Long Time Lurker, First Time Poster -1970 20 Seacraft

[Scooter]

Hi All,
Been lurking through the forums here for quite some time. Great forum, very informative. Two years ago, I bought my first Seacraft, a 1970 20 CC. The boat had been "redone" previously by former owner and was sporting a newer (2008)Evinrude Etec 150 with only 400ish hours. It was sitting on a trailer behind his house and was covered in well water sprinkler stains and was in overall rough shape. After negotiations, with both the owner and the wife, we settled on what I thought was a fair price and we brought her home.
In order to get the go-ahead from my wife, I had to have it working and on the water in a couple of weeks. Quick rewire and compounding turned into rebuilding the entire fuel system of the etec, lower end service, complete "temporary" rewire, ripping off the "home depot" t top and replacing with a Fishmaster T Top amongst many other small chores much to the chagrin of my wife. I missed the first deadline but was able to complete in about 6 weeks time and use most of last summer and this summer. This usage has brought to light some issues and wants/needs. "Our"(read mine) plan was always to redo the former owners restoration. He did replace the tank with an aluminum 60Gal located approximately two feet from transom going forward under the console. I have scoped the tank and it seems structurally sound. The deck and transom were replaced, however, they will need to be done again. The Etec was mounted directly to the transom and seems to be mounted too low. Almost every screw I've removed from the transom has leaked water. Due to what I can only assume is the added weight of the newer outboard, we have fiberglass cracks in the splashwell and the boat squats very low in the water rendering the scuppers entirely useless at rest. All of this weight rear seems to have affected the legendary seacraft ride. She pounds in anything over 2ft. Now, saying that, we don't have 2ft swells here in South Florida, it is often referred to as washing machine chop. Not very uniform in size and/or direction. This could be helped with trim tabs as well I'm sure.
Future Plans:
Close In Transom - Mount Bracket - Raise Motor - Reconfigure Splash Well
Raise and Replace Deck - Hopefully get the scuppers draining as intended
Buy New Console - Current is too space consuming in my opinion.
Possibly New T Top(again)
Rewire Permanently this time.
While I do enjoy this type work, I may get someone else to do fairing and paint. As things go, I have wants and the wife has needs. I'm sure we'll meet somewhere in the middle. I have attached some pictures of current state. Look forward to contributing and continuing to read everyone's tales/info.
Scott