Not the metal part, but the part of the boat that the metal attaches to. To
make a long story short, I found that the wood that my front motor mount is
screwed into is rotten. (The long version, with illustrations, is he
http://users.adelphia.net/~blizzard3/boat/mm.htm) It's an old fiberglass
runabout, 1977 Thunderbird S-18, to be precise, with a Merc 165 IO. The pad
that the front motor mount sits on is basically a big block of wood encased
in fiberglass. I've dug it out and I'm getting ready to rebuild it. What I'm
wondering is whether I should try to duplicate the original wood and
fiberglass construction or would there be something better to make the
mounting pad out of? (I don't want to have to do this job over every 27
years.)

(cross posted from rec.boats to see if I do any better over here)