Skeeter SK2000 Transom(and more) Replacement

Well, I got this boat in April. The transom APPEARED to be good. No real signs of distress, and it passed the 'tilt the engine up, lift on the skeg and check for signs of flexing' test. There was some cracking in the splashwell, but considering the transome didnt appear soft, I figured it was just stress cracks.

So I did have a soft section of floor that i replaced... While I was at it I redid alot of wiring, painted the top half, removed the carpet except for on the lockers and consoles which was replaced.

When I got it, April 07..

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Removing the console to get to the soft spot in the floor.
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Finally by the beginning of June I had it mostly back together and ready to take out...

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Unfortunately, after the second outing when I got it back on the trailer I noticed the engine flopping around ALOT if I lifted on it. Apparantly I was able to break loose whatever was making the transom appear to be solid :( Thing is, if I known the transom was bad I would have been able to do a much better quality floor repair with alot less effort and cost and time. So if you have some soft spots in the floor, really inspect the other areas under the hull. I now see that if I push on the knee braces in the transom with a screwdriver, they feel hollow. If I would have checked this before, I would probably be enjoying the boat by now, or really close to it.

Anyhow, so this past weekend a friend and I finally got together to split the deck from the hull. The plan was to construct a frame out of 2x6's, and joined using metal braces from lowes designed for buildign floating docks. The vertical support was going to be from six legs, 1 1/4" schedule 40 black iron pipe(1 5/8" OD). It would be a six point pick, with come alongs going into the front bait well and storage locker, one at each handrail in the middle, and one in each of the rear storage lockers. Pipes were cut to fit into the lockers and lift using the lip. This era skeeter uses aluminum locker lids and frames.

Well, we got off to a bad start. A 2x6 was placed across the bow, and my friend put the poles next to it with the metal braces slipped over the end of the board. I hopped in the boat to start disconnecting the fuel sender and so forth, and everything fell over, and the pole nailed the fender of my car http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/crying.gif

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then the frame construction began.

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This was VERY flimsy, so we added diagonals to the uprights by welding 6x6 metal pads to the uprights and attaching with 3/8" bolts. At the 2x6s the diagonals were attached with 3 or 3 1/2 long deck screws.

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I also added some plywood to the corners of the frame to resist twisting, and at the last minute we decided to double up the 2x6's that run across the boat.

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We started to come up in the front, but in the rear it was being held on and it took a while to realize what it was... First, dont forget to remove the splashwell drain tubes! On mine, they are a stainless tube with a washer on each end, and it is then squashed on each end to hold it on. I ground the lip off one side and drove it through.

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The top still did not want to come off so I used a cutoff wheel to cut the flange of the splashwell where it covers the transom.

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What I found is that the factory puts a layer of bondo on the transom before setting the deck. This fills the small gap between the splashwell and the transom board so that when you tighten the engine bolts it doesnt compress. Well, the bondo is a hell of a glue so you have to drive a large screwdriver between the rear of the splashwell and the transom board to seperate it. Once I did that the cap popped up.

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And finally able to get the hull out from underneat this "structure"...

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I cant keep the deck here, so we loaded it on my friends trailer for his 24' sea ray. It worked perfect, like it was designed for it. The rear storage boxes sat on the bunks, the center storage box was just above the rails of the trailer and a 2x4 filled the gap nicely, and the front was supported by the roller at the winch.

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Now that I got it apart, I see that its more than just transom work. Just about all the wood is shot. There is alot of horizontal wood like a sub floor, and skeeter was nice enough to only glass what was necessary to tie it into the hull. the remainder was uncoated.

Will get more pics of the condition soon.


Modified by boostedone at 12:31 PM 7/3/2007


Modified by boostedone at 3:14 PM 10/28/2007

http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/eek.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/eek.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/eek.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

big job, good work. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/boardstuff2/beers.gif

WOW...That is a lot of work!!! That is awesome....love seeing the pic's, keep them coming!!! GOOD LUCK the rest of the way!!! http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

so cool, thanks for the pics, I'll post a link in the Skeeter forum.

what type of paint and primer did u use on the top side looks good.

Man what a job to tackle! It certainly looks like one heck of a project, but is very impressive. Hope your end result will be all it's expected to be. Please continue with the updates and pics through your progress. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

What a job. My father in law had one just like that with a 225 Yamaha Excell. He just sold it about 3 or 4 months ago after I got the motor straightened out http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/ohwell.gif . Very stable and good riding boat http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif . But no speed demon as it's not really a pad hull. I'm sure you'll really enjoy it after the repairs http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

I might get out to take some pics of its current condition today depending on how things go. I want to tear into it so bad, not because I enjoy it but like Aaron Tippin said, 'you gotta get it started if you wanna get it done'...

The top side was prepped with 80 grit, then sprayed with PPG's shop line high build urethane primer, then quick sanded with 320, then sprayed with Nason(Dupont shop line) basecoat(viper blue) followed by Southern Polyurethanes 2K high solids clear. Im never using shopline base coat again..

If the boat is not a speed demon, thats fine. 4 months ago I was using a 12 foot jon with a 3.5horse :) I have no desire at the moment to do tx's. I actually get irritated if I go to a lake I like and find there is a tx going on that day. I just wanna go for the enjoyment of going, so as long as it can get me where I wanna go in a decent amount of time, thats fine. The engine was running really weird when I had it out those two times, way down on power. I finally found that all the spark plugs were only finger tight. I could remove them without a wrench. Like that the boat would still do 45 on the GPS with a full tank of gas, so if I could get mid to high 50s out of it tuned up, Id be content.




Modified by boostedone at 9:43 PM 7/9/2007

Ok, I set out today to simply find some solid wood in the boat. Unfortunately I havent found ANY, except for possibly this one peice in front of the gas tank that has to get removed to get to the stringers anyhow http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/crying.gif

Transom:
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Transom again. Its fairly empty, and the most effort I did was fling loose stuff out with a screw driver when we were splitting the cap...

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Here is a lifting lug hole in the knee brace at the bilge.. I'll take "No Wood for $500 Alex"

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Rotten wood behind the gas tank...

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All it took was a step to see how strong it was...
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Moving in front of the gas tank, similar story...

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Soo, it looks like I need to remove just about anything made of wood from the hull....

OMG! http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/eek.gif
I wish you luck on this project! http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/praying.gif
I wouldnt know where or how to begin.

While your there check the core in the hull too.

Core? Definition please?

The way I am familiar with the core is in floor panels where the wood is inside of encapsulated glass. What are you referring to in the hull?

Core is usually balsa wood and encapsulated in the very bottem of the hull, just under the stringers. I'm guessing 1/4 to 3/8" thick. You can take a drill and work it slowly through the top layer of glass or you may be able to see it when you remove the stringers, not sure how Skeeter builds it. Maybe someone with more experience can give better insight than me.

I got a one word thought in mind and it starts with F....

I didnt realize they cored the hull too. I understand Skeeter is supposed to have real good customer service, maybe I could just call them tomorrow and ask while I am replacing everything in their half assed, get it out of the factory construction, do I have to worry about a balsa core in the hull or is it just glass with stringers...

Its amazing.. with all the unprotected wood, I bet if you split the deck from the hull when this thing was only 4 years old it would still look like hell..

The internal construction of your boat appears to be slightly different than mine. From the pics you have it looks like you have 4 knee braces, mine only had the 2 in the middle and they weren't quite as long. The plastic side boxes should just be glassed to the transom board. I don't think the Skeeter hull has a CORE construction. You can see several humps angling downthe sides of the hull up front. Yes these are glassed over strips of balsa. It is not the balsa that really makes the strength, it is the fiberglass shaped hump that creates the strenght. I am sure you will do fine on you rebuild as the basic constuction method is pretty simple.

Thanks Larry.. I was actually planning to ask you what those humps were called, so that I could ask what was inside of them. If you notice the pic that shows and old nav light laying inside, you will see the hump is worn through. The other side is the same way. This is apparantly where the floor sits on the hump, and the shimmy causes it to wear.

I know I can fix it, but it was quite the kick in the crotch to know I have THIS much work to do. Im trying to decide how much resin to buy at this point... 6 gallon kit?

The balsa is there for strength, otherwise they would have just left it out. I have been through this with my own boat. It is a stong and light wood BUT once water hits it, it turns to mush. When that happens the 2 layers of glass start flexing. If your gonna keep that boat a while and you have it down that far I would definately check it.

Where the heck do you buy balsa wood though? Im sure the little peices at the hobby shop for model airplanes would make buying stuff from a marina look cheap http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/Laugh.gif

You can use a composite material instead of balsa. I would talk to a builder or fiberglass shop about what type. You could also IM Rollo, moderator on this board.

Check out http://www.boatbuildercentral.com. They are a wealth of information and carry ALL the materials that you'll need.

Awesome, thanks for the link!! In Vero they are even closer than US Composites where Garland is buying his stuff from.

WOW!!! http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/doh.gif Good luck to ya! I hope you can finsih strong, I know you have already put a lot of work and effort into it...Please keep us informed...again, GOOD LUCK!!! http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

good luck on the build!!! Is that the boosted vw i see??? any mods to it???

Thanks.
And yeah, thats a boosted vw you see there.. Its a 1.8T. Short ram intake, R32 MAF, Forge TIP, stock turbo with cranked wastegate, Forge Splitter diverter valve, Max PSI Racing 3" exhaust, Max PSI Racing prototype front mount intercooler, 42pph injectors and unknown tuning. The car put down 240hp to the tires in Feb with the stock MAF and injectors, running out of fuel at 5200RPM and going into limp mode on the dyno.

Theres also a 92 Golf you dont see in the pics with a VR swap, Mk3 interior dash, Mk3 sunroof, etc.

You have one?

I work on them, but im a honda lover!!!!! 500hp+ 1.9 turbo t67 on my 00' civic http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/smile.gif

my buddies gotta gti 6 speed with some upgrades on it , 3 dp, exhaust, ecu upgrade etc......

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Will &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I work on them, but im a honda lover!!!!! 500hp+ 1.9 turbo t67 on my 00' civic http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/smile.gif

my buddies gotta gti 6 speed with some upgrades on it , 3 dp, exhaust, ecu upgrade etc......</TD></TR></TABLE>

Eww, Honda http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/roll.gif

Sounds cool though, Im just so beyond building race style stuff. I made alright money from 2000 to 2006, and what do I have to show for it? A rotted out Skeeter http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/roll.gif

Anyhow, here is a copy of a post to the boatbuildercentral forum(which is why some references will be unclear)... Im too drained to personalize this right now..haha..

Welp, I got to tear into it some today.
I think rather than running a straight edge across the top of the hull and measuring down to the sole, I am going to measure up from the hull to the top of the stringers at various locations from the transom forward. Reason being the top of the hull is not straight, since it does not have to be and is pretty much as it comes out of the mold with some rough trimming. Additionaly the plywood is delaminated, swelled, broken, wavy, etc. On the other hand, the hull adjacent to the fillets is fairly smooth, so I think I will get better consistancy by measuring from the hull to the top of the stringers once the plywood soles are removed. Thoughts?

Anyhow, today started by going to Lowes and getting some parts for an old Holley Blue pump so I can drain the tank. Filled my Golf, Mustang, and F150 until they flowed over, and still had about 7 gallons to put in jugs. I hope the cars like premix :D

Note some of these photos are not for public value, but my comments will serve as documentation for me later as to what I did.

After getting the gas tank out, I took some shots of the floation boxes in the rear.

Right side floatation box(still rusty on the port/starboard thing, sorry).. I dont know what the peice of angle screwed to the top is for...
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Right side box again, with lousy glass in job. Skeeter must not know that polyester does not stick well to plastic, or they just didnt give a damn.. Im voting for number two...

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Left side box.. The foam is full of water even on the top side. If I push down through the hole water comes out...

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Right side box again...

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I cut the glass that was holding the box to the boat. I figured I would just peel the box right off... NO... I had to cut the box into three peices(woo hoo, more work for later!) so I could peel it away.
In case Im the only one who realizes this, removing floation foam SUCKS. As can be see in the picture, I started by using the claw side of the hammer to rip out peices. Its a bajillion degrees here in Florida and Im working outside in a tyvek bunny suit, so that didnt last long. From there I used a long screwdriver to stab the foam and try to break it out. Thats actually how I got rid of most of this mess. Later, I found a putty knife works ok(note, I didnt say great) at cutting the foam. Another trick I came up with was to use the sawzall to try to cut the foam into cubes. That works ok too. IF ANYONE HAS ANOTHER METHOD, SPEAK UP!! :lol:

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Fast forward about 5 or 6 hours and a 4lb personal weight reduction(no joke).... I tried trimming the fillets for the knee braces and getting them out.. no deal. I even took the sawzall and ran it down the transom to cut it loose, then tried to knock it over, no deal. One thing I noticed is that the trasom was screwed to the knee braces. Im guessing Skeeter attaches the knee braces to the transom, then puts it in as a an assembly.
So I gave up on knocking out the knee braces for now, and moved on to the sole. I cut out between where I thought the stringers would be. Woo hoo, more foam.

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The rear of the boat is on the right, the front on the left.. My hull is not "flat" on the bottom. As can be seen in the previous photos, the livewell pumps are mounted to the transom of the boat as well, but this is not the same transom that the engine attaches to, it is further foward so there is like a step in the rear transom. I noticed that between the center two stringers is the only place this area is wood reinforced. between the two outer stringers this lower part of the transom is just thick glass.

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The outer right stringer and knee brace. The knee brace is made seperate from the sringer, but it is bonded to the side. This means the sole had to be notched for the knee brace, and installed afterwards. Joel, looks like the idea of incorporating the knee braces to the stringer was already done in a similar fasion by Skeeter.

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Center/Left stringer profile. The rear sole(under the trash can) is made out of 3/8 or 1/2" plywood. I will measure tomorrow. Looks like the stringers and knee braces are 3/4", and the rear transom was 1.5".
So far I havent found any stringers running cross ways yet.

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I plan to remove all the flooring/foam first to see the stringer design, let Joel know a rough length and height of the stringers as well as the thickeness and sizing of the soles.. it varies and the elevation changes. Even though the cap is obviously seperate, I think its supposed to rest on the soles in the hull. The elevation changes I think are for the bait wells, storage lockers, floor, decks, etc.

" One thing I noticed is that the trasom was screwed to the knee braces. Im guessing Skeeter attaches the knee braces to the transom, then puts it in as a an assembly." http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/embeer.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/embeer.gif http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/embeer.gif How many of these are you ready for. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/Laugh.gif That is the way that mine was. There were two fairly large stainlees steel screws in each knee brace. The real trick is putting that back in the same way. Make all of your pieces, screw them together and then place them in the hull with fresh resin poured everywhere! http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/eek.gif

Yeah Larry, I thought on yours, your knee braces simple triangles. One side was screwed to the transom, the other side was screwed to the floor panel. Then I thought you screwd it all together(transom, floor, knee brace) and plopped that in on top of your stringers.

Are your knee braces incorporated into the stringer too? Im gonna have to go look at your album again.

Okay, just looked at your album again. Now that I have my boat to the point of either making it new again or making it junk(no turning back), I see how you did it.
First off you cheated!!! When you talked about saving the foam, I didnt realize how much you were actually saving! Not replacing that probably saved you 3 or 4 days working alone of just removal.

But I see how you did yours. You saved your stringers, and just dug the knee brace wood out of the glass "mold" on the side of the stringer and put the new one in with the transom attached, glassed it in then put the floor panel down. Weird, I looked at your album about 15 times now, and thought you put hte floor/transom/knee brace in as an assembly.

Oh well, enough stalling, more demo work to do.

Scott, it looks like your off to a good start. I used a miter hand saw to cut the boxed flotation foam into three pieces and then used the prybar along the back side of the foam at the side and worked it looses. Your right on the foam boxes. Javeling just use a wooden front with very little epoxy to seal the wood and the foam was poured against the side. I'm going to make sure that the nex boxes and foam are sealed. Also making sure that if i did back off the throttle and came down on plane fast that what ever water did overwash the splashwell and enters the bilge area that everything will be sealed good and waterproof. Your right about the heat. I was outside earlier but then the heat/sun got to me. I'm running errands for now and am going back out later this evening and work on it somemore.

Good luck, Garland

OMG http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/eek.gif what a job you have on your hands there. Looks like you have a great start on it. Remember when you finish the boat and sit a look at it you will be much prouder of it that walking into a skeeter dealer and plunking down a big wad of money for a new one. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/bows.gif

Ya know, racefan, 3 things go through my mind when I am doing this...
First, what keeps me going is thinking of getting to go out on it. I could buy another used boat, but I will be in the same position anyhow in a few years.
Second, I think of how bad this job sucks balls. Of the two, Im not sure which one I think more often.
And finally, I think just how pissed off I would be if I paid good money for this thing only to find that its construction was so half assed. Theres really no excuse for this. Blame it being left uncovered all you want, but almost ALL of the ply wood is not cased in glass except to tie it into the hull. The stringers ARE cased in glass, except for at the top where the unexposed floor panels attach. I think the floational foam is whats holding this thing together!! Once I clear out the foam, the stringers just crumble where the glass is thin. But yea, back to my final thought that goes through my mind... I would be so pissed off if I spent 20-40K on a boat to have it do this. Granted it is 19 years old, but its probably been rotten since it was 10, and had some rot since it was 3. As much as I dont like them, if I ever replace this boat it will be for a tin boat... I can weld aluminum :D

Anyhow, had better luck removing foam. I kept using the sawsall to dice it in like 4" cubes. Id just stick the sawsall down in the foam and let the blade bump lightly on the inside of the hull.

I dont have any real good pics.. I took some, but its mainly just of how panels were joined together. But I did get all the floor panels out of the right side, and most of the foam.

Cant work on it again till Saturday. But I got a buddy coming over to help http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/devil.gif

Hopefully with him helping next weekend, I will be able to get the rest of the foam out of the right side, and tear the floor panels out of the left side, and if things go really well get the stringers and transom cut out.

I just have to figure out HOW to cut these things out, especially in the rear. Garland, Larry?

Scott, i can share your frustration. My Javelin i'm sure was left uncovered but that is no excuse for placing the wood floor down without coating the bottom side with epoxy. I worked on mine somemore yesterday evening and got more glass off the stringers. My stringers are in really good shapew except at the top it has some water damage but using cpes from rot doctor will do the trick.

I took my time and used a prybar to remove the transom. Like Larry mentioned on his build that there are screws that are attached to the knee braces. I also uses a cutting wheel and cut the glass off the transom and got all of that removed and once i got the foam in the rear boxes removed then i worked the prybar along the edges of the knee braces. Take your time and work the prybar along the edges of the transom. Do not place the prybar on the bottom of the transom where the wood meets the bottom hull. If you do you will make blister spots on the bottom side of the hull. I took my time and it took me about 4 hours. Even though the transom and knee braces were wet/rotten i was able to salvage the overall shape of the pieces. I am making an exact template and leaving about a 1/2" extra on the dimensions. Seems my boat they had approx. a 1/2" gap where the top board for the transom was and glass filled the spot in between. I'm going to work on mine this evening somemore.
I have realized that it takes time to do the job right.
Garland

Good point on not prying against the bottom of the hull. I gotta look and make sure I didnt fark anything up trying to get the foam out.

Im thinkin of trying out this thing to help cut out the stringers as close to the fillet as possible. As much as I absolutely HATE Harbor Freight and their garbage tools, I havent seen many offerings in other companies.

http://www.harborfreight.com/c...94626

Then I am hoping to be able to use a cutoff wheel to the rest of it...

Scott, if you have an air compressor with at least a 30 gallon tank you can get a cutoff tool at Harbor freight and it works good. Or you can get a black and decker coarse wheel grinder and attach it to a drill and it works real good at cutting close to the stringer fillets. Only problem is that you will end up with lost of dust in your drill. I have not gotten much time cause of work and all to work on mine. I'm hoping to get everything sanded this weekend.
Have a good one, Garland

When cutting the glass off of the stringers you could try to skim cut the top off and dig the wood out. This might lead to less fiberglass replacement for the stringers. As far as telling you how to get the transom wood out, HA, I had the center section dang near down to the bottom before I ever took the top cap off. Most of it came out with a long screwdriver and a shop vac. Thats how bad mine was. Best as I can tell ya is go to the hardware store and find the biggest wood chisel you can find and go at it. There may be some areas where you have to make a longer makeshift chisel. Good Luck! and don't get to frustrated, it'll come around and in the end you will be proud of what you have done. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

Hey Larry,
Im assuming from the factory your knee braces were glassed to the side of the stringer. Were they screwed before they were glassed over, similar to how they are attached to the transom? Please say no!

I don't recall finding any screws while digging the old knee braces out. I just poured lots of resin down the hole after installing the brace.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Skeet’r89 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I don't recall finding any screws while digging the old knee braces out. I just poured lots of resin down the hole after installing the brace.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yours were screwed to the transom though, werent they?? I thought I saw you say somewhere that they were