Originally Posted by
GonFishn
Ditto on the tank remove, have personally witnessed the procedure and it had to be cutout. Option is to replace the tank with a slightly different configuration option (the owner decided not to go this route preferring to keep it original so it was cut out). As to the transom, depending on the year of manufacture, you're faced with two scenarios, the older 90's are a different animal in that a complete replacement is warranted, newer (yet prone to water incursion) one's can be "skinned", that is the wood and core removed and laid up with bracing inside and out for a setup pour product (like carbon pour), unfortunately only available for properly trained installers. There's a couple of vids on YouTube that are available by shops that specialize in Champion transom replacements the fella in Arkansas specializes in only Champions and he usually cuts the whole back end off with a chainsaw looking saw. None of the folks I know in the business recommend "drying" as basically the woods lost its internal structure and cohesiveness thus its structural attributes. When it comes to these types of repairs, I mainly get my info from a former Champion authorized repair facility here in the Midwest. Unfortunately he doesn't do it anymore due to time and cost but I've seen him take whole chunks out of boats and redo so well that it defies finding where the repair was to begin with, guess you'd say he's an artist when it comes to matching flake and design. He still has a pretty good supply of original Champion flake which he'll occasionally deign to use for a friends boat.