Transom Rebuild - The Saga Begins

[HMBJack]

Congratulations. You made the right decision to have the job done. Now you can sleep better at night not thinking about this and start enjoying your boating season. Well done. Put all of this behind you now brother!

 

[Recoil Rob]

Nice job too! Nice not ever having to worry about that again

 

[Sdfish]

That looks great!

 

[Pat Hurley]

Update. Transom has been repaired. Repair was much less than anticipated. I believe we got it very early. Only approx 3” of glass needed. Engines going on this week. Hopefully will get it by the weekend for final prep.

Looks great Fish !! Hopefully it was easier on the wallet going only 3”” instead of down deep. You ain’t missed much fishing action either with all the craptastic weather thus far. Thanks for the update and repair porn photos

 

[wireline]

Looks great, good to hear not as bad as thought.

 

[Legend]

Looks great - congrats on getting this project behind you. I will never understand why this is not done at the factory - how much could it cost to glass over 4 more inches when in the manufacturing process.

 

[Fishtales]

Update. Engines are installed and tested. She's ready to go into the water finally.
Some pics attached. Will get final set when she is at the slip. No final cost number yet. Once I get, I'll be reviewing with GW.

 

[Byram]

Looks great..Nice and clean

 

[MA208]

Looks really well done. Perfect gel coat matching.

 

[igblack87]

Nice!

 

[Fishtales]

Hi Folks,
A few have asked so here is the cost. $9.2K for the glass and $2.6K for the engine work and some other incidentals. GW covered some (basically the latter) on goodwill given that it was past the 5 year hull warranty. I appreciate that they stood behind it (wish it was more) and they were a stand up firm to deal with. No BS, just an honest review and a number. When I buy a new (3rd boat), I will make this part of the deal to be done prior to delivery.

Thanks for following, letting me vent and providing moral support.

 

[family affair]

Not that I could have come up with a better price, but $9200 for only a partial rebuild had to be very profitable for the shop. I wonder what the price would have been during sane times?

 

[Kizuna]

Not that I could have come up with a better price, but $9200 for only a partial rebuild had to be very profitable for the shop. I wonder what the price would have been during sane times?

I know prices change region t region, but I was looking at a transom rebuild on my '99 Islander and was quoted 10-13k (pre covid). I think it would have been a little more involved than what Fishtales dealt with, but you really don't know until they open everything up. In the end be glad the work was done right; you get what you pay for.

 

[Toothpick 10]

Hi Folks,
A few have asked so here is the cost. $9.2K for the glass and $2.6K for the engine work and some other incidentals. GW covered some (basically the latter) on goodwill given that it was past the 5 year hull warranty. I appreciate that they stood behind it (wish it was more) and they were a stand up firm to deal with. No BS, just an honest review and a number. When I buy a new (3rd boat), I will make this part of the deal to be done prior to delivery.

Thanks for following, letting me vent and providing moral support.

The $9.2K seems high given that only about a 3-inch repair was needed. It seems that they charged you for a full repair even though a partial was required. However, when you consider the cost of new boats these days, the cost is a pretty small percentage.

 

[mr_mbuna]

I paid $2K in the SF Bay Area to have the aluminum bang cap on my transom glassed over, including glass work and removing/installing the single outboard. That required removing the existing gelcoat, adding ~10 layers of glass to strengthen and true the transom, and applying new gelcoat (a couple times to get the color match). If my guy had to go deeper into removing and replacing transom structural elements it would certainly be more. I would guess $5K for a partial remediation like Fishtales got or $10K for a full transom rebuild. But that's just a guess; thank you to @Fishtales for sharing an actual data point for the Boston area.

Here's as deep as they went on grinding down my transom:

 

[Fishtales]

I thought both prices were high to be honest, but once they start the job, you are married to the job and those doing it and what they find. I pay extra at my local marina as I always had the dealer winterize and maintain vs the local marina. That likely changes going forward based on this experience.
In addition I likely look at a better boat builder like Onslow Bay next time. The transom is a major design flaw if you ask me. Many production boat builders do it this way, but that isn't an excuse in my book.

 

[Fishtales]

Fire away with your input. Boston area, not NY Long Island for the record.

I was initially given a $10K quote from the glass guy (8" deep, built in drain tubes included) and my local dealer thought it was high. I then got a $3K quote for the engine removal, installation, new rigging tubes and some other minor work. I thought both were high but the glass work was somewhat blind and based upon what was found.
3" glass work with maybe 6" gelcoat. Glass guys says won't be close to 10k then came in with 9.2K - a bit of a slap in the face if you ask me with the reduced work and late that caused me to be 2 weeks late getting her in. Dealer didn't do the Yamaha rigging tubes, just cut them back and installed the zipper covers (I had installed them myself over the Yamaha tubes about 5 years ago after a tech cracked them by not turning the motors a bit before lifting) which were perfectly fine. Top it off no summerization done, I'm guessing it was missed in the rush to get her back in the water.

Experience left an extremely bad taste in my mouth given a 20 year relationship with the dealer. I went with the glass guy based on the recommendation of the dealer. To be fair, the glass guy did an excellent job and I'm happy with he did. It just is far less than advertised and the price didn't reflect the work. I argued the case to no avail and had to bite my tong in the end and write two checks that I believe were excessive.

Don't want to crap on specific businesses here, just share a less than fun experience that left me feeling in the end I was not even kissed...
Maybe it was covid, maybe it was a business that had the leverage and treated the customer as a transaction (bleed what you can as you won't see them again) versus a relationship. I'm glad I have the boat back and will search for alternatives in the future that are hopefully more customer centric.
Thread title was spot on in the end. Glad the saga has ended.

 

[mr_mbuna]

I also had to pay more than I wanted (albeit just $500 more) to get my glass guy to put the effort into achieving a reasonable gelcoat color match. I wasn't happy about that at the time but the end result was what mattered. As you said once you start you're committed to the pro and they have the leverage.

Just forget about it as best you can and enjoy the boat as much as you can going forward!

 

[Pat Hurley]

Sorry to here about that experience. Seems that high prices and unsatisfactory results has been a broken record in just about anything we do these days. One can only hope that when they cross that bridge (transom repair) things are cooled off a bit and we won’t have to “clench the cheeks” when writing the check.

 

[pmgia]

I had my transom inspected and a new bang plate resealed and installed Before hanging a new engine. I suggest anyone with the aluminum crap to do the same, I can see how ugly things could get if not caught earl.