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Reply With QuoteLots to go, but you have a great teacher in Rojo. when back together, it will probably be better and stronger than new.
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Crappie Wall Hanger II
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Removed the outboard, cut the back skin, and started digging in...
Since my daughter decided to use my outboard stand as a "jungle gym" and didn't scratch up, I figured that the paint was dry enough to move the outboard to it. The kids did help with the process, since one of the lower mount bolts started spinning when I was turning the nut on the outside, which required my son to lay on the back deck to reach in to put a wrench on the bolt head. Once the outboard was unmounted, I was able to swivel the cherry picker around enough to pull the outboard out and port side enough to get steering cables out from the pivot tube and secondary tube. By then I got the trim in as much as reasonable possible before I disconnected power and controls (trim/tilt plug and big red plug).
While I expected the outboard to kick out at an angle once separated from the transom, it wasn't as bad as I thought as it would be. Mounting to the stand wasn't too bad. Where it sits, it actually takes up less depth in the garage than the zero turn mower, which parked there perpendicular to my truck back when we had a 3rd vehicle that my wife wanted to park in her garage next to her other vehicle--in other words, I can still park in the garage and have plenty of room to walk around.
With the outboard removed, I noticed that the skin was indented a little bit from the mount pressing in.
I decided now was a good time to clean up and put away tools and cover up the boat somewhat before I started making fiberglass dust everywhere. I also finished taping up.
Cutting the fiberglass skin wasn't too bad once I got another multitool. My old one was getting so hot that it was melting a plastic piece that couples the rotatable head and the motor, and it was originally a salvaged Rigid corded one that I ran out of those plastic couplers after cutting halfway around. I ended up getting a battery-powered Ryobi that uses the same battery as my other 18V tools. Once I was done cutting, I used one of my Stanley wonder bars to gently work the fiberglass away from the wood, since I didn't want to crack the fiberglass skin--this was a tip from Rojo. Once in, I saw a lot of wet wood--no wonder I was able to press the skin in so easily in places and didn't have much of a fight getting the skin off.
I did some digging, and I still have more digging. I also start cutting small blocks of the better wood at the top to help break it out without damaging the top cap fiberglass in the splash well. There were a couple of spots near the button outboard mount holes where torquing down compromised the fiberglass, so that will also need some repair work as well. I haven't quite found the end of wet wood for what seems to be the knee braces, so I'm going to have to get some longer scraping tools to keep digging that out.
This is the pile of rotted wood that I have on the cardboard on the floor. So much of it feels like wet garden or potting soil, that I might gain back a few mph due to the weight loss. Considering how well that the rest of then fiberglass was holding the outboard between a sandwich of wet wood, the repair job shouldn't be weaker than what I had.
Last edited by jjue1979; 12-26-2025 at 09:43 PM.
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Lots to go, but you have a great teacher in Rojo. when back together, it will probably be better and stronger than new.
Proud to have served with and supported the Units I was in: 1st IDF, 9th INF, 558th USAAG (Greece), 7th Transportation Brigade, 6th MEDSOM (Korea), III Corp, 8th IDF, 3rd Armor Div.
1980 Ebbtide Dyna-Trak 160 Evinrude 65 Triumphwannabe fisherman LIKED above post
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Bud at this point keep cleaning out the wood with tools as much as you can. Remember the Snap-on 3/4im wide Pry Tool I showed you. It was sharpened on the blade like a wood chisel and I drove it with a hammer to clean off and out wood. I made a hook tool out of Cold Roll to clean out the Knee Braces also used various pieces of Flat Bar for scraping the Knee Brace area. When you get the the repair part of the Knee Braces I will butt in again. Clean, clean, clean so the Epoxy sticks straight to old glasswork. You will need to reinforce the Lip of the Splashwell where the crack is also you will need that layer of 1708 on the inside skin as we discussed. I have drop aluminum to make you HD Transom Savers out of, Anodized.
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It definitely needs a flatbar for transom saver for the lower mount holes; the pieces of aluminum flatbar cut into squares as support for each bolt did me no favors. The top holes had a nice transom saver, so I'm probably good there.Originally Posted by Rojo
If I'm not at work or taking kids to their activities, you might find me on "The Rez" fishing. If not there, I could be in the garage working on my boat.
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There isn’t much to write about since all that I did was dig, cut, and pull out more wood, and I didn’t get to start until mid afternoon. I think that I dug about 9-10” into the port side and about 12-13” on the starboard side. There is still plenty of wet and dryer wood to dig out. I’ve got so much stuff at my feet that I’m going to sweep it into the garbage so that I can start a little fresher after I get done preparing the house for another cold front starting tomorrow night/Monday morning.
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As I had more light and dig in a little more, I realized that the riggers used the little square plates while Skeeter may have cut out spots in the horizontal brace above the knee braces for where the lower mount bolts go. A custom transom saver between the knee braces is what’ll be required.
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All good. You're smart, when you figure out what's needed if you can't make it I'm sure I can. Looks like Old Times here in my Shop. Rotten wood all over the floor, in my lap, in my hair, etc.
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Let me add here you're using Top Shelf materials and executing the best techniques, no washer will ever pull through your transom skin again. Won't even make a dent if you do the job right. The aluminum transom saver on the lower engine mounting bolts will do more for your piece of mind than add integrity to the transom.
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Just kept digging...
The short story is that I was digging when I wasn't tending to other things around the house until I stopped around dinner time to 5S the work area. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here is a little bit of info on the Japanese 5S methodology, which is deeply ingrained in Japanese manufacturing.
The longer story is that I spent more of my time digging on the horizontal brace and out to the sides. By the time that I got done today, I was scratching the sides of the boat, which has me wondering how wide the core really was. There is still plenty to dig out before I can say that I'm done with that part. Pictures are purposely not in order today to properly tell the story; below is the progress at the end of the day.
Port side view
Starboard side view
To take a break from all of the digging to the sides, I scraped off a bunch of the wood from the skin that I cut out to the point that it is ready for sanding. I ended up cleaning it up more after I took the pictures, and you can see a lot more white fiberglass and less wood. The silver flake looks much better when it isn't covered in caked-on grease and Ross Barnett Reservoir water stain.
I also decided to peel back the piece of carpet covering the bilge area wall from knee brace to knee brace because of a screw that was sticking through to probably hold the thin fiberglass skin to the wood core. When I get done, I'm probably going to paint that area with bilge paint instead of recarpeting unless someone has a better idea.
I doubt that I get a chance to work on it tomorrow, and even then I won't be able to get back at it until sometime next week. Progress will be much slower from here on out since the kids will go back to school and I go back to work next week.
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You can see how thin the inner skin is from the light on the outside shining thru. It's looking pretty good. It looks like the core was narrower than 1-5/8in. You will need to get a good idea of what thickness core if what I gave you is too thick. I've laminated transoms using 1/2in thick Coosa 26 by layering. Staggering the joints, and adding a layer of 1708 in between each core layer. Super Strong laminate was the result. Cut yourself a small piece of the 1-5/8in to use to measure you core opening. If it is too thick to use as the main core you can dig out that 2x4 cross brace and tablesaw the thick core material down to 2x4 blocks to replace the cross brace with. Don't leave the wood in the cross brace, replace as much of it as you can.
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