1971 Flatback

[JimCt]

One thing you'll discover when you dig out the wet foam from the stringer cavities is how much it weighs. If all your stringer foam is wet it could be as much as 200 pounds.  That extra dead weight kills speed performance and causes the boat to sit much lower in the water to the point where your cockpit scuppers could be underwater at rest.

It's a good size job you have on your hands but taken a step at a time and done properly, you'll have a strong performer under your feet.

[Seadog]

Welcome Aboard LilRichard! How did I miss this thread!

Your going to find that for any particular project you do on your rebuild, like the stringers, if you talk to 10 guys about what you should do, your going to get >15,000 different  opinions. Best advise is to look at all the options you have and pick the best route for you. Take your time 'cause it's going to take forever to get done if your workin on it part-time.

There really is no effective way to put the tank under the floor without removing a good chunck of the center stringer. If you leave the tank above the floor, under the console then the fuel fill is on the console. That's a PIA 'cause you'll have to climb in the boat at the fuel pump to fill it up. If you put the tank under the floor then you can run the fuel fill outboard to the side.

There's a lot of options for the stringers. If your going to remove them all it might be best to remove one section at a time, replace that one, then move on to the next. That way you cut down on the chance of the hull getting wacked-out and forming a hook. But it's a lot more work to grind down a section, get it all cleaned up and preped and glass that section back in, then move on the to next and start the process over.

I'm by no means an expert at this. I've stumbled through this project for two years, made my share of mistakes, grinded them back off and moved on.

Welcome to the fun!

[warthog5]

(after removing the foam and refoaming) to rough up the glass on and around the stringers, and just begin laying alternating layers of mat/roving?

I would cut the top's open enough to remove the foam and get them dried out.

Then I would be sure they were back in the right spot and use biaxle 1708 or 1808 +45/-45 in several layer's covering more with each layer.

It will be much stronger than woven roven with a 0/90 bias.

Then refoam the stringer's with 4lb density foam and reglass to top's.

I know you can't see it in this pix, but you asked how all this stuff is fastened.




There is a piece of 3/4in plywood fastened to the inside side's. Then there is a short 2X4 fastened to that. The 2X4's that go port to STB are seperated by that short 2X4 and screwed into the short one.

The 4X4's is dropped down between the seperated 2X4's and a piece of 3/4in plywood is scred to the bottom of the 4X4 before it was screwed to the 2X4's. Then screw's were run thru that bottom 3.4in plywood into the deck and the 2in X8in caster's were fastened to it so I could roll it around the shop. It would take at least 2 people to still roll the hull around.

[LilRichard]

So here's the update from the weekend:

I spent time grinding out all of the glass on the inside of the transom, exposing the core.





I then proceeded to scrape, chisel, and pry all of the layers of wood out of the transom.  The air chisel was a lifesaver here- I would have quit halfway through without it.







In that last picture you can also see where I have trimmed the stringers back in order to give myself some working room.  3 garbage cans of rotten wood later, the fiberglass shell is all that remains.



Now it's time (next weekend) to start grinding away the last little bit of wood that is stuck to the fiberglass, and grind out the remaining bits of fiberglass joints from the prior transom.    I also need to fill in all the holes that were in the transom from the years.



I think this was the original transom- it was 3 layers of 1/2" with glass between each.
You can also see that at some point there were two motors on this thing.  Wow.  

More to come next week!

[billh1963]

Good work! Looks like you have your job cut out for you!

[JimCt]

Back in the "old days" many of the 22-2's had 2 smaller engines rather than the one big seen today.

Progress looks good.

[LilRichard]

Alright, so I went to fgci today and bought a bunch of glass.  Other than having a  heart attack at the counter from sticker shock (resin is now $127 a pail), I am ready to start glassing this weekend if everything goes well.  

My question is, what is the best way to fill in the void when I close in my transom?  I saw how Fletch did it here: http://www.classicmako.com/projects/fletch/fletch8.htm

But I do not have a "Donor" piece of glass.  Do I just lay in my main transom core and then start laying mat up on the outside until I get to the same thickness as the original skin?

[RickK]

Look at Capt Rick's rebuild in the photo gallery here - he did what you're asking.

[LilRichard]

Look at Capt Rick's rebuild in the photo gallery here - he did what you're asking.

I did see that before, thanks Rick.  From the pic I assumed he just laid up extra mat until it matched... but my concern was that without any overlap onto the old skin, I might devlop cracks in the gelcoat there from flex.  Thoughts?

[warthog5]

There are a LOT stronger material's than mat out there.

Biaxal is most favored. 1808.

[RickK]

You can get ideas from the rebuild JamesC did on his flatback also. Beautiful boat when he finished.

[LilRichard]

There are a LOT stronger material's than mat out there.

Biaxal is most favored. 1808.

Wart- my mistake... I said mat, but meant glass in general.  I was planning on mainly 1808, then a few layers of mat to finish.  Just got myself 20 yds of 1808 to start with.

[LilRichard]

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time grinding out the remains of the wood and old glass from my transom.  While I was grinding, I found some delaminated glass on the lower part of the transom, so I had to grind all of that out- leaving some spots very thin.  From there I had to add glass from the inside to fill in the spots I had ground out.  In the low spots, I put in a layer of mat and two layers of 1808.  Here is a pic of the transom with the wood out, and some new glass in at the bottom of the transom:



As you can see, there is a wavy line of new glass I have blended in at the bottom.  I need to do some more grinding to get it perfectly smooth, and then I need to add about 1 more layer of 1808 to get it perfect.

Here is a pic of the corner where there was some delaminated glass:



If you look carefully, you can see where the new glass is towards the bottom right side of the pic, on the transom.

After getting the voids filled in, I plan on laying up at least one more layer of 1808 across the entire transom, then it's time to start building the core.

[JimCt]

Something's wrong with the pictures on you last post... won't display.  Regarding grinding the transom down to good glass, that's the stage I'm at with my 240.  Real mess of a job which I've been putting it off.

[LilRichard]

Something's wrong with the pictures on you last post... won't display.

Weird.... worked for me.  I changed the post and added the pictures to the AS gallery.  Should work now.

Regarding grinding the transom down to good glass, that's the stage I'm at with my 240.  Real mess of a job which I've been putting it off.

I agree... it's no fun.  Grind out all the old stuff, then lay in new stuff.  Grind new stuff to get it as even as possible, repeat procedure.  

My glass was bad pretty deep- like more than half the thickness of the transom skin.  Why did it delaminate- from water exposure over the years?  Either way, the worst of that project is behind me- I hope to add my layers of 1808 this weekend, and if I am lucky, start fitting the core.