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First step is to find out exactly how bad it is. This mainly consists of dismantling the boat while going on a search for rotten wood, or other issues the previous owner(s) jacked up or didn't do well.
Before we really started looking under the surface, things looked very nice.
But upon further examination we found some rotten wood in the transom and found a rather soft stringer up near the driver's seat. You'll see a good shot of the transom and stringer later. For now let's go through the rest of the boat.
After removing the front seats, and rear bench we noticed signs of mold, poorly done repairs, and resin/fiberglass de-lamination. Here are some photos showing each of these issues.
First the de-lamination allowing water to penetrate exposed wood. No rot was found at these joints but overtime it is sure to host mold of some sort. The photo on the left shows the location, and a close up is provided on the right.
Next we have some photos of the mold in the decking. Here you can also see signs of a decking repair done in the past where they seemed to have replaced certain portions of the deck but not all of it. Someone also tried to use caulking to form a seal between the new decking and the old decking. Obviously a bad idea as it did not adhere to the wood. This decking had no signs of resin coating so it's to no surprise mold set in. This will all be fixed for the long term when we're done with it.
Further along in the assessment, we found a hose used to drain the live bait container into the bilge. This of course is very convenient for flushing water out of the tank. However, the problem here is that the hose is routed to drain right on top of trip pump electrical connectors. I have no idea why this hose is attached to the boat in this manner, certainly not something the manufacturer designed. When the boat is reassembled, this hose will actually drain directly down into the bilge.
Speaking of the trim pump, after removing it, signs of water contamination were discovered. Once upon a time, I thought water and oil don't mix, that really isn't true. <-- Maybe later on I'll disclose where I first learned that bit of knowledge. HINT: Take a peek at what I'm draining the contaminated fluid into. (Yep, that's a .50 Cal ammo can)
When it mixes it gives off a milky appearance. Take a look below. This is actually transmission fluid mixed with water, giving off a strawberry milk (pink) appearance. To fix this I completely drained the fluid out of the trim pump and looked for any signs where water could get into the trim lines or in the trim pump. I think I fixed this but will keep an eye on it when we take the boat out again.
Ok, time to remove the outdrive and prepare to pull the engine out to gain full access to the transom. After all, the transom is really what we're after.
In this photo you'll see one of our helpers... I used a heavy duty step ladder and a heavy duty cargo strap for a hasty hoist mechanism. The outdrive was quite heavy, but this setup worked ok. In the photo on the right you see the outdrive shaft after it was pulled out of the engine.
This weekend (April 11, 2009) we plan to pull the engine out with a real hoist. Until then I will make good use of the time by cleaning the trim pump, and doing further inspection of interior boards and other interior features removed over the course of this day.
To follow along in sequence, please look over the Engine Removal page. Then come back here, with the engine removed we finally have full access to repair the damaged areas.
Okay, now that we're back to the transom let's keep taking things apart. Here we have a shot just before the inner side of the gimbal housing was removed. Take note of all of the wire zip-ties that were screwed into the transom wood. These holes helped promote rot. No one in their right might would need to put wire holders for two wires every 3 inches. Here you can begin to see the signs of rot (near the Ziploc box) that essentially made us aware of the issue. By this time, I cleared out a lot of the rotten wood from that side (the port side).
With everything out of the way now, let's look at the battery trays. Here are some shots of the starboard side.
Remember now, we're still in the damage assessment mode and need to do some further inspection...
The so-called pour-in foam just doesn't cut it when you need true support. This was a good note taken, we're going to use more of a solid foam substrate and just augment it with more dynamic foam expansion rather than depending solely on pour-in foam. From a moisture management view, these air gaps only promote the retention of moisture. Something we want to avoid inside boats.
Here is a shot of the middle, just below the hole for the outdrive. Not much support here.
Okay, moving more towards the port side we have more fun to assess. I must say, we have learned to mimimally use carpet in the boat. Carpet only retains water when it has the chance to. Why anyone would want to have carpet next to their engine, is beyond me. Do you put carpet in then engine compartment of your car? Why not? Perhaps because it gets dirty, greasy, and is hard to wipe off... Don't put carpet near your engine!!! We're going to use rubberized paint such as (Overton's Rubberized Nonskid Marine Coating) for all carpeted surface near the engine. Stay tuned for more on this.
One last note on the self-expanding foam -- we see the same evidence in the port battery tray. In these photos you can see the severity of the void left behind. This is a pry bar that is approximately 16 inches long, I was able to easily slide the tool all the way back to the transom. In the right photo, you can only see the end of it in the huge void. There wasn't any wood left in this area, the entire tray was held together by the fiberglass edges.
We've recently learned that otherwise-good foam actually loses it's ability to reject to water over time. One main goal of injecting foam into the boat hull is to displace water, NOT RETAIN WATER. Once again, we never want to retain water in the boat unless it's in a cooler full of frosty beverages. We had a good cubic foot of foam what weighed a few grams if at all, and then a good 1/2 cubic foot that weighed several pounds. All the wet foam was carefully scraped out with a large pry bar and a thick putty knife.
When you have excessive carpet in the boat, beware of a science experiment to follow... (those aren't roots -- more like a growing structure of bacteria)
Ok, most of the wood against the transom is now removed. We will be cutting some of the aft portion of the stringers out, mainly to gain the access needed to replace the transom. Here are a few final shots of the transom wrapping up that portion of the damage assessment.
Click on the small images to see the full resolution photo. That applies to any of the pictures on this blog.
Ok, now that we can see all the damage in the stern, let's move on to the bow area. To keep us moving at a fast pace, we had to create some shade. It's getting warm out now, which is only increasing the motivation to get the boat done and ready for the lake.
Near the driver's seat, we noticed some mushy portions of the decking and upon further inspection noticed one portion was only supported by the carpet. All of the underlying wood was completely gone on the starboard side of the walkway to the open bow seating area.
Here is a panoramic view of what it looks like below the decking. For these shots the camera was pointed in the forward direction (towards the bow). Basic investigative skills shows that someone (a really smart person) removed a rib between the two inboard stringers. This rib, or floor, was probably removed to fit water skis or long fishing poles in the below-deck storage compartment. On the starboard side (right-most photo below) is where the rot in the stringer was initially found. The port stringer (left-most photo below) is actually good dry wood. We will be complete replacing the starboard stringer and doing some repair on the exposed wood of the port stringer. Since the port stringer is still solid, we will only need to patch up the exposed portion so that the wood is once again fully encased. The center photo shows a very bad support structure for the boards at the top running laterally to support the walk through decking. This support was wedged between the hull and a 2x12.
Looking above deck, we had rotten plywood under the driver's console. This plywood was in such bad shape that it would have collapsed if it weren't behind a board used to mount the right-front speaker. We would have also easily noticed this before purchasing the boat, but let's not go there... This wood just had to be scooped out and tossed in the trash.
The decking on the starboard side of the walk through was gone after the carpet was pulled out. The rest of the plywood of the bow decking was resting on the 2x12 mentioned above. Once we moved the small board wedged between the hull and the 2x12, the majority of the bow decking just fell out. This wood was completely dry so it just piled up like a bunch of kindling.
After some major vacuuming and general cleaning up, we could easily see that the entire deck will need to be replaced. Now we are able to fully understand how much wood we need and will be making a purchase from the local lumbar yard this week. We are able to make a good judgment of how much fiberglass and resin we are going to start with, so an order for that stuff will be made this week as well. We're going to start with fixing the transom after sanding the surface with a 36 grit sanding disc to knock down anything that may prevent solid adhesion to the surface.
We are done with the damage assessment of both the forward and aft portions of the boat.
In case you missed it, please check out the Engine Removal page.
Check out the next step here:
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