# Replacing rotten transom with Arjay



## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

I'll be doing this project on my boat starting today if any of you would like me to show the process starting with removing the outboard then the clean out of all of the wood and rotten wood. Then of course the pouring of the Arjay to replace the wooden one. Here is a link for those of you who do not know what Arjay is. 

http://www.arjaytech.com/index.php/our-products/ceramic-pourable

So if there is some interest I'll be more than happy to post the project. 

EDIT: To the mods if there is a different forum you would prefer that i post this Please let me know. 

Dave


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## bountyhunter (Apr 28, 2004)

sound very intersting , I don,t have that problem, but I,d like to see it done. thanks


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Dave,

I will enjoy, as will others, watching this process.

I am going to move this to the Boats and motors forum.

Thanks


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## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

Not a problem Lundy, wasn't sure on which would be the better forum. I'll start posting on this tonight or tomorrow morning. 

Dave


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## Hatchetman (Apr 13, 2004)

Iowa Dave said:


> I'll be doing this project on my boat starting today if any of you would like me to show the process starting with removing the outboard then the clean out of all of the wood and rotten wood. Then of course the pouring of the Arjay to replace the wooden one. Here is a link for those of you who do not know what Arjay is.
> 
> http://www.arjaytech.com/index.php/our-products/ceramic-pourable
> 
> ...


I will be very interested in following you project. I think it will be very interesting....


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## BigDaddy300 (Nov 1, 2004)

Interested for sure


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## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

Well I've got both bad and good news. 

The bad news is there's not going to be a thread on replacing a rotten transom on my boat. So that's the good news for me. 

I had brought my boat into a Lund dealer to fix my livewell pumps as they weren't working. SO they said that they needed to replace both of then as well as a blown fuse? I'm starting to have my doubts on that. But they also told me that my transom was rotten and it would cost $3500 or so to repair and then went into details of repair. 

So I go to pick up my boat and the owner came outside and grabbed the lower unit as it was on the transom saver and picked up and down on it and the transom appeared to flex. So I believed him. 

Fast forward to today and I began to remove screws and bolts from the transom and it's not rotten. All that was wrong was the bolts were loose and the bracket's on the inside of the splash well were loose as well. So I checked out the wood all over the transom and can't find any rot anywhere. YAY for me. 

So in closing this if anyone wants to see how this is done you can go to www.thehulltruth.com and there are several threads about doing this repair.

Again I'm sorry for this but then again I'm very happy that it's not rotten. The best part was I was holding off until Monday to order the Arjay so I haven't put out any money on that. 

The cost of the Arjay to fill the transom on my Lund Tyee 1850 was for 10 gallons and that was $400 and change. Then the shipping was another $125 ish. $500 beats the heck out of $3500 any day in my book for a day or two of work.


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## FireMurph (Apr 16, 2007)

I replaced mine last year in my 1989 Crestliner Sabre Great Lakes. It wasn't real hard but very time consuming. Mine being aluminum and welded I had to drill the wood out peace by peace. I used a spade bit and vacuum and drilled and drilled.
I used Seacast&#8482; it's almost 3 times the strength of a marine plywood transom. Other than having to get a larger drill than I had to mix it everything went well.
Good Luck and take pictures (I did but never downloaded them from my old phone).
http://www.transomrepair.net/


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## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

I had looked into Seacast as well as Arjay and a few others. A guy I know on The Hull Truth used Arjay on his 33' and put triple big block Evinrude V8's all running over 400HP each. Obviously they're not stock. This and also it was about 20% less cost made my decision to use it. I'm just glad that I didn't already buy it.

I agree with you the job isn't all that bad just a little time consuming to chisel and dig the wood out. With all this damn ice I was actually looking forward to it, but glad at the same time I don't have to. This type product is much stronger than the original wood was and will never rot. To me there is no other way to do this than to use this type of product. Maybe more expensive than going with plywood covered with glass, but not all that much if you use a good quality plywood and then proper layup is time consuming, and won't last as long. 

SOOOOOO I'll be ordering my new Motorguide Xi5 pretty soon. Still looking for a few items for the boat and will be ready once ice out comes. We've been iced up since the first of November.  Very long winter over this way.


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## BigDaddy300 (Nov 1, 2004)

How did you check the wood all over the transom for rot or wetness?


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## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

BigDaddy300 said:


> How did you check the wood all over the transom for rot or wetness?


Pulled several screws that were all over the transom, then pulled the transom cap. All hard wood. Some slight wetness at the top under the cap but would be expected since there were some places that were kind of pulled in by the outboard rocking back and forth because it was loose. I'm borrowing a wetness meter from a guy this week to double check. But pretty sure it's fine.

Also tapped all around with a hammer and it's solid everywhere accept along the top right under the cap. But like I said there were some areas that were pulled away from the top cap inward from the rocking of the outboard.


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## zero410 (Feb 26, 2010)

good news on your transom not needing repaired.i wasnt so lucky when i pulled the cap on my transom.i could sink a long screw driver as far into my transom as i wanted to.so i will be repairing mine with the pourable stuff.was looking forward to your thread.


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## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

Zero410 there are several that you can view on The Hull Truth website. This is where I learned about it. The hardest part is pulling out the junk wood.

Also let me know if you want the contact I have on Arjay. They were the cheapest even adding in shipping. 

But yes sir I did get lucky. But now I'm wondering if I can trust this dealer.


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## FireMurph (Apr 16, 2007)

Dave dont get your hopes up to high, if I was a betting man I would bet you your transom has some rot. Unless it's a newer boat (less than 15 years) it has some water sitting in there. Think about it if the cap is loose and lets water in how does it get out? That water makes it's way to the bottom and sits there, even if it has weeping holes at the bottom that water sits there and could even get in from the weeping holes.
I looked at it as an investment in my boat, now I Know I don't have to worry about the transom for 10 - 20 years. 
Good luck and keep us updated.


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## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

FireMurph said:


> Dave dont get your hopes up to high, if I was a betting man I would bet you your transom has some rot. Unless it's a newer boat (less than 15 years) it has some water sitting in there. Think about it if the cap is loose and lets water in how does it get out? That water makes it's way to the bottom and sits there, even if it has weeping holes at the bottom that water sits there and could even get in from the weeping holes.
> I looked at it as an investment in my boat, now I Know I don't have to worry about the transom for 10 - 20 years.
> Good luck and keep us updated.


Yes you're right there is some soft wet wood as I stated above its just along the very top 1-2 inches below the transom cap. 

_"Also tapped all around with a hammer and it's solid everywhere accept along the top right under the cap. But like I said there were some areas that were pulled away from the top cap inward from the rocking of the outboard."_

This is a 98 Tyee that has been used very little less than 300 hours and was always garage kept. The boat is in exceptional shape accept for some dock rash that was made worse at our Lake house by Alexandria MN. Never, never use a throw cushion for a bumper  Had to because one of my bumpers was missing and it was rough. While I was out buying the new bumper the throw cushion didn't stay in place  Anyway all in all the boat is in really great condition. 

The wood here was wet not rotted. My buddy came over and there is some water moisture level was very low, as stated but not rotten. Since this is just along the top he nor I see any reason to do the repair now I'm going to let it stay as is for now. I'll be sealing it up with 3M 4200 and putting vents in the top of the transom on the inside of the splashwell and weep holes at the bottom of the transom in the bilge. This will allow it time to dry out. If it doesn't and progresses I'll go to my original plan and use the Arjay as a project in a future winter.

But at the moment it's a very solid transom.


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## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

Here are some pictures of my outboard just for reference as to how little this boat was used.









































Yeah she's dirty Can't wait to get her over to the car wash to clean her up, but will have to wait until all this snow, ice is gone and road is dry.


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## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

And here is a picture of the whole rig.


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