SBH2OMan
Well-known member
Hey guys, just weighing in for opinions & advice. Today I pulled my old scuppers and scraped away old bottom paint and sanded off a bunch of gunk to just assess things. One of the things I discovered were a bunch of holes hiding under the bottom paint that had been plugged with silicone, but weren't sealing, so I popped the silicone out. A couple of the holes were wet inside, but didn't actually "drain" water out.
I'm planning to patch all the holes, then re-drill new holes for the new scuppers.
In addition, I discovered a really lousy patch job hiding under a cable cover from an old transducer cable. I pulled the two screws and then pried off the black plastic cover to find that the PO had just basically squirted silicone up the old cable hole and it had partially filled a 3/4" hole in the transom, but the silicone had shrank and was barely water tight. Luckily this was above the water line.
So here are my questions (in no particular order):
1. Should I over-drill all the scupper mounting holes and then plug with 1/4" dowels and West Systems epoxy? Or should I just slightly over-drill them and just squirt West Systems mixed with a bit of filler and then tape it up and let it cure?. Is using a 3/16" birch dowel a good option? Fluting could be tricky on something so small... I'm just leery of drilling a bunch of 1/4" holes (even though they are only about 1" deep).
2. Whichever of those two options I use, should I worry about patching the gel coat since it will be covered with bottom paint, or should I just have the yard apply epoxy primer and bottom paint?
3. I'm assuming I should get a 3/4" dowel and plug that big transducer cable hole. The one thing I'm wondering about though, is whether I might ever want to run another transom-mounted transducer, since I've been thinking about adding a CHIRP 'ducer and the transom-mount one would be a LOT cheaper and let me keep my existing B744v in the high speed fairing block. I'm wondering if there is a good but non-permanent way to patch that hole? (maybe just wet it out with West Systems and push a plug in there of some sort?
Thanks guys!
Transducer cable hole:
I'm planning to patch all the holes, then re-drill new holes for the new scuppers.
In addition, I discovered a really lousy patch job hiding under a cable cover from an old transducer cable. I pulled the two screws and then pried off the black plastic cover to find that the PO had just basically squirted silicone up the old cable hole and it had partially filled a 3/4" hole in the transom, but the silicone had shrank and was barely water tight. Luckily this was above the water line.
So here are my questions (in no particular order):
1. Should I over-drill all the scupper mounting holes and then plug with 1/4" dowels and West Systems epoxy? Or should I just slightly over-drill them and just squirt West Systems mixed with a bit of filler and then tape it up and let it cure?. Is using a 3/16" birch dowel a good option? Fluting could be tricky on something so small... I'm just leery of drilling a bunch of 1/4" holes (even though they are only about 1" deep).
2. Whichever of those two options I use, should I worry about patching the gel coat since it will be covered with bottom paint, or should I just have the yard apply epoxy primer and bottom paint?
3. I'm assuming I should get a 3/4" dowel and plug that big transducer cable hole. The one thing I'm wondering about though, is whether I might ever want to run another transom-mounted transducer, since I've been thinking about adding a CHIRP 'ducer and the transom-mount one would be a LOT cheaper and let me keep my existing B744v in the high speed fairing block. I'm wondering if there is a good but non-permanent way to patch that hole? (maybe just wet it out with West Systems and push a plug in there of some sort?
Thanks guys!
Transducer cable hole: