# Transom repair advice



## yobata (Jul 14, 2015)

Olsaltyhooker said:


> Well after painstakingly cutting and cussing I got all the old rotten transom out. Now seeing as I have limited funds I’m going 3/4 plywood on the transom sandwiching two pieces together with what I can only assume would be a make your own epoxy paste?? I’ve never done a transom nor any fiberglass work like this so if you have suggestions lay it on me..
> 
> Also keep in mind that I have cut the outer skin accidentally in a few spots due to my oscillating tool getting a little deep so I definitely want to glass the outside and inside before adding my wood. What do you guys recommend on material (cloth,resin etc...)??


Just glass the inside on the spots your oscillating tool went thru. 

Thicken up the epoxy with silica beads, wood flour, etc to a peanut butter consistency - you can use this stuff to bed the transom, fillet the transom, and to sandwich the two sheets together. I would also roll a coat of neat epoxy on the faces that will sandwich together before applying thickened epoxy. try not to get any air gaps in there... Its ok to drill air relief holes and then fill them after with the same thickened epoxy. good luck!


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## Olsaltyhooker (Jan 2, 2019)

yobata said:


> Just glass the inside on the spots your oscillating tool went thru.
> 
> Thicken up the epoxy with silica beads, wood flour, etc to a peanut butter consistency - you can use this stuff to bed the transom, fillet the transom, and to sandwich the two sheets together. I would also roll a coat of neat epoxy on the faces that will sandwich together before applying thickened epoxy. try not to get any air gaps in there... Its ok to drill air relief holes and then fill them after with the same thickened epoxy. good luck!


Can I use choppped strand mat to repair those small cuts?


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## Guest (Apr 2, 2019)

You can use csm to repair them. Bevel them out and lay in a few pieces starting with small and going larger. Honestly, I would put a fresh inner skin on the transom before installing core with a single layer of 1208 then fill the cuts with thickened resin, bevel down and cover with a layer or two of csm to prevent the cut lines/ filler from popping later on.


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## Guest (Apr 2, 2019)

Make sure to coat the wood with a couple coats of neat epoxy before bonding together just like @yobata said. Then, after bonding with thickened epoxy coat the entire core with neat epoxy. Bed the new transom bond in and fillet with thickened epoxy making sure to clamp it up good and tight. Tab in with a 4” then 6” 17oz biax. When you drill motor holes or any other hole through the wood... over drill, paint in a little neat epoxy followed by filling with thickened epoxy. Doing this then re drilling the holes to the proper size will make that plywood transom last a very long time and the extra little work will pay dividends in piece of mind.


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## yobata (Jul 14, 2015)

Olsaltyhooker said:


> Can I use choppped strand mat to repair those small cuts?


you can, as BB said. But if you want to be efficient with the epoxy, I would skip the CSM and use a 6oz or 10oz cloth. CSM soaks up a lot of epoxy resin, and epoxy resins tend to cost WAY more than polyester/vinyl ester resins.


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## Olsaltyhooker (Jan 2, 2019)

Boatbrains said:


> Make sure to coat the wood with a couple coats of neat epoxy before bonding together just like @yobata said. Then, after bonding with thickened epoxy coat the entire core with neat epoxy. Bed the new transom bond in and fillet with thickened epoxy making sure to clamp it up good and tight. Tab in with a 4” then 6” 17oz biax. When you drill motor holes or any other hole through the wood... over drill, paint in a little neat epoxy followed by filling with thickened epoxy. Doing this then re drilling the holes to the proper size will make that plywood transom last a very long time and the extra little work will pay dividends in piece of mind.


When you say NEAT epoxy what exactly do you mean?sorry I’m not down with the boat repair lingo yet


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## yobata (Jul 14, 2015)

Olsaltyhooker said:


> When you say NEAT epoxy what exactly do you mean?sorry I’m not down with the boat repair lingo yet


Neat epoxy is just part A and B mixed to the correct proportions, it flows easily and hasn't been thickened with anything. I guess we could just say epoxy, but neat refers to specifically no mix ins...


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

When putting the two pieces together you will need to clamp it or weigh it down.

Do not forget to do it on plastic bags or you may never get it off the garage floor.

You will also need clamping devises when bonding to the hull.


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## Scrob (Aug 26, 2015)

Search YouTube, dudes have whole repairs from start to finish on there. I cut out a Gheenoe transom and replaced with plywood myself as a newbie and it worked out great. I can't imagine doing it without visuals from videos. I'll see if I can find a link

Things I learned: 
-Buy the best clamps you can afford and buy more than you think you need. Buy long ones too. Cheap Harbour Freight ones will work for one or two jobs but even when new they fail. 
-Practice fiberglass work on scrap wood first. 
-Make sure the outside/garage temps are appropriate for the epoxy to set up correctly. 
-Buy more fiberglass sheets than you think you need. 
-Make sure the transom is thick enough to allow your motor to clamp on. 

Hope this helps!


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## Olsaltyhooker (Jan 2, 2019)

Scrob said:


> Search YouTube, dudes have whole repairs from start to finish on there. I cut out a Gheenoe transom and replaced with plywood myself as a newbie and it worked out great. I can't imagine doing it without visuals from videos. I'll see if I can find a link
> 
> Things I learned:
> -Buy the best clamps you can afford and buy more than you think you need. Buy long ones too. Cheap Harbour Freight ones will work for one or two jobs but even when new they fail.
> ...



Any advice is appreciated thank you very much for taking time to write that.


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## Dadvocate (Jun 26, 2011)

Not sure what boat your working on but now is a great time to raise the height of the transom. Quite a few of the older fiberglass skiffs out there need a couple inches added to maximize shallow running. I have a Johnsen Skiff and added 4" so I could cut down to to the perfect height.


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## Back Country (Dec 30, 2017)

When I bonded plywood together for my transom and seat base supports, I used a high-quality waterproof wood glue (I used Titebond III). I figure that's how the plywood was constructed in the first place. Make sure that both bonding surfaces are completely covered with glue and clamp together well; wipe off excess glue as it oozes out. I used epoxy peanut butter for gluing the transom to the skin, fillets, etc. Before gluing the wood to the skin, I put a layer of 1708 on the skin (and extending out 2 or 3 inches onto the inner sides and floor), and covered the back of the wood transom with a layer of 7.5 oz glass. This video may be helpful....


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## FireTurtle (Apr 27, 2019)

All of this is really going to help me. I've got an old Glastron Alpha sailboat that I'm about to go weird science on & convert it to a power skiff. I plan on making the whole boat about one foot shorter & building a transom from scratch so I can widen & deepen the whole butt of the boat out to about 4 feet wide & a foot deep or so.


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## Olsaltyhooker (Jan 2, 2019)

@FireTurtle i this helps you as much as me. So far all the advice has been spot on.


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## FireTurtle (Apr 27, 2019)

@Olsaltyhooker I hope so. I haven't gotten into the boat project yet. I've been researching as much as possible on building a transom & the best possible method for it. I will know more on what direction to go when I cut the top off the boat. I want the whole thing to be light as possible too incase I want to stuff it in the bed of a truck.


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