New User here.

I now own Kelly's boat

Yep Dad took over the project and it's going to be a blast.

The names Les and I'm in Oregon

[Seanfromseattle]

A heat gun set on low, and a good bevel edge scraper, flipped over and used so the beveled side is against the wood, should remove the paint far less agressively than sanding. I have a great 5in1 painter's knife that is my go-to tool for paint scraping. As you work with it, you will develop a technique to heat the paint on low, and control the sharp edge of the scraper with the bevel, and flip to high heat for stubborn areas. Remember to let the heat do most of the work. It is slow but effective. But watch out, lead was used in all sorts of paints. You should basically assume that any old paint is lead paint and a hazardous waste. Old paint dust is pretty nasty stuff, and you don't want women and kids breathing that stuff, which is another reason why you should avoid sanding as much as possible, because sanding will arosolize the lead and create micro dust (super fine dust). Micro dust literally follows you around in a cloud, (for hours) and you can only get rid of it by showering. (Your body heat rising creates literally a super microclimate, where the dust rises on your body heat, then cools, and falls, and as you move you create a cyclone effect (it's pretty weird) all the while you are breathing in this toxic waste) Heat & scraping also creates dust, but nowhere near as bad, and the micro dust is kept to a minimum, and paint scrapings can be vacumed much easier than the sawdust. Anyway have fun and protect your lungs...

Thanks Sean for the great information. I'll get a heat gun and get started on the paint removal when I have the inside finished.

I am now trying to determine if I have a real moisture issue with the transom. As one can see in the pic',s the previous owner converted the boat to an I/O and by doing so reinforced the transom with plywood and epoxy. As I was removing the plywood I noticed that the interior of the plywood was moist (not wet but moist) so there is a possible issue that the entire transom my have a moister problem and if so I am prepared to remove the whole transom and replace with new. That should be a great challenge but I think doable.

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated as this is my first a temp at repairing wood boats ---- actually it's my first a temped at repairing any boat glass or wood.
I will move all my information and progress to another chat area after this -- wherever the TollyCraft chats are.