2004 250 Project Thread

[akorcovelos]

Volvo life problems! *Merc guy chuckles*

[slideruleracer]

Haha.. Problems?! Good luck Diy tuning the merc 555pcm! Ha!

[Big Block Power]

I got my ecu back today. Odd I can't see any of the changes. Lol

[akorcovelos]

Code: Select all

Haha.. Problems?! Good luck Diy tuning the merc 555pcm! Ha!

I let Whipple do my tuning.

[slideruleracer]

Exactly!

[slideruleracer]

Instead of starting a new thread, I figured I'd revive my old one..

When I bought the boat way back when, it had a slight 'bulge' in the floor at the bow. That bulge got worse over the last few years and I decided to crack into it this fall/winter/spring.

From below, there is absolutely nothing amiss with the structure/fiberglass and wood (below = crawling into the locker storage area and looking at it from underneath). The bulge is directly above where the floor is supported, so I knew suspected that something was added to the lamination for that support that was causing the problem. I suspected something similar to what I found when I cut into the swim platform several years back and the aluminum plates were massively corroded.

I was not disappointed. The lamination where the root cause was:
Fiberglass w/ non-skid top gel coat
a piece of wood
a piece of 1/4" aluminum
the lower fiberglass layer

Around the this support area the wood and aluminum are replaced with the plastic honeycomb.

As I suspected, the aluminum was badly corroded.
What I didn't expect was that the wood was wet and very swollen.
Additionally, there are little mini 'stringers' of wood that run inside the laminate up and down the sides of the bow walkway. Those were also wet.

The only places where water could have gotten into this lamination are 2 flooring button snaps or the center door latch hole. Upon closer inspection, the center door latch hole is cut right into the laminate - no sealing at all!!! So any water that gets in there just migrates out. Apparently 18 years of water getting into that hole has consequences.

I removed the wood piece, the aluminum piece and then scraped out all of the wet wood 'mini-stringers' that were exposed from the opening I cut. The little mini stringers are not structural as nest I can tell and look like they were there primarily for shaping the sides of the walkway area.

I'm going to let the area dry out over the winter under the winter covers and then I am going to repair the lamination and the top fiberglass layer in the spring and refill the wood I scraped out. More pics to come when I finish. For now, enjoy the carnage!

[slideruleracer]

more pics

[CBO]

Quite the project. Sad this was all caused by lack of attention during the build process at the factory. I am definitely going to be checking and sealing the center door latch hole. Best of luck and keep posted on your progress.