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Today's "Head" units don't even require a hole. Theres usually a flush mount face but the days of a big hole in the dash are over. Now, like you said there's no real reason for the head unit anymore but they do offer more adjustability and it's less phone handling in a marine environment lol.

yeah speed increase wasnt all related to the rebuilt. but from the first rotten year to the first dry year 10mph was gained with minimal setup change.and it lost 250lbs. the other 10mph was gained with a re-power anf more setup.

had a full sound system in mine. cd player and all. now in the talon i went with a pod radio and everything is bluetooth. i use a old cell phone as an mp3player. our actual phones dont risk getting wet

That is a ton of weight to be lost. To be honest I could see losing at least 150-200 between the rebuild and rerigging the boat with some better and lighter components. Will have to see what it weighs once its all done. Just about finished up on all the grinding and I'm going to weigh it then before anything else goes back in just to see where it is at.

Did you rebuild yours with wood or composite?

I have the same year and color boat and had the same situation earlier this year. Floor soft by the ski pole then I noticed a drip coming out of a chip in the bottom near the rear when on its cradle. Removed the floor and didn't realize there was a sub floor . Figured that out and got lucky when I peeled it off as none of the balsa was glassed to the hull. The seat pedestal was shot(not wet but still shitty). Good luck continued as the sub floor balsa was dry before the bulk head so I didn't need to remove it. The one thing that was poor was the main keel wood(also rotted) was in sections and not bonded to each other. The new piece is made from the Baltic birch and to get the longer length ,finger joined and screwed(I don't know if this is correct but it is better then what was there). I also moved the battery mount from behind the driver to the passenger side.I made the mistake of putting a different prop on the boat when I tried it for the first time after the work was done, but it is a better boat.

Ya I first noticed it by the ski pole as well when we went out to go skiing so started getting into it and found the floor and stringers were gone. What did you find in terms of performance difference from the before and after? Do you think it got much lighter? Did you do any bottom work to it?

The boat has all been ground and cleaned of all the old and is ready for the new to be going back in. Aside from the rotten wood the glasswork was still very much intact and the overall build quality of it all is very good. Even with no knees, no stringers, no floor, or bulkhead I can walk around inside the boat as if it was fully laid up with all of those components. Its very solid indeed.

Got a couple of pictures to show it cleaned up, will keep updated with progress as the templates and new components start going back in.

did you check the core?

Ya, the transom and core are fine.

My core was gone also. I found the boat a bit easier to steer. Probably from using less trim . I think it picked up about 4 mph from 77-81 with the 175 on it. It is a quicker(acceleration) boat with the weight gone. Where it took forever to gain speed above 70 it now pulls well to about 78(64-6500 rpm) and has lots of pull above 5000

It doesn't look like much has gone on but there has been some decent progress. The stringer has been bonded and glassed in, and the floor is all cut, fitted, and epoxied ready to be put in the first thing of next week. Hopefully by the end of next week it will really start looking like a boat again.

Here's a couple of pictures to look at since it has been pretty quiet lately lol ...