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Windman7

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I want to thank all the creative craftsman on this site. You have great ideas and are really an inspiration. I have a large deck boat with 200hp motor. Since we fish Weiss lake which is notorious for shallow areas, stumps, rocks and numerous other things capable of destroying a lower end, I bought this boat to allow me anywhere I want. Wind won't blow it around and it's small enough the whole family doesn't want to come. I can actually fish since my time isn't spent tieing lures, untangling lines, and taking fish off the hooks.
When I bought the boat, there was no name plate on it and the previous owner didn't know who the manufacturer was. Does anyone know who could be the manufacturer?
 

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Since spring is around the corner, I'm going to wait till next year to do a major project. In the meantime, I have some things to work on. The primary need right now is to replace the transom, and I need your wisdom.
1. Is plywood the best material?
2. Is AC or BC plywood an advantage over CDX?
3. What is the best way to protect the plywood?
Fiberglass?
Urethane?
Epoxy?
4. What is the best way to seal the edges of the plywood?

The aluminum skin of the transom appears to be tearing at the edge of the transom.
1. Should I enlarge the transom?
2. Would aluminum diamond plate over it be sufficent?
3. Should I have it welded and reinforced?

I will try to figure out how to post pictures to go with this.
 

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I know its only a guess but it looks a lot like an old boat I used to have.. the brand was Crestliner. I don't really know what brand it is but looks like a good boat.... enjoy
 
I looked in the back of the boat in the transom area and couldn't find a plate. Any idea where it will be located?
 
Starting the transom repair. It is soft and flexed with the first motor 25hp. Half the nuts came off easily, the other half will have to be cut off.
 

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What plywood has the least amount of voids? What is the best way to seal the edges?
 

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Tore the transom wood out today. When I started grinding all the grime, caulk and paint off, I discovered the aluminum is pitted. What is the best way to deal with this? Some of the holes are quite large. Can they be repaired with JB Weld or do they need a patch?
 

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Wow. Those are some big holes. I don't know the "right" way to fix them, but if it were mine, I think I'd rivit some new same gauge tin on the back. I'd put a bead of 3M marine sealer around the perimeter of the patch before putting it on, as well as around each hole. Then I'd fill the holes with JB using the new tin as a backing and sand smooth & paint.

I'm no tin expert, but that's how I'd try to attack it without spending a lot of $.

Oh, I sealed the edge of my plywood with wood sealer. Several coats.

Good luck!
 
I'm a newbie, so I'm guessing holes can be filled with welding and and sand out.

On another note, is there any dangers in using a wire brush with a grinder on the aluminum? Can it heat it up? Distort it in any way?
 
I'm leaning toward your idea of patching and JB Weld fill. The transom is only .063" thick and probably not a good candidate for welding.

Has anyone heard of an Allenby boat? The seller told me that was the brand of this boat, but google doesn't show that as a manufacturer of boats.
 
Well I decided to have the big holes welded up. I took it to a fab shop and they put a patch behind it and filled the holes. They also repaired the crack at the top edge for $40. I really don't like the looks of the patch, but I guess since it is on the inside nothing will show.

I stopped by West Marine and picked up epoxy for the transom wood. In discussing the need for marine plywood, he said American marine grade has no standards and can have voids and plugs. He said that european marine plywood has high standards that includes no voids or plugs. I've decided to pick up some AC plywood and fill the edge voids with epoxy. He mentioned that if the plywood is exposed to moisture, it won't matter which kind of glue there is because it will still rot. He suggested I use several coats on the faces and 3 coats on the edges. He also suggested I use glass with the epoxy for stiffness. Based on his suggestions I went with a slow hardner and plan on coating in the basement instead of my shop because of temperature reasons.

As mentioned on other builds and by West, I plan on pre-drilling the holes oversized and fill with epoxy. I can re-drill them afterwards and have the holes sealed that way.

I have a busy weekend to get this all finished.
 
This is what the patch looked like. Not lovin the look of it, but I guess it fills the holes.
 

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Bought some BC plywood today and cut out the transom. As mentioned by others and the West Marine rep, I drilled the holes large and plan on plugging them with epoxy and redrilling them to install. This will help prevent water from getting to the wood from the bolt holes. I'm glad I decided to epoxy and glass the transom boards. The plywood was poorly glued and every time I cut or drilled it flaked the sanded layer off. Hopefully when I finish, no one will be able to tell.
 

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Well I ordered West Epoxy System.
 

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This is what the transom wood looked like. It had outer layers flaked off when I cut, drilled, and routed the boards. I'm using the epoxy to repair. I've never used the West system before and it was a learning curve. I put duct tape on the back of the holes to fill them with. When I put the epoxy in the holes it was so thin that the epoxy leaked out from behind the tape. I had to use filler to keep it in the holes.
 

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Well after many weeks the transom is finally finished. The transom is AC plywood filled on the ends and coated with numerous coats of epoxy, then glass and epoxy. Finally coated with red polyurethane. I took all the flat aluminum trim off and replaced with .125" aluminum diamond plate. I used all SS fasteners from Boltdepot.com. They are extremely inexpensive on hardware. I installed everything with 5200. Boy that stuff is messy. Ruined a brand new t shirt. Thought it would take 1 to 1.5 hrs to bolt it all together. Took over 4 hours. This is one transom that will never rot or leak... If I had it to do over again, probably would have take a scrap piece of plywood filled the ends and painted it. Sure it would rot in ten years, but I wouldn't have missed some spring fishing.
 

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