1974 Aquasport 222 Rebuild Captain Joe

[Capt.Joe]

I asked that question earlier and have been thinking about this - if you're going to clamp melamine or formica covered plywood as the "form" against the rear of the transom, I might suggest cutting the sides out leaving 2" like you did at the bottom. Reason being is you will be hanging full width cloth across the transom and those "wings" don't do anything for you, you'll be laying the cloth there anyway. Have you really decided on full transom vs notched?

I want to advise you that, if you're like me, you can overthink this very easily and waste a lot of your time doing so - I spent days and days staring at what I was going to do, like in a chess match, out to the nth move.  It's ok to think through what you are going to do but my advice is to break it into small manageable chunks. Like in this case, get the dam on the back of the transom and get 3 layers of 1708 in to make your new flat transom. Once you've done that, scruff that up with a 80 grit flap sanding wheel on a small grinder. Then plan your next step, i.e getting the core cut, laminated if more than one layer, and then how to clamp it in.
One step at a time or you'll get overwhelmed and lose precious time.

I’m going to close the entire transom and add a subtle “half moon” shape across the top. Overthinking is what I do best and will try not to do that with this project. As a kid I built a model airplane and never flew it. I did everything else except take off the ground. For this boat I’m ready to get it to fly!

[Capt.Joe]

Made some decent progress this weekend and glassed in the transom, got my garboard pipe perfectly straight, and cut my coosa board to fit. Next work days will be glueing in the coosa, glassing it in, and cleaning up the edges!

[mshugg]

Looks good!

[Capt.Joe]

Thank you, mshugg! Seeing progress on the boat makes it all worth it.

[RickK]

Transom looks great Joe!

[Tampa Bay Mike]

That outer skin came out nice.

Question, what are those white spots on the coosa? When I bought mine, I got a big discount but there were some imperfections on them that looked similar to that. Turns out on mine it was a bit of extra mat mixed with some paper that must have rubbed off during manufacturing. it was all on the outside so I just took a grinder and cleaned it off and they were good as new. I did a test laminate on a small strip before I sanded it and the glass peeled right off in those spots. That may not be the case with yours but I wanted to make sure. Would hate for you to run into issues down the road.

[Capt.Joe]

That outer skin came out nice.

Question, what are those white spots on the coosa? When I bought mine, I got a big discount but there were some imperfections on them that looked similar to that. Turns out on mine it was a bit of extra mat mixed with some paper that must have rubbed off during manufacturing. it was all on the outside so I just took a grinder and cleaned it off and they were good as new. I did a test laminate on a small strip before I sanded it and the glass peeled right off in those spots. That may not be the case with yours but I wanted to make sure. Would hate for you to run into issues down the road.

Thank you for the heads up! The white spots are a mix of exposed glass and that paper. I’ll go over it with a grinder to ensure a rock solid bond.

[Tampa Bay Mike]

  It shouldn't take too much work and should clean up nice. When I did mine, I used a real light touch with the grinder to avoid digging into the core and then finished it all up with some 80 grit on the sander. You'll be glad you spent the few minutes doing it when it's all buttoned up.

[Capt.Joe]

Tomorrow I plan on glueing in the coosa board to the new transom glass. Do I need to have the coosa 1/4” lower than the hull sides? Should I cut the bottom of the coosa at an angle so that the top is level?

Any tips would be appreciated!

[mshugg]

If your Coosa core is 14” lower than the transom skin creates a bit of a lip that you can lay glass into when you laminate the top of your transom.  I think it makes it easier to get a finished looking transom.

It’s not worth the effort to cut the angle at the bottom of the transom.  You’ll be useing thickened resin to build fillets in the corners when you laminate your inner transom skin.  The fillet material will fill the angle and any small gaps.

[Tampa Bay Mike]

I think you will be good either way. If you want to save a little bit of resin then trim it up some more. In my experience once you coat it all with resin and go to clamp it in, it will wiggle around just a bit and ooze some resin out so 1/4" can disappear pretty quickly, especially when you're in a hurry to get it in before it starts to kick.

Are you using epoxy or poly? That will make a big difference in how long you have to adjust things just the way you want before it kicks.

[Capt.Joe]

All of your input is appreciated! I’m going to be using epoxy. I’ll cut 1/2” from the bottom  and forget about the angle.

[dirtwheelsfl]

Meaning the bottom of the core?     I always bevel that to match the hull angle, the less gaps the better. The big thing is make sure theres not a hard angle on the outboard side of the core in that bottom corner there, round it over just to prevent problems of it not letting the core suck all the flat to the skin at the bottom. Hard to describe....   The gaps in the pic dont look bad at all though!

[Capt.Joe]

Meaning the bottom of the core?     I always bevel that to match the hull angle, the less gaps the better. The big thing is make sure theres not a hard angle on the outboard side of the core in that bottom corner there, round it over just to prevent problems of it not letting the core suck all the flat to the skin at the bottom. Hard to describe....   The gaps in the pic dont look bad at all though!

Yes, that makes perfect sense. I’ll spruce up the core to minimize gaps and ensure a good bond. Thank you!

[Capt.Joe]

The core is glued in! Sanded down the coosa (due to the paper stuck to the glass), drilled holes through everything, and started mixing epoxy. Definitely would recommend having plenty of silica or fillet material. Other than that it was pretty easy.