Your a brave man ! :-) I always wanted to rip out one or two of the benches in my little 12 ft'er...... But I figured I was lucky enough as it was, after beating on my boat as much as I had, and never having even one of those 1500 rivets leak a drop !

I'm interested to see how your boat turns out. Are you going to take photos before, during, and after the re-construction ? I'd like to see them.

Good luck,
Fish