Recoring question

[flyingfrizzle]

I cut the section of the cap off on my 20' hull in the rear to do the transom not the front like you mention. Some things I found when I did mine- 1) Like mentioned by Martin it is hard as hell to get to the back sides and even harder to glass them. the wax paper thing works good and I have done that several times to hold the resin in place. It will help it kick off faster and give you a more uniform finish. 2) Make sure you taper back the edges both ways far enough when you do glass it back. When I did mine I started with an inch both sides and the guys up here recommended me going further and I changed it to 4-6" each side and it gave it a better surface to bond to over a larger area. 3) It will be much easier to core the cap off and up side down but a pain to put it back on.

If it was me, I would consider just cutting out the top of the area you want to do and remove the core from the top then replace it and build it back. The down side of doing it from the top tho- 1) you will have a difficult time removing the core material if not rotted well. 2) if you keep the bottom skin in tack you are limited the thickness of you core you can add back. If you want a thicker core you will have to cut threw the bottom skin and use a backer to hold the new bottom skin while you re-make it then you can add the thicker core above it once you re-make the bottom skin lower. If you do it from the bottom side with the cap off you can cut the bottom skin off then add as much thickness as you want with out trouble. 3) The refinish on the top has to be worked much more to get that fine finish and then gel coated or painted. from the bottom you don't have to worry as much with the final finish under the cap but you do where you splice it back on. So either way you will have fine finish work and paint to do.

I would have to say over all if you are going to do a small area for a rod holder it may be less work and easier to do it from the top, but if you want to re core the whole nose section and re-work all of it, may be better to cut it and pull it off and glass it back down. I always like to do cap work from the bottom with the cap off but getting it off is a lot of work. Also you can think about removing the whole cap but that's a ton of work due to the rear area is stuck down with tons of potter putty and the top of the stringers glued down as well as the front section. Being you did the floor the way you did you cant pull the liner out no longer probably. If it was a master angler where the cap comes off easier with out the liner it wouldn't be so bad but an sf model with a glassed in floor you will be cutting something no matter how you go about it.