75 separator rebuild

More pics!

Jeff, nice work!
Looking forward to the next pics!

Wow you are a real man. I wore tyvek suit for grinding. gave me the ability to take a break and go inside if I needed to. Making me cringe just looking at those pics!

Looks great!

chico's kid? looookin goood,
did you understand about pre drilling the 6 transom bolts that hold the drive and also using them as clamp bolts? also i will cut my opening small and sneak in with long vice grips, also too utilizing the u-bo;t holes too for bolt clamps.
I dont think you'll want to use clothe between the layers, coat all sides and then scuff with 36 or 80 for the bonding to the transom, coat the edges very well because thats where it will soak and pull water,
use the cloth (heavy woven) on the edges running it to the corners.
I see you screwed the second piece on, you need to bond that piece also.

Good afternoon! took some advice of you fine fellers again, made the 1st piece of transom support wider than original. made it as wide as flat part of transom permitted without bends, then cut smaller gimbal plate pattern for 2nd layer. here is a pic of template made with construction paper and hot glue, the part with an x will be cut out to make the 2nd layer. these pics are of the finished product prior to cpes. there is drywall screws temparaly holding it together, i will also use these when joining the 2 pieces together then removing. Eric thanks for suggesting the planer, I cleaned the transom in less than 1 hr. I owe you a case of beer of your choice i was not looking forward to that job. jeff

connorssons wrote: the plain resin with hardner will hold them together, thats what your saying, then glass back and sides that goes to boat, then with thickened epoxy attach to hull. all treated with cpes of course then glass over top. how much glass over top, size, and layers? thanks for putting up with my ignorance.

Yep the resin is the glue. Weights or clamps depending on size and shape of pieces you are laminating. I did not glass any pieces before attaching them to the hull. I used cabosil thickened epoxy to attach to the hull. As it squeezed out I used the excess to make a fillet. Then I covered them with 2 layers of biaxial. Your transom might need an extra layer of glass given your application. Three layers of biax is super strong.

Edit: nevermind.

Jeff, hook in the hull has been discussed here at length- try a search.

eric lavine wrote: ...spread the forces of the outdrive. under power the outdrive has a tendency to pull at the top and push at the bottem of the transom.

On a sterdrive, where does the load of thrust apply on the boat? Is it directly to the transom like an outboard, or is ultimately pushing forward on the motor mounts? I've heard the term "stringer drive" used in reference to OMC sterndrives, just curious how the Mercruisers are set up.

it appears that when they built your boat, time wasnt spent on the transom, to me it looks as if they mereley put 2 pieces of ply together in the gimble area only, and thats why i feel you have stress cracks.....spread the load accross the entire transom with the ply on the first piece corner to corner, and then the second piece as big as you can without obstructing any other component that may be back there. You probably have a deck hanging off the back also,
the one pic you have does not show so much in strength, just a mount pad for the gimble, cheesy, normally most wood back on the transoms are never coated, just painted....cost effective when building at the manufacturer....you have the opportunity to build it stronger and add the personal touch and be worry free when running the boat.
post more pics of the transom if you can

Makes sence what your saying Benj, you just got your post in before i finished typing mine what typ of mat in between boards

the plain resin with hardner will hold them together, thats what your saying, then glass back and sides that goes to boat, then with thickened epoxy attach to hull. all treated with cpes of course then glass over top. how much glass over top, size, and layers? thanks for putting up with my ignorance.

Just use standard 3/4" ply. All of the home dpot and lowes plywoods are made with external wood glue. Make sure it is untreated though. Thats what the cpes is for. When I laminated my lift mount and my stringers I used plain resin and a ton of clamps. Use thickened resin for bedding as mentioned by Tim.

If the resin in question is simply pooled resin (no glass) then I would say remove it. It will be fairly brittle, as resin doesnt have much strength without the glass fibers. Its most likely a result of a sloppy build process.