12ft Sears Fiberglass Project

by **Goldfish** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:47 pm

So, I picked up this old fiberglass sears boat for $60. Weighs in around 110lbs (according to previous owner, since we know how well I judge boats weight

) so easily picked up and thrown in the back of a pickup.

Right away, I see someone has done some repair work to the transom. I poke it, and my finger bout goes right thru. Obviously, rotted transom and someone just tried to cover it. Got to ripping off the "new" fiberglass and here's what I find.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1342485785.912246.jpg

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Wonderful!

I rip off the rest of the patchwork and pull out the board.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1342485672.657860.jpg

.

Now, I just realized that I don't really have something that can cut a board sideways like that to trim it down to a point. I've got a table saw and a jig saw. I could attempt some fancy trickery, but before I hurt myself, anyone have any suggestions? Quick google didn't come up with anyone selling these boards (didn't really wanna buy one, but it would have been an option if cheap enough).

by **Goldfish** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:48 pm

Here's what the board is shaped like.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1342486128.957442.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1342486141.085389.jpg

by **Bufflehead** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:52 pm

cut out a board the same shape, glue it up there with epoxy resin, sand the edges, fierglass. don't worry about it being thicker at the bottom than the old one was.

by **JGUN** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:01 pm

Got a band saw? Cut the side profile out of square wood the cut the front profile with a skill saw. it doesn't have to be perfect since you're going to glass over it. Or fill in imperfections with bondo. I wouldn't bother taking it all the way down to a point like that. Its not doing anything anyway. Or use a wander with course grit to get close.

by **JGUN** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:02 pm

Sorry not a magic wand but a sander.

by **Goldfish** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:23 pm

No band saw. Wouldn't have been a problem then, lol.

Problem with leaving it uncut is that the glass is bent too. The front side of the board is what us flat. The back side is where the cut would come in.

If it comes down to it, I could cut the bottom of the outside glass off, and then glass over the new wood on the outside.

by **JGUN** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:36 pm

You might just use some filler in the curved portion and lay a flat board over that???

by **Bufflehead** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:24 pm

JGUN wrote:You might just use some filler in the curved portion and lay a flat board over that???

x2

would be better to fill in behind the board than to cut out the stern

by **assateague** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:34 pm

Put that thing in a vise and run your circ saw along the line your going to scribe on the edge of the 2x. Then flip it over and repeat. Knock off the waste, and I guarantee it'll be plenty close enough for some filler and glass.

by **Tiler_J** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:14 am

You could always contact a cabinet shop, they could probably cut you something for not too much money.

by **Goldfish** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:40 pm

assateague wrote:Put that thing in a vise and run your circ saw along the line your going to scribe on the edge of the 2x. Then flip it over and repeat. Knock off the waste, and I guarantee it'll be plenty close enough for some filler and glass.

So, calling these pictures A and B for reference sake:

Goldfish wrote:
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1342486128.957442.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1342486141.085389.jpg

I don't have a circular saw, but I do have a table saw. You've got me thinking though. Think if I just set the blade as high as possible, cut the edge from picture B as much as possible, then I could just use my hack saw to get the rest, then go back to the table saw to cut the edges from pic A? I'm thinking that will be easiest (barring finding someone with a band saw obviously).

by **assateague** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:14 pm

There's no pics showing, but without seeing anything, I'm gonna say yes. You shouldn't need more than a 2x8 (judging from your original pics), and most table saws should give you about a 3" depth maxed out, leaving 1 1/4" left in the center. This should be easy to knock out with a handsaw, if that's all you have, or you could break off the cutoffs and use a sander for the remaining piece in the center if you have to. Then use your jigsaw to cut the angles on the sides. Easy peasy.

by **Goldfish** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:14 pm

They were the pictures above. I guess when hosted by tapatalk they only like to show once.

The board I took out was a literal inch thick (not the 3/4 of a standard 1x board), and 9 across it's widest. I picked up a 1x10 from Menards tonight for $.69 and I think I'll just make it work. Close enough for a cheap boat and I'll just glass it another layer. It's only rated for 14 horses anyways.

by **Olly** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:22 pm

Your images are hosted in house on WFF servers and I have images disabled in quotes so they don't get loaded many times to save on bandwidth.

Also nice project, following along.

by **Goldfish** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:37 pm

Smart move. That'd suck server space and I'd image bandwidth pretty quick.

by **Goldfish** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:51 pm

Was able to do a little more tonight. It's only 80 degrees, but humid as all get out, so I stink right now.

Cut down the new transom board. It took a lot of cuts with the table saw, but it'll work. Here's next to the old.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1343270860.327240.jpg

Here's in place:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1343270901.823029.jpg

Then I cleaned up the "paint" (you know that commercial where the guy puts a screen on the bottom of a boat and rubber coats it... Yea, that's not paint :/ )

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1343270991.721529.jpg

New transom and dowel in place:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1343271027.991827.jpg

By the way, they say measure twice, cut once. Same goes for buying:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1343271062.020681.jpg

Oops. Guess it was that 7/8 dowel and not the 1inch one.

Well, that's all I got for today. The dog is going stir crazy so I gotta get her out. Next step will be getting right size dowel, but then putting the boat on end and mixing up the resin to glass it in.

by **assateague** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:58 pm

Looks pretty good! I don't think you'll have any problems glassing that.

by **Baysider** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:48 am

Why not trim that dowel so you have a flat surface to meet up with the new board?

by **assateague** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:16 am

I think he's taking it out and getting the 7/8 dowel instead. I could be wrong, though.

by **Goldfish** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:20 am

It's a round grove that the dowel sits in.

by **Goldfish** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:46 pm

Added some glass today. This is the first time I've ever fiberglassed anything, so I'm kinda making it up as I go.

I didn't get a picture, but I resined (is that a word?) the transom board in place and clamped and blocked it to set yesterday. Today I ran a couple strips of fiberglass and resin down the edges of the transom board, let it dry, then a big sheet over everything.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1343879241.191720.jpg

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It's a little rough, but it'll get sanded.

by **OGblackcloud** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:23 pm

Lookin good

by **Goldfish** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 10:47 am

Sanded it down and did one big sheet over EVERYTHING to shore it all up. Don't know if it was necessary, but I always over-strengthen stuff. It's my curse, but I've never had anything break on me from it not being strong enough. Just letting that dry then I'll be able to sand it down and paint it. I forgot my iPod at work last night so no pictures, sorry.

Couple things I've learned:
Don't use SOLO cups for mixing the resin. The resin eats right thru it.
Don't try too big of a peice of cloth at once. The last sheet I did was really big, and I didn't get a lot of time to work it very well, but overall it's in place and not bad. Once it set up a little bit I mixed up another batch of resin and went over it again to make sure everything was good.
Try to get things as flat as possible to learn on. If it's flat, you can get away with a little less hardner so you have time to get everything right without it running down everything.
Don't use too little of hardner. It takes forever to dry otherwise.
Don't skimp on the sanding. It's worth the extra minutes with the sander to get it right.

Looking over the boat more last night, there are cracks along the bottom that a previous owner filled with silicone. I'm sure it holds water out, but this is sort of my teaching tool so I think I'm going to scrape that out and glass those over as well. Plus, I have a conscience so can't sell someone something that I wouldn't be comfortable taking out myself.

by **Goldfish** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 8:39 pm

Here's the big final transom piece

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I ended up with a couple bubbles in the gaps

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And I stripped the coating and silicone down to see the cracks along the bottom

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by **assateague** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:24 am

Looks good! If you're concerned about the bubbles, go to Tractor Supply and get the largest gauge needle they have (should be about a 22) and inject some resin. The syringe and a 5-pack of needles should run you less than $5.

by **Goldfish** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:29 pm

I wasn't overly concerned about them, unless someone who does this stuff regularly says I should fill them in. I poked a hole in the one along the top and gooped some resin down into it, but the ones along the bottom of the dowel I'm just going to paint over it and forget about it. That new area is sturdier than the rest of the boat as is.

by **Baysider** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 7:24 am

Looks good man. Nice work.

by **Goldfish** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:27 pm

Got the floor cracks all glassed up, just need to sand them. I was able to put it on edge in the garage last night and I looked at the keel and it has some cracks going on down there too. Looks like I'll be doing some work to the bottom side after all. Was hoping to get away without it, but not looking so promising now. There's a crack right along the middle crease that is right under the front seat, so I'll have to get it from the bottom. Picked up the paint last night. I had grand intentions of doing a fancy paint job just to see how well I can, but with time running out I think it might end up being and old school or tiger stripe camo job.

by **Goldfish** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:46 pm

At least until I just came across this website. Those stencils seem pretty cheap (in the good way):

http://blackjaxcamostencils.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=40

by **assateague** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:47 pm

The paint job on my hybrid takes less time than stencils.