Most fiberglass runabouts are not "all" fiberglass. They used wood in a
number of places, most common are the transom and the stringers. The
transom is the back of the boat. It needs to be a lot stronger becase the
motor mounts and/or protrudes through it. It is usually several sheets of
plywood with fiberglass in the middle. Stringers are vertical supports
between the bottom of the boat and the floor. A whole lot like the vertical
wood joists under your house floor. They are usually wood, sometimes also
plywood. Polyester fiberglass turned out to not be totally water proof plus
people tended to drill holes in their boats to mount things. So the wood
eventually gets wet, soggy wet in some cases. After years of being wet and
never able to dry out it just sort of starts falling apart and what you end
up with is wood mush where you used to have wood. In a 1978 boat you gotta
figure the wood may have been wet for a really long time. Sometimes you can
find spots simply by pressing on the transom and by paying attention while
you walk around on the floor. To really tell you have to drill test holes
in suspect areas and see what you find. Being careful to fill your holes
back up with a good epoxy filler.

"instanceoftime" wrote in message
oups.com...
wow, lol I feel like an 18 year old looking for tips.

transom and stringers?

here's the ebay auction number if anyone cares to look. 4610313410

I really haven't had a minute yet to check the boat out much. Will be
taking things apart tomorrow.

thanks guys