Maybe
Before you are so quick to give advise on what you haven't done you should say you have only read what others have done. Its true that there were some early boats with wood in the top of the transoms. That was very early boats, by 1971 we found them to have the brass bar, so by then the wood was stopped, now? how far back were they made? Matt asked about a 1981, BTW the exact SAME year as my own boat. I think I KNOW something about this model boat, and guess what? I didn't read it on someones website.Is it true that CD advises butchering the boat? YES, They also sell the covers and make money doing it. Its in there interest to advise this. I WILL NOT pass out information on something I know nothing about! I completely rebuilt my own boat and have helped rebuild several others. My information comes from experience, not reading what someone else did and how they took short cuts to get a project finished.