paint is oxidised, but i think the "clean" and waxed spots show the original color pretty well.

wow, nice carving of the side there guys! and i love what you have done with the wireing!

under the battery there is more rot running forward. looks like i need to decide weather to remove the top of the boat, or to cut out the lounge area and turn it into a casting deck....?

this area is in good shape on the top side, but the stringers and floor under it need to come out and be replaced.

after removing the engine, mounts, stringers and foam from the back end, i felt for rot, thanks to i-boats members advice, and found a "soft spot" in the transom below the exhaust coupling.

using the probing method to determine the extent of the rot, it looks as though it is a little bigger than a small soft spot. so here goes the rest of the disasembly. first comes the lower unit...

then the gimbal assy comes off...

and the inside portion of the transom assy.
looking back, I could have saved a lot of time and effort by just removing the 6 bolts that hold the inner and outer transom assy togather......, but following the service manual to the letter on this one!

at least the underside of the transom assy mount looks to be intact, no damage.

visual confermation of the soft spot i found from the inside.

reference measurement take for later, will need to have this to rebuild to the correct thickness.

with the inside glass split along the edge of the outdrive mount area, the "spot" looks more like an area to me! a little more exploratory surgery to determine the extent of the cancer seems to be in order.

with the transomectomy about half done, the patient is looking like it will pull through, although it will be a long road to recovery.

the next step in the surgury will be to remove the remaining "mounted" components and complete the transomectomy... more when this step is completed.

with the last of the floor removed, the extent of the rot is now known.
i would recomend to anyone doing a simmilar repair to just go ahead and tear up everything, because the rot is like cancer; if you leave ANY of it behind, it will spread.

with the forward section "roughed out", the extent of the rot is now visable. the grey carpet runs up the hull all the way to the seam. must have been installed prior to the top half of the boat.

with the inboard side of the forward stringer glass removed, you can see that the rot is spreading to an area of the boat that is higher than the bilge, yet the wood is still wet and rotting.

with the entire floor and stringer system now removed, the hull seemed rather "floppy", so i installed a cross brace in the forward section of the hull. just drywall screws from inside the cockpit in a W pattern on each side of the opening. holes will be patched and painted along with the rest of the area later.

i also tied a piece of rope between the cleets in the mid hull area to help reduce the "floppy" that is now present.
the sander in the pic is a little slower than the angle grinder at removing the first layer of "stuff" inside the hull, but when hooked up to the shop vac, it makes for DUST FREE surface prep!!!!!!