Cutting out the Stringers in a 79 Centurion Jet Boat, DIY Replacement

Like many owners of these older Jet Boats, the time has come for me to replace the stringers in my 1979 Centurion. I have not come across much detailed content on the process required to perform this repair on these types of boats. Because of this I decided to thoroughly document my journey through the process, showing the problems I encounter and how I overcame them. I will do my best to explain the tools and techniques that I used to perform these repairs. My goal is to try to keep the detail high in these videos, while also trying to keep them from getting to long and drawn out. So I will try to break these videos down into smaller segments. So if you haven’t, I encourage you to subscribe to the channel so you can be notified of the new videos coming out. I hope that you find this series of videos to be helpful for your project. If you have comments, suggests or tips that you would like to share please leave them in the comments section!

Within this second video of this series I cover the tools and techniques that I utilized to cut out my floor, and stringers. Once I had the stringers out I was completely shocked by the condition that they were in. Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse when I discovered that the wood on my transom was rotted out also. I went into this project thinking that I was only going to replace the stringers and now that I discovered the transom rot, the overall scope of this project just increased significantly.

I found that the oscillating saw was the best tool to suit me needs in cutting out the stringers. Now once they were cut out I found that the stringers were not "bedded" in, or adhered to the bottom of the hull at all. If they were, I think that would have made it much more difficult for this tool to cut the stringers out. Since they weren't, all I had to do was cut the bottom edge of the fiberglass casing on both sides.

I did not expect the high amount of wear on my cutting blades for the oscillating saw. I did discover that the higher quality carbide blades do last quite a bit longer than the ones that I discussed in the video.

I also used my 4.5" grinder with a cut off wheel to cut the bottom of the stringers. That worked well, but made a larger mess, more smoke and was harder to control than the saw.

In the end there are a lot of tools and techniques that can be used to cut the stringers out. Experiment with what you have, and find what works best for you and your boat.


If you enjoyed this video take a look at my other videos on this 79 Centurion Jet Boat.

Replacing the Stringers in a 1979 Centurion Jet Boat:    • Replacing the Stringers on a 1979 Cen...  
Comparing the Berkeley & Dominator Jet Drives:    • Comparing The Differences of a Berkel...  
Restoring Berkeley Jet Pump:    • Restoring a Berkeley 12JG Jet Boat Pu...  
Assembling Berkeley 12JG Jet Drive:    • How to Assemble a Berkeley 12JG Jet B...  
Berkeley Stuffer Installation:    • Installing a Bowl Stuffer into a Berk...  
Installing an inducer into a Berkeley Jet Pump:    • Installing an Inducer into a Berkeley...  
Restoring and polishing out the transom:    • Polishing out the Gel Coat on the Tra...  
Restoring the Gel Coat on a 1979 Centurion Jet Boat:    • Resurrecting the Gel Coat on my 1979 ...  

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