First 1/2 Stringer Installed!!!

Big Day, this past Sunday. We got the first one of 8 stringer pieces installed. It went slower than we had wanted (like everything else thus far) but each piece from here on out should move a little faster now that we have something to secure them to.

To install, we measured up the section, ~ 7ft 4in from the back, made that length cut, cut the angle on the interior and exterior sides of the stringer (which was about a 1in difference) sawed through the foam with a wire saw and then had to notch the "back" (transom end) of the stringer so that it would fit into the transom plug - since that area is not flat.

Next step was to level and secure the stringer into place (advice from pops here) and we bent some boards under the old floor on both sides to pin the stringer down.

9oz tape was cut to wrap around the back and into the transom as well as to lay across the seam at the floor. Slow-kick epoxy was liberally applied and we realized I forgot the camera, so the crappy pics are from the phone.

This is a pic of the transom before we started glassing the stringer. We added another layer of 18oz strips across the cap and down to the floor prior to starting the stringers.

another pic prior to stringer - this one is the in the corner, where the old floor came in. The glass cured out really well - we were happy.

shot of the "fillet" we made at the base of the new transom.

Finally, a pic of the 1st 1/2 stringer...only 7 more of these to go. And then the floor...The gas tank is on the way too.

Transom Interior Capped

Finally got back down to the T-bird this weekend, and were able to cap the interior of the transom with final piece of plywood.
After grinding the plugs and existing glass on the back of the boat we applied US Composite 2:1 slow epoxy to the section, and the plywood, then added a 5ft section 18oz woven roving to the transom as a "barrier" between the wooden pieces.
Next step was to mix up some cabosil in the epoxy and apply that to both the board and the boat.
Finally we through bolted the cap, similar to the plugs that were put in and tightened it down. We used the squeeze out to apply an initial fillet at the bottom of the plug, but the resources ran out and we were not able to do the final fillet - maybe next week.
Here are da pics:
You will notice that we did not try to cut this cap to shape the bottom of the boat, electing instead to take it straight across and cover about 3/4 of the plug. the top of the cap does not go all the way to the top of the transom, we decided instead to make that shorter so that we could more easily work with the lip that exists in the transom. Next step will be to glass in the entire back end, and the stringers to the transom with some stiff knees.


We also got a chance to mix up some of the 2lb foam and pour up one of the stringers...That stuff gets pretty warm and will melt latex gloves...doh.