76 SRV 200 Project

Well good and bad news... Last night we started to remove the stringers. Thats the good news... the bad news is there are now 2 small holes in the hull of the boat from grinding! Looks as though when the PO ground it down they went really far down and didn't build anything back up on the bottom of the boat, so in essence in some places there is nothing more than a thin amount of gel coat left. 2 actual holes not bad sizes in my opinion, about 1-2" long and about 1/32" wide. The reason I am not too worried about these is because Its outside of where the stringer sits and I will obviously re fiberglassing in that area.

I do however have a question on materials and "if" this would be advisable. I grew up in an auto body shop, and before you say it I realize that cars and boats ARE different. BUT... Duraglass, can it be used to fill the holes, ground down and then glassed over. I know I've helped rebuild corvette parts and this stuff is like PB in a can, basically just add hardener. SO that leads me to my next question. If it can work as a filler, couldn't it work for PB to set and fillet the stringers in? The reason I ask is my uncle just got a mistake order at the above mentioned shop and I can get 2 gallons with hardener for free.
They tell me there is no reason why I can't use it its all poly fiberglass resin and as long as I clean it up and give myself a good "repair area" (Like filling and feathering a dent in a fender for example aka chamfered type area) That it will be no different and less messy than using true glass and resin.

Now on to Hull paint... Reccomendations? Should I worry about it this year or just primer all my cosmetic issues and paint the entire boat next year? Do they even make a "tougher" product for the hulls?
 
Nobody wants to touch this one? I am in a lull... Ohio April getting the best of me. Times like this I really wish I had a garage!
 
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Update: Finally got a day of semi-decent weather. We had somewhere in the area of 5.5 inches of rain in April. It was like the 11th or 12th most rainy April in recorded history!

Here's some pics with the "Stringers" removed. Next comes the fun part....... grinding/sanding the majority of the hull. I will then probably tear out the floor back by the bilge area.

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Nice progress! Are you positive that your transom and motor mounts are dry? I hope for your sake that they are. Thanks for updating your progress.
 
I cant speak for the motor mounts...yet. We did have the outdrive off last year and everything seemed dry back there, but I do plan to take it back off and do some further inspection. I have also removed all the bolts from the transom and all of the holes are dry. BUT since I am this far into it I do plan to double check everything. The only true way I know to check 100% for sure is to pull the engine and the whole entire exhaust assembly and outdrive and check the "keyhole". I can also say that with my not so skinny self (240lbs) bouncing on the outdrive, the transom doesnt flex a bit.

I was actually wondering how they do the motor mounts? Are they completely glassed in or is it just a chunk of 4x4 "glued" to the hull and the the bilge formed around it? I figured when I cut the rest of the floor out I will surely find my answer?!?! Providing the transom is as good as I think it is, the motor mounts should be replaceable with the engine ine the boat, I think, I hope!
 
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You should be able to get the rest of the floor out without removing the engine. It will be a bit difficult to glass in the new wood but it looks like it can be done. You'll need to use a jack and some kind of supporting block to hold it up. Maybe a 4X4 and a come a long from the top. Just enough to take the pressure off the mounts.
 
I figured you all would like to know this interesting fact. I was off on my estimate of foam weight, I ended up with 31-13 gallon bags full of this junk and it weighed in at 387 Lbs. Per the scales at the recycle center. My buddy works there so I took it down and weighed it, then unloaded it into a big trash hopper here at work and then went back and weighed it again. So I guess 380 lbs is fair if you say a gallon of gas is about 8 lbs. I should have used about just shy of a gallon driving back and forth in my truck.
 
AquaNoob said:
I grew up in an auto body shop, and before you say it I realize that cars and boats ARE different. BUT... Duraglass, can it be used to fill the holes, ground down and then glassed over.
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You are correct boats are very different than a car. When you get out on the water and get pounded by the waves there is a tremendous amount of stress and flexing of the hull. In order to get the strength you need you should grind the area around the hole approximately 6 inches out and build up overlapping layes of glass. Use a small piece of plastic screwed onto the hull from the outside to cover the hole, coat it with mold release wax prior to screwing it to the hull. Working from the inside layup fibreglass starting with a peice about 1/2 " larger than the hole then progressively larger peices out to your 6 " area.

Personally I wouldn't use anything but epoxy here and I would alternate layers with matt for thickness and biaxle cloth for strength.

Good luck with the repair.
 
Just thought I'd let y'all know I am still around but making 0 progress on the project. It has literally rained everyday here for over 2 weeks. I might have to fix the hull and live in the boat at the rate we are going! I believe I heard somewhere that we are near or over 4 inches for the month already!

Cheers to all who have their boat out already and hopefully I'll be able to join you by the end of summer!
 
Keep your chin up! It can't rain forever can it?




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I feel your pain. I have 3 junk boats that I cant take out. I have one sea worthy, but it is so ugly only I would be caught dead driving it......

This is an awsome thread. The small SRV's are my favorite.
 
I finally got to work on my project again this past weekend! Weather was a ridiculous 92 deg and I was grinding fiberglass resin and bondo for 8-9 hours. The p.o used bondo as a filler and also to sit the stringers on. I am not talking a little bit either, in some places I ground up wards of 1-1.25 inches off of just bondo alone.

Some of you might say I am crazy but I did this in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt... What a miserable time it was afterwords for about a day. But I'll be honest, it was worth it to not have to wear a full suit and die of dehydration or heat stroke! I used a respirator and glasses but still ended up with a sinus infection! So I am recovering from that at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow I will get to cutting and fitting the new stringers and even more hopefull to start setting them on Sat/Sun. We will see how that works out for me, all depends on the weather and the resin setting up after a coat is added to the stringers. Sorry no pics this time... but reallt it wouldnt look much different than last time anyways. Well maybe I'll get a couple of the grinding mistakes aka holes in hull for you all to see the befores and afters.
 
I am also looking for pics of the bow hatch. Mine is missing and I am not having much luck finding one so I guess I am going to have to fabricate one. If its possible and you have something close to mine could you maybe get in touch with me and maybe I could ask for you to e-mail me some pics.

I have no idea what is it supposed to look like and if I am going to go thru the trouble of making it I would like it to be semi-close to original!

Thanks!
 
looking good man keep it up! i have a 75 srv190 my stringers are way different than yours. mine are 2x6's and a 2x8 on the keel im starting to think mine may have been redone at some point, which would explain why the tops of my stringers arn't glassed.
 
AquaNoob said:
I am also looking for pics of the bow hatch. Mine is missing and I am not having much luck finding one so I guess I am going to have to fabricate one. If its possible and you have something close to mine could you maybe get in touch with me and maybe I could ask for you to e-mail me some pics.

I have no idea what is it supposed to look like and if I am going to go thru the trouble of making it I would like it to be semi-close to original!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'll be working on Old Skool this weekend and will take some pictures for you. I recovered mine with gray vinyl which looks pretty good.
 
I'm going to remove my bow hatch this winter when I do some major work on my boat again. If you can wait until then..it's from a 78' srv200.
 
Update:

Started working on the wiring issues while I wait for help to install stringers and flooring. I ran into my first problem late last night after I got power running through the entire boat again. When I trim the out drive up it slowly falls back down. I checked all the places I could for leaks, and I also made sure that there is enough fluid/oil in the pump. I guess my question is this: I assume that there is some type of check valve in the pump assembly. Is it replaceable? Is it common to wear out? What would your thoughts be for me to check next? If I cant rebuild the pump assembly, where might I go to find a replacement? I am thinking I can probably use it for this year the way it is, but I'd really like to have it fixed.

On the up side, I got the blower running, and the trim working again minus my problem above... Tonight I'd like to get the ignition switch working and try turning the engine over. We will see how the weather acts!
 
Finally found the leak! I cleaned everything up a bit and sprayed the heck out of the pump and lines with brake cleaner. Ran the drive up and down about 30 times and while I was doing it had an eye on the pump... Finally noticed a drip from the bottom of the hydraulic line. Not sure yet if the line is bad or if it just isn't sealing into the valve body correctly.

I also got a rough cut on the stringers and plan to coat them this evening with resin to seal them up. HOPEFULLY I can get a hand fitting them and trimming them this week and get them tabbed in this weekend. NOT counting on it though! I will try to get some pics in the near future! Not a whole lot to show yet!
 
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