Alright, so I figured I should go ahead and replace the transom with something that will never rot. But what... I found a place up near Altoona, PA that sells "odd" pieces of fiberglass. The owner apparently works at a plant. So, I got a couple of fiberglass ply sheets for about $20. The transom was 1 1/4" thick plywood, so I had to laminate two 1/2" and one 1/4" fiberglass laminate sheets... Sounds easier than it was.  First, I had to remove the old transom...










So, the first idea was to laminate the two 1/2" sheets with the weight of the outboard...





Well, it was supposed to work, but the two sheets popped right apart!





So I had to scrape it off and try again...



Try two involved drilling the mounting holes so I could put in some bolts and get it tightened down while the fiberglass resin hardened.



Here are some lag bolts with a bunch of clamps to tighten all areas. I buffed up the fiberglass sheets really well to get a good binding.







Here's putting the holes in the 1/4" laminate sheet using the old transom...






Now, the final lamination (two 1/2" sheets laminated to one 1/4" sheet). Aluminum is so much easier (and less splintery painful) to work with!
 



Now, I had to cut out the shape of the transom. This fiberglass "plywood" is some kind of hard. My sawblade was trashed and I finally broke down and bought some fiberglass/aluminum jigsaw blades (expensive). They last about 5 minutes of cutting and it took me forever cutting out this shape!!!







Here's the final cutout... Just needs some belt sanding.



This baby will NEVER rot!!!



I'm sure this is the way it is with every boat owner, but as long as I've got the whole floor out and I'm replacing the transom, I might as well give the boat a good painting? Right? OK, here's that crazyness. 


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