to carry the bracket and engine(s). That will be considerable weight hanging off of it, so it will need to be strong and tied in well to stringers and hull. You can go to the top of this page and use the "search" function to check out some previous transom rebuilds that members have done here. There should be some good ideas and tips that could save you time and money.

 

[noreaster222]

I see you made it over here to GreatGrady. Those pics you posted are kind of hard to make out much, maybe you can take a few of the complete splash area from a few more feet away so we can get a look at what you're working with. When I did my transom rebuild I came about half way back from the transom (approx. 10-12") and cut across splash area from port to starboard and removed whole section. This works well because you don't have to cut/repair the top caps, which saves a lot of labor. Just remove hatch in splash area, and lids on aft corners. So you've decided to close in the complete transom, how do you plan on topping it off and matching sides? You'll also have to consider the strength needed in the new transom to carry the bracket and engine(s). That will be considerable weight hanging off of it, so it will need to be strong and tied in well to stringers and hull. You can go to the top of this page and use the "search" function to check out some previous transom rebuilds that members have done here. There should be some good ideas and tips that could save you time and money.

I've noticed pictures work a little different here from most places. The best way I've found to deal with this is to right click on the image and select, "view image". From there you'll see a nice fit-to-screen version and if you click on it you can blow it up to full size and pan around with scrolling. Click again to fit-to-screen.

One more thing to note is that you can cntrl + scroll wheel up or down to zoom further in and out inside a browser.

When done checking out a particular image you can Back Button to return to the forum thread.

Looks like I forgot a link to my One Drive album of the boat so I'll link that below.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=7 ... lder%2cJPG

Last night I removed the rear live-well/battery boxes. They were in rough shape so I will be doing something custom back there to replace them. I'm open to any ideas others might have/have done.

About the completely closed transom... After stripping the boat some back there I've noticed I have a step in the transom. It appears the wood in the transom stops at the step, then the transom outside shell steps back all the way to the top and seems to be loosely filled with some sort of linguini looking fiberglass. Three pictures attached. One is of the step in the transom. It seems like it would only make sense to bring the new transom wood up to that step. Otherwise I'd have to fill between the wood and the step. The other two pictures are of the transom eye hooks taken from the inside transom. You can see clearly that there is no wood up that high.

I'll have some more pictures this evening.

 

[noreaster222]

The following 5 pictures show my initial proposed cut line in red marker using a dotted line. I at first considered coming back down the starboard and port sides a foot or so from the transom but then realized The outer skin is only another 5/8" or so inches beyond the inner skin. Doesn't seem necessary?

I'm going to ask around a little bit before I actually start cutting.

 

[noreaster222]

Below is a onedrive link to an album containing the 5 pictures of my proposed cut line for those who prefer it:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=7 ... lder%2cJPG