The usual way of building a glass boat is to spray the inside of a mold with
gel coat and then start layering glas mat and roving on top of that until
the hull is thick enough. The mold is waxed prior to spraying the gel coat.
After the glas is cured the hull is removed from the mold. On early Vegas
the gel coat was quite thick. It has a tendency to craze and form spider
cracks. What kind of repair are you planning?
Oak baseboard is stong stuff and can easily be laminated. When we were
between engines we used a 9.9 Nissan longshaft. The stern of the boat has a
curve to it which makes using a plywood backing plate less than practical.
(We tried) We wound up laminating 3 layers of 5/16" oak inside of the
transom. Mount your OB motor mount with 1/4 " machine screws in the desired
location and then remove it. Get ahold of some oak base board and epoxy it
into place. Luan doorskin can be used to make templates. The stuff is dirt
cheap and can be cut with shears. What we did was use strips of it the same
width as the base board and run it top to bottom inside the transom. We cut
it using shears until it appoximated the desired shape and then used it as a
template to cut the oak. The oak was then positioned inside the hull by one
person while another person used a drill on the outside to drill through the
mounting holes. The 1/4" machine screws were then used to pull the oak tight
against the transom. We used an epoxy (with cabosil added to thicken it) as
a glue. Allow it to cure overnight and repeat the process the next day with
another layer of oak. One more time
and you have oak boards laminated to 1 and 1/8" thick to mount the OB mount
to. You will want to redrill the holes for larger machine screws for the
mount and it's not a bad idea to paint the stringers with epoxy or glass
over them. Lightly grind or heavily sand the inside of the transom whaere
the glue is going to contact it. The oak is sanded smooth when you buy it
and the epoxy will get a better grip if you rough it up with a heavy grit
sandpaper first. Waxing the machine screws first makes removing them easier,
you will get epoxy on them! Another hint is if epoxy does get on a machine
screw is to heat it. The epoxy softens and the nut can be removed.
When we installed our Yanmar we used essentiall the same system to build the
stringers for the engine mounts. It took a lot more time and oak as it had
to be much thicker. We were able to use C clamps after the we had the first
set of boards in place instead of machine screws. After they were built up
tp the desired size they were reinforced with overlapping layers of glas
matt. We drilled throug the top of them and epoxyed treaded stainless steel
rod into the holes to bolt the engine to. All of this sounds more
complicated then it was. It has served us well. We did build a mockup of the
bottom of the engine that we could attach to the shaft out of Luan to figure
out the heigt of the stingers. The baseboard can be found at stores
specializing in flooring and can be had in wisths up to 5 inches. Hpoe this
is helpful. Walt, Lyric
gel coat and then start layering glas mat and roving on top of that until
the hull is thick enough. The mold is waxed prior to spraying the gel coat.
After the glas is cured the hull is removed from the mold. On early Vegas
the gel coat was quite thick. It has a tendency to craze and form spider
cracks. What kind of repair are you planning?
Oak baseboard is stong stuff and can easily be laminated. When we were
between engines we used a 9.9 Nissan longshaft. The stern of the boat has a
curve to it which makes using a plywood backing plate less than practical.
(We tried) We wound up laminating 3 layers of 5/16" oak inside of the
transom. Mount your OB motor mount with 1/4 " machine screws in the desired
location and then remove it. Get ahold of some oak base board and epoxy it
into place. Luan doorskin can be used to make templates. The stuff is dirt
cheap and can be cut with shears. What we did was use strips of it the same
width as the base board and run it top to bottom inside the transom. We cut
it using shears until it appoximated the desired shape and then used it as a
template to cut the oak. The oak was then positioned inside the hull by one
person while another person used a drill on the outside to drill through the
mounting holes. The 1/4" machine screws were then used to pull the oak tight
against the transom. We used an epoxy (with cabosil added to thicken it) as
a glue. Allow it to cure overnight and repeat the process the next day with
another layer of oak. One more time
and you have oak boards laminated to 1 and 1/8" thick to mount the OB mount
to. You will want to redrill the holes for larger machine screws for the
mount and it's not a bad idea to paint the stringers with epoxy or glass
over them. Lightly grind or heavily sand the inside of the transom whaere
the glue is going to contact it. The oak is sanded smooth when you buy it
and the epoxy will get a better grip if you rough it up with a heavy grit
sandpaper first. Waxing the machine screws first makes removing them easier,
you will get epoxy on them! Another hint is if epoxy does get on a machine
screw is to heat it. The epoxy softens and the nut can be removed.
When we installed our Yanmar we used essentiall the same system to build the
stringers for the engine mounts. It took a lot more time and oak as it had
to be much thicker. We were able to use C clamps after the we had the first
set of boards in place instead of machine screws. After they were built up
tp the desired size they were reinforced with overlapping layers of glas
matt. We drilled throug the top of them and epoxyed treaded stainless steel
rod into the holes to bolt the engine to. All of this sounds more
complicated then it was. It has served us well. We did build a mockup of the
bottom of the engine that we could attach to the shaft out of Luan to figure
out the heigt of the stingers. The baseboard can be found at stores
specializing in flooring and can be had in wisths up to 5 inches. Hpoe this
is helpful. Walt, Lyric