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Got all the wet wood out and hung the deck from the ceiling until we get the 2 hulls completed and then put the deck back on.

Looking forward to see how your rebuild goes as I am planning on doing my 19 in the spring (only because I don't have a heated garage to work in)

What are you planning to do to your boat? I have done all the grinding and wet wood removal outside to eliminate the dust in the shop.

I plan on replacing the floor and transom, the transom doesn't seem to be in bad condition but I just want to do it right while I have the floor out and than not have to worry about it for years to come, I just got the seats back with new upholstery so the only other thing is I am looking to change the black accent stripes on the boat to blue. also waiting on a 200XP motor.

Any updated pictures on your project ?

It's getting there. I got the transom finished. Used 2 layers of 3/4" marine ply. Epoxy coated all the surfaces and edges. Will put 2 or 3 coats where the drain plug and u bolts holes go thru the transom for a good watertight seal. The transom in perfectly flat and straight. Putting in the floor this week and then start working on the deck. Here are a few pics.

looking good
One other thought I should mention is that when I went up to see John when he was building a new J craft
he puts an extra piece of 1/2 inch on the transom of the new boats and said he does it on the restorations as well due to the weight of the new motors vs the older ones. I am not sure if there is enough space at the top of the motor well (where the upper motor mounting bolts go) to fit in the extra 1/2 inch on the original boats. They cut out the motor well vs lifting the deck off and they have a new motor well that they install which may be wider to accommodate the extra piece of wood. Did you use any fibergalss cloth or mat between the 2 layers of wood and are you planning on installing any knee braces between the floor and transom?

You know your J's.

My transom did have 2 layers of 3/4" and 1 layer of 1/2" as you mentioned. It was a perfect example to see how polyester resin does not adhere to wood very well- especially regular "construction grade" spruce plywood.... Each layer of plywood separated at the thin layer of glass that was supposedly used to bond each layer together. At best I would rate it at about a 70% bond. I would assume they didn't coat the wood beforehand so when you lay up the transom the wood absorbs the resin and there isn't much left to hold the layers together. The wood wasn't really rotten it was just soaking wet and man did it stink. It smelled like cleaning out the outhouse I could see that each layer of glass trapped the moisture between each layer of wood. In short - it would never dry out like that. IMO the 2 layers of 3/4 marine ply are as strong or stronger than 3/4, 3/4, 1/2 crappy grade plywood.

Yes I am adding some knees to tie in the floor, transom and motor well. I was considering a motorwell delete - but I don't want to throw the wet ski rope and wet jackets and gloves on the floor so it makes sense to keep the motorwell to throw the wet stuff until I get back to the dock.

They used the same engineering thought process with the floor as they did with the transom. They layed down the first layer of 1/2" crap plywood, glassed over it and then layed down another layer of 1/2" crap plywood. I peeled the top layer of plywood right off the 2nd layer and there was water trapped in between the 2 layers. Again, there was nowhere for the water to go. They didn't coat the underside of the plywood so it just kept absorbing water and moisture like a sponge.

Instead of 2 layers of plywood, I am going to install a stringer down the centre to help stiffen up the bottom and just use 1 layer of 1/2" marine grade ply.

Should have some more pics by the weekend.

Looking forward to your next photos, I have owned one 16ft J and four 17's of which I still have one until I finish the 19, I guess I will find out how bad mine is in the spring when I start tearing it apart but not looking forward to those nasty smells:( . As I have never had the floor or transom out of any of my other boats this will be a big learning curve for me and I am surprised they did not use marine ply or baltic birch in the original construction. I am planning on taking a week off in June and if the weather cooperates I hope to get most of it done at that time. I also need to get the trailer finished so the boat can come off the blocks since I sold the trailer that it was sitting on.

All in 1 week....that's impressive. i'm going to hire you for my next project