Bootleg Stringer fix...

Word on the street is you can pump JB Weld or some other type of super strong filler to help support a rotten stringer. Anybody know anything about this? How long will it help if at all?

Sounds a little

to me.

-Steve

I know it's not preferred...I'm just asking if it will work? ;)

I doubt it.

Steve don't you mean sounds a little..

Luker- how big of a section is rotten in it.

Luker, the stringer is a support beam that takes tension and compression. Filling it works in compression to some extent but not in tension.
It leaves you relying on the hull to take much of the load.
Your hull will flex more and fail sooner (but who knows how soon) and you run the risk of the driveline that the stringer supports dropping to the floor one day (but who knows how soon).
So I guess the worst case is that you have the girlfriend's parents with you when the engine rolls of the stringer and the hull splits in two at 35 mph.
Short answer is it probably won't help much but it might not be worse than what you already have.

yes i have seen it done it did work as far as the motor didnt jump out of the boat when you hit the gas any more.it was like a real thin cement almost. guy poured in five gallons on each side came back next day drilled it installed lag bolts to motor mounts and boat was good to go. not really involved in it customer contracted the guy to do it and dont really see the boat anymore but the guy who did it says he does it all the time with great results.

There are pourable stringers where you basically cut off the top of the fiberglass, clean out all the wood and use the fiberglass sides as a form to pour your new stringers. But that seems more sxtensive than what your talking about.

I did what matthew talked about with a product called sea cast. Worked AWESOME

Thanks for the info guys...I don't personally have the problem, but I'm old boat shoppin' and was just curious.

http://www.nida-core.com/pdfs/pds/nord/pds_nidabond_transom1.pdf

yep that looks like the stuff he just cut a hole on top of the stringer poured the stuff in and cap it off over nite.

I am looking into doing my floors and stringers. Is using the sea cast or whatever matthew is talking about better to do thank replacing with wood? and rick ator to you happen to have any pics and the make of boat you did it on? How did the motormount hole drill out?

We relaced the wood stringers in our '81 Seaswirl and never had a problem again. My brother and I did it when we were 14 and 16. Remove the motor and drive (having a forklift around helps), cut open the top of the stringer, remove all the crusty wood. Replaced stringer with new pressure treated wood. We then through bolted the stringer to the fiberglass on the sides of it. Filled any remaining gap with spray foam and re-fiberglassed it. It came out really strong. Probably stronger than it originally was. We sold the boat about 5 years later after having no problems.

FWIW... If a boat has stringer problems, don't buy it. It's a big job and one that costs thousands. My dad was going to junk our boat, but my bro and I were determined to fix it. He ended up giving us the boat when we were finished.

Jb weld is good for everything. I also recomend duct tape.

west marine has epoxy resin that is meant to inject into the rotten wood and repair it but wouldn't use it if you have more than a foot or so of damage

yes seacast is what i'm talking about.
there is also a product called gitrot that will stop wood from continuiing to rot. if your worried about a rotting stringer you need to first make sure that it completely dries out. One thing you can do to speed up the process is drill holes in the suspected areas until you get to good wood. Inject git-rot into the holes and let cure. then fiberglass over the area. I think that is how it works. Here's a good article explaining git-rot and westmarines cpes it is a good place to start
http://www.rotdoctor.com/L/BoatL/bQA123.html

git rot does not work. I tried it before replacing the stringer. I just cut the top off only on the section that held the motor and trans mounts in. removed all the wood. let it sit a week to dry out put lag bolts in the good wood for the sea cast to hold onto. poured the sea cast in waited for it to dry about 5 days is a good cure time. glassed over the area with sheet after sheet of fiberglass matt that I had pre cut into strips ( took about 10-15 ) aplications of sheets then drilled holes and use lag bolts. Dont strip out the holed. but the good thing is if you do just pour more sea cast in and wait a few days and go at it again. motor never moved worked awesome. I did it in a 85 ski centurion true trac 2

rick ator,
When you put the lag bolts in you mean screwing them horizontally into the cutoff area so when you pour sea cast it fills around the lag bolt? I am looking to do this on my 86 supra. Do you guys think I will have to take the boat in half or would I be ok to leave it together and take the floor back enough to do the stringers?

oh and how long was the span you did with seacast for the motor mounts?

Rick,
that's good info, I've never used seacast myself. It was something that i came across when doing research for my restoration.