2859 Swimstep Resize-gctid363839

[Guest]

In need of a place to mount a kicker motor on my transom and at the advice of a few other members (2859'er and SomeSailor) I decided to tackle the task by shortening the port side of the swim platform.

Started with the removal of the old swim step last week. That was more of a challenge then expected with the amount of 5200 used to mount it to the transom. With all supports and bolts removed the 5200 held it firmly in place still. Used a dull wide scraper and hammer in between the step and transom to break through the 5200. After lots of elbow grease success finally came about 30 minutes later.



Had a crazy week at work and the boat is 45 min away, so couldn't do any work during the week. Resumed yesterday. Started by laying out lines for the cuts through the platform and proceeded to cut away. used a circular saw to cut partway through, then finished with a cutting blade on the vibrating tool.

Port Side Before



Port Side After - no turning back now

[SomeSailor]

If you carefully grind the the gelcoat down in a nice straight strip, it will look just like the factory band on the starboard side. When I bought my boat, I had to look carefully to see how he did it. It's a good mod for sure.

[Guest]

Continued this morning with the swim platform at my brothers where he has a heated garage. Luckily we have a beautiful March day topping off at 70 so could work outside all day to minimize the fume inhalation.

Removed about 5/8" of the old diamond pattern and fiberglass from the each edge of the pieces to be joined. Using a combination of the vibrating blade and sanding attachment on the Dremel tool made this a snap. On the back side removed the gel coat with a sander where we are going to lay down plywood backing for support. Couldn't decide whether to start glassing the topside first or the bottom supports first. Finally decided to screw one of the plywood backing board in to the underside and clamp another to keep the aligment where we wanted it, but started glassing on the topside.

Started with West Systems Resin and Fast hardner mixed with 406 filler to fill in any voids. Laid about 10 layers of mat and sheet on the topside. Never had done fiberglass work before so it was a learn as you go experience. Having Greg's thread to reference made things go a lot faster then if I was trying to do this from blank slate.

About done with the glassing on the topside:



After letting the top setup completely flipped it over and glassed in the support plywood in the underside. Again started with thickened epoxy to fill in the gaps and cracks and then proceeded to glass in the plywood. This was a lot messier then the topside. Have to get better and feathering the corners so the mat lays flat. Had to fight it a lot to keep the air bubbles out of the top and keep the sides and corners laying flat with no bubbles.

That was it for the day. Hope to have time during the week to sand down the topside and begin gelcoat and paint the underside.

[Guest]

SomeSailor wrote:
If you carefully grind the the gelcoat down in a nice straight strip, it will look just like the factory band on the starboard side. When I bought my boat, I had to look carefully to see how he did it. It's a good mod for sure.

Got it as straight as I could with the sanding barrel on the dremel. Not expecting factory look, but hoping it doesn't come out looking like a hack job.

[Guest]

Nice work Keith.

Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Greg

[Go Aweigh2452]

Very nice... But I would prefer to see a completed project in the "Completed Project" forum... For those who care to read the top of this thread... This thread has been moved with a permanent redirect from "Completed Projects" to "General Boating". Once completed, I would assume it will be posted as such in "Completed Projects"...

[SomeSailor]

Is there a forum for 'Pending Projects' or does that mean he has to wait to show his ongoing project.

[Go Aweigh2452]

SomeSailor wrote:
Is there a forum for 'Pending Projects' or does that mean he has to wait to show his ongoing project.

Please read my edited post...

[SomeSailor]

But see... he can't move it to 'Completed Projects' when he's done now...

[Go Aweigh2452]

SomeSailor wrote:
But see... he can't move it to 'Completed Projects' when he's done now...

No... but I can as well as any other mod...

OR... he posts a new thread with all the photos, etc in a single thread... I think that would be more helpful for members looking for Completed Projects...

[Guest]

Will you also delete the 5 posts that have nothing to do with the project at all and make it harder to read (oops, nows it's 6)?

[Guest]

As a note I modified the cuts a little from Gregs drawing. The first cut was perpedicular to the straight notches in the fore of the step, right at the bottom of the outside angle as 2859er was.

For the 2nd cut I tooke about 2" more off and also angled the cut so that the mounting edge of the newly attached piece would be exactly parallel to the center mount. The original step had an outward angle on both ends because the transom angles out a few feet from the edge of the boat. The new mount location will be on the straight area of the transom so I wanted these two mounts to be parrallel. A shim will still be neccessary but I won't have to mess with an angled shim it should be a constant thickness all the way across when done.

Here is the drawing more representative of the actual cuts I made. I just held the end piece up against the existing piece, used a straight edge to get parallel and then marked the angle for the next cut. You can see a slight mismatch in the radius now, but is will be seperated by the smooth area and is barely noticeable.

[Guest]

Didn't get as much time during the week as I would have liked to but made some progress. Lots of sanding and a coat final finish coat of west system with 407 fairing. Got the 2 coats of Interlux Epoxy Primer on the bottom and the first coat of gelcoat on the top.

Learned a lot about fiberglassing with this project. Some areas are not as clean as I would have liked. If I could start over again from scratch things would look much neater. I'm always an expert at something when I'm done with it and don't need to do it again for years or ever.

In the future I know to:

1) Fillet the inside corners around the blocks with Resin and Fibers to make laying the sheets easier. Fiberglass doesn't like sharp inside corners.

2) Cut and dry fit all sheets first before mixing and starting to lay sheet down. I had a helper but we weren't getting the sheet size exactly right. Pay special attention to how the corners lay.

3) Clean up any epoxy spills immediately with resin, especially on the diamond pattern. Once that hardens its a PITA to get out of the diamond pattern.

So far I am happy with the outcome but definetely could do better if I started over knowing what I know now.

2nd coat of Interlux Epoxy Primer on the bottom.



1st coat of Gelcoat on. Wet sand today with 400 and 600 to see if a 2nd coat will be needed. Covered well but there are some hills and valleys that I would like to get rid of. Applied with a sponge brush and not a sprayer.



Still have to attach the small wedge for mounting.

Have a few other projects to finish at the boat also.

1) Fill in the old mounting holes from the swim platform

2) Replace old thru-hull with a proper bronze seacock. Got the mounting pad made, drilled and epoxied, just need to install.

3) Fabricate a wedge for the outboard mounting to move it out from the lower transom and at the proper angle. Still deciding to just go with a marine plywood wedge or have a fabricator weld on an angled extension onto the existing bracket.

Hopefully can get that down in the next 2 weeks so we can launch before April 15 and not lose our early in discount from the yard.

[SomeSailor]

Coming along nicely Keith. Really a worthwhile project in getting that kicker down in the water and usable. Great job!

[Guest]

Very nice. You do quality work.

Best plan on the kicker mount is to have a fabricator make up an angled extension onto the existing bracket or as I had them do on mine replace the flat mounting bracket with one that supplies the proper angle. Somesailor talked me out of a marine plywood wedge, I'm glad he did.