this february i bought my first boat, and let me tell you, i had NO idea what i was doing. i just knew i wanted to fish and have a little boat. so, i bought this little boat for cheap and fished out of it a couple of times and it did pretty good. the motor ran fantastically but, after about the fourth trip out with it, i noticed two little cracks in the fiberglass by the motor......uh oh! bad transom. i got several qoutes on a repair for the thing and they were all at least twice what i paid for the boat.....no way i was gonna do that. but, i couldnt in good conscience sell the thing; so........ i fixed it myself!!


first, i cut the top off of the transom with an angle grinder and cut out the back leaving a 4" or so lip from the edge. then, i dug all the dust and splinter that used to be wood out and sanded the remaining "shell"(some of the wood was still intact and had to be removed by chainsaw....yes, i said chainsaw...yikes!!).


the piece i cut out of the back.



then, i had to make a template (which, with that 4" lip in the way was no easy task!), then cut and laminate the wood for my transom.


i then had to glas in the piece that i cut out of the back. and, by the way, fiberglass is the nastiest hardest to clean up and miserable to work with junk ever created i think.



after glassing in the back and sides, i finished it out with bondo. ready for paint (at least after about a zillion hours of sanding!!)



here it is after 3 coats of primer and three coats of paint and, after being put back together.


going to test'er out....and GO FISHIN'!

IT WORKS!!! except i cant go fish 'cause, like an idiot, i didnt look at the waether before i took out and right after i got the boat in the water and had tested it out good, the sky turned a very evil lookin DARK gray and lit up with lightning!!

anyway, the pictures here represent work i started in late march and just now finished (if i had known what i was doing, it may not have taken so long, but i figured it out).
theh moral of the story is this, if you buy a boat, make sure you know what the heck yer doin because, believe me, you dont want to go through what i did!

thanks. actually, the rear of the boat is looking better than the rest of it now.

thanks george. i hope it will do real good. cant wait to get out and fish.

Fantastic job!   

thanks for all the compliments. but, as far as "Glass work" concerned, im stayin' as far from that crap as i can. it is no fun, it can be very difficult to work, not to mention the mix ratios and the great fumes 

yeah, i used that stuff on parts of the boat. and, i have to say, that crap was the worst. too much hardner, and it dries before you can use it; too little hardner, and the stuff dont dry, so yer left with a fiberglass filled sticky goo that you have to scrape off and clean thoroughly.