Re: Transom plywood
So far all of the one's I've done were older, all had one piece transom sections. The wing areas are visible from the inside of the splashwell and not covered. The transom eye bolts come right through into the splash well on each side and on the older ones double as cable pulley anchors.
I've considered adding an inner aluminum panel to the earlier transoms to protect the wood but figured that they've all lasted 40 years the way they were, so I never bothered. I never was very fond of how water can lay on the wood if the drain isn't kept clear and you have to maintain that lower bead of caulk between the wood and splash well tray.
The newer SS series and Fishmaster series have a slightly different transom layout, the gunwales are wider and the overall beam is wider on most boats too. I had a few 170 and 190 Fishmasters here but none have needed any major work, and since my preference is with the older boats, I've usually just sold the newer ones off minus their motors. I do like the shorter spashwell on the newer models, my 18' Chieftain has a 44" long splashwell with all sorts of wasted space. I have enough room to safely carry two coolers, one on each side while underway with no chance of motor interference.
One of these days I'll remember to take some pics and document one of these in detail.
The hardest part on the older boats is getting the inner gunwale screws out of the transom wood. Other than that, their not bad at all. The top caps come off clearing the entire top, there's a string of screw across the bottom of the splashwell and several 1/4" bolts which attach the outer wood panel, the lower gussets and transom all together and then the motor bolts. Other than those, it's just assorted screwed on accessories to remove. On a few of of these, I found it necessary to cut back the upper gunwale sheet metal a bit to clear the transom wood. The rear edge on a few came back partly over top the transom plywood. I just cut back about 3/16" or so to let me pull the wood straight up and out.
