New Overnighter, new transom

J

JDS535

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Overnighter
Hello all, I am new to the forum and new to Grady White boats. It has been a few years since I sold my Mako and I and super excited about the 1984 GW Overnighter 20 I just bought.
I knew immediately that this boat needed a new transom. There was no motor on the boat and half of that cheap aluminum trim piece was gone exposing the gap between the back of the transom and the top. Stress cracks, brass drain plugs pulled through the skin due to wood swelling etc.
Anyway, I replaced the transom on my Mako successfully and used the boat for 3 years before selling it.
I removed the back skin leaving 4" to tab to, and replaced the layers of plywood using West System Epoxy. All in all, it was a time consuming and expensive process.
My plan for the GW is to remove the back skin leaving 4" to tab on either side of the seam and pour the transom with Arjay compound.
My question is : has anybody done this? Does anybody know if the transom and stringers are tied in wood to wood, or is the transom glassed in then the stringer butts to it.
My concern is taking that back skin off, then finding out that the end of the stringers is bad too. The entire inside of the boat shows no indication of rot. Everything is super clean and hard. The stringers pass the tap test all the way down to the transom. No brown water or stains anywhere.
What do you guys think?
 
Here are youtube vids I made when I used Carboncore(aka Arjay) to pour a transom.
My V20 was complicated by the shape of the transom. It was not flat across. I opted to remove the INNER skin.
Gradys are flat. outer skin is the way to go.


On my V20, the stringers surprised me as the core flowed out the holes at the bottom of the stringers.
So in that case, they assembled the transom and stringers and then glassed.
I suggest you tape or lightly glass over the holes and redrill later

Arjay is polyester. You need to use polyester resin where there is contact with arjay. Once its together, you can use epoxy to cover.


V20 transom part 1

V20 transom part 2

go straight to chainsaw..... :p
 
Thanks, Skunkboat.
I watched the Vids. Good stuff. I saw the blowouts on your boat while pouring. I am hoping GW has the transom and the stringers seperated by a layer of glass so I dont have to worry about them. I like the electric chainsaw idea. I cant imagine going at that with my Stihl gas chainsaw without tearing all the glass up. I'm gonna look for a cheap used electric saw just for this job. How is she holding together after time?
 
JDS535 said:
Thanks, Skunkboat.
I watched the Vids. Good stuff. I saw the blowouts on your boat while pouring. I am hoping GW has the transom and the stringers seperated by a layer of glass so I dont have to worry about them. I like the electric chainsaw idea. I cant imagine going at that with my Stihl gas chainsaw without tearing all the glass up. I'm gonna look for a cheap used electric saw just for this job. How is she holding together after time?
Click to expand...
I ran it for a few years and sold it to move up to my Grady 265. That stuff is solid.
The only issue was where I tried to get away with not glassing over the outside of cuts in the motorwell. I glassed the inside and just faired the outside. Really need a layer of glass to prevent eventually spider crack. A layer of glass means much more fairing required.


Harbor Freight super cheap chain saw.....
 
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I have seen a couple guys do it that way, I always wondered if the structural putty would hold.
 
So, I guess I will just open it up from the outside and see what I see.
 
LOL, update on my plans. So I calculated the Arjay material needed ant it will cost $2000 to use that material. Much more than I was expecting. Seacast would cost about $1100 but with all of the strand fiberglass in it I worry about voids when pouring it.
I am now considering using plywood and relaminating it with fiberglass. My first plan was to remove the rear skin and leave a 4" border but that would make it hard to get the plywood tight, and fill any voids around the edges as I go.
What do you guys think about cutting the skin all of the way out to the edge and just lapping 3 layers of glass over the whole skin and around the edges?
That would make it easy to get the plywood tight and filled well.??

Thanks, Jeff
 
I'm guessing that shipping is what is killing you. I was able to find a distributor in NY that I could pickup from. Was worth a couple hrs driving.

I'm looking at CarbonCore website. CarbonBond TPC is $250 per 5 gal bucket. I needed 3 buckets for my V20. Can't imagine a 20 ft grady needs more...maybe 4 buckets?

https://www.carbon-core.com/product/carbonbond/
 
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I looked at 2 websites and it said I needed 4 buckets. $250 each is not too bad. It sounds like this is the better way to go.
When I did my Mako I took off the back skin at around 4" inside the corner all around the bottom but I had full access to the top so I just dropped the pcs of plywood in from the top. I will not have that option on this one so I cant use plywood or coosa board unless I cut up. I don't want to do that.

Thanks
 
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