Starting 87 SN Floor/Stinger Repair

Wiped with acetone. Grinded and sanded the bilge and ends of the brace. Applied resin and epoxy mat in the channels on the stringers. Applied resin on the brace. Set it in place and put weight on top to hold it down. Added some epoxy mat to the ends and wiped most of the run off in the bilge. Just going to have fill and sand when it all cures.

How did you get the old stringers out? Cut at the bottom or at the top and pry them out???

sterlingmermaid wrote: Hi Can you tell me how you got the stringers out? Did you cut them at the bottom or did you cut the top of the gla$$ off and pry them out? What kind of saw did you use?

I do not think it is possible to cut the top off and pry the stringers out. The bottom of the stringers are bedded into the hull very tightly, despite the gla$$ being loose or damaged in other places. You may cut the top and chisel the stringer out in pieces if you wish to preserve the shell of the stringer in order to fill it with some pourable material.



This is the saw I used. It is air powered. Very fast, very easy to work with. I got it at an auto parts store. It takes thin blades similar to a jig saw. So long as the blades are good it pulls right through the material. There is a pocket at the base of the stringer where the saw blade is only cutting gla$$. You can feel it when you make your cut. If you are cutting wood it will have a lot of resistance. When you are just cutting the gla$$ it pulls through easily. That is the sweet spot you need to find to cut the stringer out in one piece.

Now if you don't have rot at the base of the stringers it would be much easier and many times less expensive to repair a section of the stringer. Simply mark a line parallel to the hull an inch or more above the hull. Then use a saws all or similar cutting tool to cut along that mark. Then you replace the damaged wood that you cut out. Just put down a bed of epoxy resin with two layers of epoxy mat, saturate the bonding edges of the new piece, install, weight down, then gla$$. This way, you don't have to totally remove the stringer. You don't have to gla$$ it in from the bottom up either.

Thanks for the info, now it is starting to make more sense. Do you know if the transom has any wood in it at all? where the stringers attach to it? I just took my swim platform off and the bolts seem to go into soft wood and one bolt seems to line up with the stinger but they are too far apart for both to make it into the 1 1/2in wide stringer. I will start taking pictures and posting my progress if the boat doesn't sekk first

sterlingmermaid wrote: Do you know where I can find a template for the wood part of the floor where the two seats get screwed into? mine was too far gone to make a template from and the foam is already removed. I should have taken an impression of the foam before I removed it but I didn't

A template of this section is not necessary. The wood will run from the front of the motorbox to the back of the battery box (3-4' deep). It comes within 6" of the side of the hull, but it doesnt have to be a precise fit.

The only reason CC used wood in this area instead of gla$$ over foam is because it spans the width of the bilge. There is nothing supporting the floor between the stringers.

thanks for all your help

Terrence

Trying a new technique in the dungeon. Once the cross support was bonded into place with gla$$ and epoxy resin I washed with acetone, sanded, then washed with soap and water and used Bondo body filler. It bonded just fine and gave a great finish.

I suppose at this point I could put in some carpet and put the boat back together. It would be much better than when I started. But I am slowly working away at the bilge. I figure I worked so hard to get to this point that I would hate to not accomplish all of my goals. Call it stubburn, needless, a waste of time, or just plain stupid on my part but I am working with small areas at a time applying bondo, sanding, reapplying, sanding, etc. I am determined to make the bilge "shiny and smooth".

Even when I finish in the bilge I will not put the boat back together just yet. I am working on a little something near the front seat (this time I'll take pictures as I go but finish before posting anything). And, I'll be starting the gelcoat repair from inside out.

It is frustrating because I am close but it just doesn't seem to end.

leo0648 wrote: How do you plan on realigning the engine?

I have been reconditioning the engine and transmission mounts. Specifically, I have removed the old paint and rust. I will repaint them being careful not to get paint where it should not have paint. I bought the OJ Dripless system for the driveshaft. My plan follows:

1: Reinstall the strut
2: Intall the driveshaft and OJ dripless seal
3: Reset the engine and tranny mounts to what they were when I pulled the engine
4: Install the engine and transmission
5: Adjust the mounts until the variance between the tranny and driveshaft is less than .003" (.000" is my goal)

I will keep the engine crane attached to provide lift to make adjustments on the mounts.

Immediately after the first run I will recheck the alignment while the boat is on the water.

I repainted engine mounts before and after several years they started to rust again. My thoughts, if or when I do it again would be to powder coat the mounts. Special instructions would have to be given to the powder coater to keep the coating off the pin and out of the socket.

Progress with the filling and sanding is very slow. Close to finished with that part of the project. Just need to fine tune some small areas where no sander will go. Old school sand paper wrapped around a piece of stock. Slow and tedious work.

Good news is that when I figure out how to apply the bilge paint over epoxy I should have this part of the job finished by the end of the weekend.

Basically they told you to get rid of amine blush and then apply a primer. Primers are always a good idea. However, I would add a step to their recommendations: Do steps 2 & 3 before you do steps 1-4 as listed above. In other words, avoiding sanding in the amine blush. Personally, I would sand with 120 grit paper for more tooth.

Thanks for the advice. I have already been sanding, sanding some more, sanding again, and sanding more in the bilge. Immediately before applying the finishes though, I'll follow this order:

1: scrub with clean water and scotchbrite pads
2: wipe with interlux 202
3: sand again with 120 grit
4: scrub with clean water and scotchbrite pads
5: wipe with interlux 202
6: apply the primecote

Does that sound like something that would work?

Bill, I forgot to mention that you have to dry the surface with paper towels or the dissolved amine blush will remain after the surface dries.
As for the tint, all I could find in the references I have is that the tint is just meant as a base that has to be coated over with color.If you think you may have sanded amine blush into the surface,try wet-sanding,then rinse and dry with paper towels.
Sorry I couldn't be of any more help. Farmer

Eric, Down here they sell these things called disposable gloves,will send ya some.Nothing will remove that U/Formadahide foam, will take a week to wear it off,and the wife thinks ya did not wash your hands to boot,yuk.
A little goes a long way as to the foam,but you know that,now
    boat dr
Whats the temp there,65 here today. break out the shorts and tee shirts.
SPRING IS COMING, the martins and robins are here.............