'98 Outback Transom repair/ restoration

[BGeorge01]

Is that captain chair a swivel?? Wanna share your design for that? I've been looking for a way to get mine to be able to do that.


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[98Roo]

Just sandwiched a $10 seat swivel from Academy Sports between the slider and seat. Took a little ingenuity but overall wasn't too bad. It's not the most stable, the chair can rock around on it pretty easily and I'm not a fan of not being able to lock it. My plan is to grab a new swivel/slide pedestal from GLS eventually.

[98Roo]

Only takes a few minutes to unbolt and take the fenders off.

Not possible with my trailer. Fenders and guide posts are a welded part of the trailer.

[jmb]

Well, that sucks. I got nothin I guess. Mine all comes apart.

[98Roo]

So I noticed a had a couple soft spots on the swim platform and also noticed it would drip water out of a few places thru the fiberglass/paint for a few days on the trailer. Would run out even more if I took it off and set it upright and pushed on a few places. After probing with a small screwdriver I figured out it was soaked on the inside....So I started tearing into it thinking I could just replace the rot with new wood, but ended up tearing it all out. It was wet in places almost all the way to the middle of the platform.

In the process I found it was balsa cored which lead me to realize what the FLOOR OF THE BOAT is made out of. BALSA sandwiched in fiberglass.. So much for "wood free." I guess if you don't consider balsa to be wood then yes.
It was easy to get the wet stuff out but the stuff that was completely dry was pretty tough to get up. Just used a Dremel to cut small squares and chiseled them out.

[98Roo]

Here it is completely cleaned of all old wood, sanded and ready for new fiberglass and wood, And then putting everything back together. I made my own "peanut butter" by cutting up chop strand mat to tiny pieces with scissors and mixing it in with the resin. Worked great despite not using any filler or thickener like cabosil. I used it to bond the wood to the platform and then used it around the edges to fill the gap, along with some left over tiger hair that came with my wakeboard tower.




Sticking it down

[98Roo]

I also reused the stock plastic blocks where the brackets screwed in. Just used the peanut butter to stick them and then went over with mat and cloth. Also when I reinstalled the brackets, I squirted marine epoxy into the screw holes and when around each one before sticking the brackets on and tightening to make sure no water got inside. This is how the stock platform rotted. The screws holes went thru the plastic into the wood. There was no sealant under the brackets or screws so water eventually made its way past the screws and into the balsa.

One downside to using plywood instead of balsa is how heavy this thing is now. Much heavier than before but hopefully it will last.
The last thing I need to do is paint the underside. Guess I'll see how well my leftover epoxy paint sticks to poly resin after sanding.

[Potsieuf]

Hey man great job on the rebuild. I have a 1998 Mobius and I have a question what did you use to mount the driver seat? My original fiberglass mount broke on me and I don't know where to get a new one.

[kelauben]

Eric,

Great pics and story. I was wondering if you could provide me a rough idea of how much it cost to reupholster the interior? Just a ballpark figure would be great. I need to do the same thing and have the same year and color boat you do. I'm also looking at replacing some of the gauges and maybe the gauge panel as well. I'm not all the way through your thread yet, but wondered if you had any advice on that or any of the electrical.

Thanks.

Karl

[Fastest1]

Eric,

Great pics and story. I was wondering if you could provide me a rough idea of how much it cost to reupholster the interior? Just a ballpark figure would be great. I need to do the same thing and have the same year and color boat you do. I'm also looking at replacing some of the gauges and maybe the gauge panel as well. I'm not all the way through your thread yet, but wondered if you had any advice on that or any of the electrical.

Thanks.

Karl

I just had mine done. It was 2400.00.

I had removed most of the interior, though I am not sure that made it any cheaper. You just have to trailer it around to get bids. Nobody will give you a price sight unseen.