1977 V20 Wellcraft Steplift Transom replacement

[cawareness1]

I have no choice but to replace the transom, upon acceleration from the 150 Johnson, you can see the transom flexing and twisting. Someone drilled a hole underneath the drain plug about 3/4 inch and water seeps from the hole continuously leaving a dark brown or black buildup on the outside jel coat. Almost every time I take the boat out I have to tighten the mounting bolts, I have slowed this process down by installing a 1/4 stainless steel plate under the nuts and washers inside, I know this is a temporary fix and almost completely stopped using the boat. I have dug up in the hole with a scribe and removed rotten wood and also some floatation foam. The smell of this stuff is terrible.
Any help with this project would be appreciated, as I have never tried to do anything like this before. I am a retired Auto body man and painter (never worked with corvettes) and if the boat were made out of metal I would know what to do with it.
I am planning to start and finish he project during the winter months in my shop in the back yard when things are slow. I have all of my body shop tools and I cant think of anything else I might need.
I am going to make some minor changes to the transom rebuild to allow for installation of a kicker motor (35 Hp Evenrude) and will be refinishing the boat completely.

[mechdave]

Pictures, we're gonna want pictures. Be patient and I'm sure you'll get plenty of good advice, but we need to see what you are looking at. By the way, if you don't start in the summer you're gonna miss the best part. Grinding fiberglass in a tyvek suit in 100 degree weather is the bomb.

[cawareness1]

Thanks for the response mechdave, and I do understand completely about all the fun I will be missing. That’s one of the reasons I am waiting for cooler weather. The other reason is I am allowing myself time to think the project through; learn as much as I can about doing it, planning a course of attack and acquiring the material and supplies that I am going to need.
Reading through many of the similar posts and their responses I am rapidly becoming confused by the terminology, such as sole, fillet ect. ect. ect. Is there any place I can go to get definitions and clarification?
If it ever quits raining I am going to take some photos and will upload them as soon as possible. Jim

[Cracker Larry]

The sole is the part of the boat you stand on, what landlubbers call the floor. A fillet is an epoxy glue joint transition in the corners of a panel that adds strength to the joint and allows fiberglass cloth to lay smoothly. Here is a pic of a filleted glue joint



When in doubt, just ask. Most words you can google and get the definition.

[cawareness1]

If this works, here are some pictures of the boat. I have take many more pictures but I don't want to waste a lot of room on the server. As work progress I will take additional photo's, I am looking forwad to getting started I hope I am no overwhelmed.

[cawareness1]

a picture is diffantely worth 1000 words, thank you very much, Jim

The sole is the part of the boat you stand on, what landlubbers call the floor. A fillet is an epoxy glue joint transition in the corners of a panel that adds strength to the joint and allows fiberglass cloth to lay smoothly. Here is a pic of a filleted glue joint



When in doubt, just ask. Most words you can google and get the definition.

[shine]

Welcome to the forum, and thank you for the pictures. The first step is the deconstruction. You will need to remove a section of the cap/deck in order to get access to the last couple of feet before the transom. Then you cut out the first 18" (+ or-) of the stringers, then cut out the inside fiberglass skin of the transom. Remove old rotten wood completely using chisels, air hammer, or whatever it takes. Try to avoid damaging the outside (hull) skin.

When you cut into the stringers, we are also going to see their condition

Those old Welcrafts are nice boats, the hulls were pretty thick. Its a good re-build candidate.