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anyone ever used gitrot, or cpes??

S

stlcheckmate

Member
I was looking at a preditor today, and the transom wasnt bad everywhere, it was just moist in places, it didnt flex when even standing on the motor and bouncing up at down on it, just like around the ladder holes and spedo holes, so Im not sure if the whole transom is shot or just its wet. But I was looking around cause the boat is kinda a steal, nice 150 on it, and good trailer..So I was looking at this stuff called gitrot, or stuff called cpes. Its like a liquid resin that you squirt into the transom or say like a floor that kinda rotted and its seeks out the voids and fills them in and hardens..any luck with anyone??
 
as far as I know thos products are meant to stabilize rotted wood that is dry and can soak them up... I've used several of this type of products on shoirt term makeshift repairs on wood window sills that were leaking and a door frame that was wet / rotten at the bottome... only to keep the damage from progressing significantly until a time when we could tear the rotted wood out and replace it properly.

I can see how such an option would be attractive, but even if it was goig to be strong enough, how in the world would you get the water out first???
 
ive used it a few times, its pretty good stuff, I dunno if I would trust it on any really structural part of a boat like a transom. Ive basically just used it on peices of wood that were rotting and I wasnt gonna get to replace right away. That being said I saw a guy on S&F that basically drilled holes ever inch or half inch on his transom and loaded it up with the stuff and is still using it several years later. Maybe to get ya through the summer and then plan on doing it later.
 
I have used git-rot several times and the stuff really works, just have to take your time, drill several holes and let the wood dry out some, does not have to be totally dry to work....the stuff gets HOT when curing so wacth out, do it in layers and should be fine, Rob
 
I had a wet transom on a 73 16ft rally sport. Drilled holes in bottom of transom let it drain put a heater to dry it out. Then drilled 5-18 inch 3/8 holes and filled with get rot and that was 7 yrs ago. Its not the right way but it is still holding. Rick
 
It is just thinned epoxy and as a result sets up a little jelly like. It will NOT adhere to wet rotten wood.
If you must do a less than ideal repair, then first dry out the wood by injecting acetone into the upper drilled holes and letting it come out the lower. It will displace the water and then dry the wood as it evaporates. Add air and heat. Then, instead of cpes, inject a low vicosity epoxy (west systems make one, so do others). Continue with the heat which will thin it even more and cause it to penetrate the dried out wood. For a transom...a roll of the dice.
 
Hello. I'm Steve Smith, and I invented Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (also known as CPES) back in 1972. It has come to be used for quite a variety of things, and in some cases I feel it is being used where its best performance is not attained. I want my products to always give the best possible results, and so sometimes I get involved in forums where applications are being discussed. Let me state a few basic principles about the product.

It does not make water vanish from a confined, waterlogged space. Nothing does. The physical process of evaporation must take place somehow.

Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer contains solvents, which must be allowed to evaporate from the wood, in order to give good results in the restoration of slightly deteriorated wood. When the solvents have evaporated, the restored wood has a similar porosity to natural wood, so the wood can "breathe". I designed it that way. That's important, particularly at the interface between the sound wood and the slightly deteriorated, now restored, wood.

There must be empty space inside the wood, for Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer or anything to be able to soak in. That means the moisture content of the wood needs to be below the fiber-saturation point of wood, typically about 30% by weight moisture content.

There is not a good way to measure this, inside a fiberglass skin. The moisture-meters with pins measure the salt content of the wood, not exactly its real moisture content. The correct way to measure moisture content of wood is the way the Stud-Finders work: they use radio waves, not metal pins that poke the wood. The best one I know of is the Wagner L606, made by Wagner Electronics in Rogue River Oregon. You can find them easily on the Internet.

There are two ways I know of to get the mositure out of wood. One is to drill many holes and let the boat sit for many weeks in hot weather. The other is to drill some holes and vacuum-dry the wood, and so I wrote an application note about that. Anyone who wishes to receive one can go to the company website www.smithandcompany.org, get the general inquiry email link, and request the vacuum-drying application note.

Missing physical space can afterwards of course be filled with various liquid epoxy fillers.

Steve Smith
 
Guys,

I've replaced transoms in 2 boats now. I'm sorry, but once you know your transom is wet I can't see any course other than replacing it with good quality marine plywood or maybe a proven structural composite material like Coosa board. Once wood gets wet inside a transom it's going to be extraordinarly difficult to dry it, and it will eventually rot. It's tempting to try some easy sounding band-aids, but IMHO I just wouldn't trust them with such a structurally significant part of my boat.

STLCheck, if you really want to know how wet the wood is in your transom you'll need to take samples of it with something like a spade bit. You accurately weigh the damp samples, dry them in an oven, then weigh them again after drying. PM me if you'd like some help with this.
 
Smith's CPES

I used CPES on my wood boat restoration. When I finally got all the old ugly paint off the sides and bottom, I found several places where the mahogany had rotted due to staples becoming exposed on the bottom and near the keel. Also, found a couple of small areas inside around the transom drains. FYI-This boat was very dry as it had not been around water in many years so I didn't have to worry about wet wood, so I can't address that issue.

I called and talked to Steve Smith and ordered the CPES and his Fill-it Epoxy filler. Do check out his website. He has a few pics that might help you.

I cleared the old rotted wood planking till I had good wood visible. CPES is a one to one A/B mix if I remember correctly. I then applied it liberally to the affected area and allowed to soak in. Then did it again. Let it sit for a couple of days and then filled the holes with his two part filler. The filler, once in place and set up it is easy to sand and takes paint or varnish well.

Finished in 2008 and have had no problems since. I don't know how it withstands pressure from bolts and weight but for cosmetic fixes it is good. You might contact the company and ask them if the filler will withstand the day to day use of the ladder.

I think I have some pics around if you want to see what it does. Just let me know and I will try to find them.
 
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