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Greetings everyone. I'm new and when I say new, I mean new to boats and whalers. I recently purchased a 1981 Whaler that was in rough shape but I love pain.

Goal: August 30th to have the boat completed.

Here is what I have:

- Seems to be leak free on the bottom with no damage
- Gelcoat is flaking off most places on the top
- Some spots on the top have been repaired but not well
- Corner of transom appears to be damaged, but I'll have to do some detective work and explore what was repaired.
- Wood is rotted so all wood will have to be replaced. Looks like the prior owner tried to rebuild with oak. I'm pretty handy with woodworking and will be rebuildingit from scratch. Can anyone help me out and let me know if there any detailed plans / prints? If not, could anyone send me pictures of their interior?

Questions:
- If I want to re-gelcoat, what's the best way to sand/grind off the top and reapply gelcoat later?
- I've decided on epoxy repairs but it appears the previous owner might have used either polyester adhesives or bondo. Can't tell as I dont' have experience with either. Do you recommend grinding down what was done and redoing the repairs? Going to use West Epoxy as I have some experience with that.
- Need to take off rubrails. Any advice? Is it easy to reuse once all the repairs have been done? Should I screw or rivet?

Thanks in advance for your patience.