BigBendFishing.Net

A boat project whose scope grew out of control :( has left me with a solid running, fairly low hour, 1995 Evinrude OceanPro 140. This motor has been living the easy life for the last 4 years, running up and down a river only occasionally. The motor runs fast and strong, and I've been told by that th...

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I updated this thread with progress. As with any project of this magnitude, there has been good, bad, and just plain ugly... THE GOOD I've been working on the boat, but mostly on the weekends and mostly just glassing the transom in. I am lucky to have a friend...

Okay, I might be starting to learn something here, so stick with me for a short discussion please. I'm pretty sure my boat does not have a self bailing deck. The water collects in the bilge and it gets pumped out, there is no way for it to flow out right now. Is that what ball scuppers are for? I've...

When discussing the boat I am having redone, I made it clear that I didn't want any water in the bilge. No matter how well protected, wood and water eventually equal rot. But isn't the purpose of the bilge to gather water so that it can be pumped out of the boat? I mean, yes, ideally, I would like ...

Thanks for the compliment, MudDucker. When I said a hatch over the gas tank, what I meant was a full sized hatch, slightly larger than the tank itself, secured in with stainless steel screws and some means of water rejection, like silicone or a high density closed cell foam tape, haven't decided yet...

How do you plan on putting the rear portin of the top piece back on without a seam? Just curious. It'll go back on in pretty much exact reverse order that it came off. On a boat like this, the upper and lower hulls do not have a solid fiberglass connection, instead they are connected by a series of...

Hey Chalk, Thanks for the links and the advice. With the way I did the measurements, it was actually quite easy to get the luan to fit properly, only took about 20 minutes all told. Crawfordville's a tiny town and makes it hard to find large pieces of cardboard or much of anything for that matter, a...

Finally, I spent the better part of Sunday measuring and cutting the luan to fit the transom properly, then traced it onto 3/4" plywood and sandwiched 2 layers of Luan between the 2 pieces of 3/4" BC plywood, knots filled with Bondo and placed on the inside. There is a piece of 1.5oz mat b...

Once the transom skin and gel coat had been ground down and cleaned up, I needed to smooth out the areas where I had knicked it with the chainsaw, so I mixed together a thick paste from polyester resin and Cabosil and applied it with a wide putty knife over the entire surface. I also rounded over th...

I spent Saturday morning grinding off the remaining thin bit of plywood still on the transom skin. Folks, the only tool capable of this job is a high speed grinder, a heavy duty Random Orbital Sander will not work, believe me, I tried to get away with it and realised it didn't stand a chance after o...

Here's a closeup of the rot in the starboard stringer, most of it was black mud and it continues towards the front of the boat for another couple feet. The fiberglass covering it was disappointingly thin.

Here's a side view of the previous shot. You can also see where I cut through the upper hull to remove it. I've also removed the battery box and the bulkhead behind the gas tank since both were totally rotten and the gas tank needs to be pulled out and checked, it has a bit of corrosion on top (then...

In this shot the transom has been mostly removed. Also seen are the areas where the flotation boxes have been cut away from the back corners and the rear bit of the deck and stringers have been removed. The dark spot behind the gas tank is where the battery box was - I think it may have been the ori...

Thanks FC, I have a lot of fond memories of this boat since my granddad would take me and my dad fishing on it when I was younger. It rides a lot smoother than his old Chaparral Tri-Hull, cuts the waves well, and moves fast with the Evinrude 140 2-stroke on the back. It makes a great platform for fi...

Hey All, I figured I'd start a thread here to follow a transom replacement and stringer/floor repair job that I'm currently a week into. I purchased this boat from my grandfather at Christmas when he found a smaller one that was easier to launch and handle given his age. I soon found out that the so...