You can always cut out the exterior skin of the transom about 6 inches or so from the sides and keel. Then once all the bad core is out you can re glass the skin back on with vinyl ester resin and fair it out. It's a very common way to redo transoms especially if you are pouring one in. By leaving the 6" or so of the old skin on, you will have more than enough to glass back on to. If you are still concerned you can go past the transom and onto the sides around that edges. It's just more faring work. That's what I would have done with my V, if the stringers weren't gone.

I would cut the cap directly across those rear rod holders. That way you won't have to worry about replicating any of the non-skid. You may have to replace core in the area too and it will already be open at that point.

I've decided that I'm going to use marine plywood and poly resin. I'm going to cut the cap at the tape line nearest to the transom. I'm going to glass the cap to the transom at the splashwell, eliminating the aluminum trim. As of right now I plan on keeping it a 20" transom and using the jack plate that I bought. Raising the transom would require quite a bit of glass work to the splashwell. Who knows though, my plans may change. As far as fairing and finish work, there's no worry there, I'm an autobody painter by trade. My biggest concern is tinting the gelcoat to match perfect, it's a bit tougher than tinting paint for some reason.

personally I would zip out a few screws and raise the cap in one piece.... much less glass work and no worries about trying to match old gelcoat

Way too much work to lift the cap than to lift a 2 foot section. I have 2 reasons: the Grady has a 3 piece hull and I plan on selling this boat.

Still haven't started yet. Hopefully I'll drag the boat over to my job in the next few weeks and start cutting and cleaning out the old transom so ill be ready to go in the spring.

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

I finally got my wellcraft down to the marina and used it a few times so now it's time to move back onto this boat. I should be cutting the cap off the rear of the boat some time this week. I'll post some pics when I begin.

Finally started cutting into it today. I got the cap off and I'm getting ready to cut the floor.

Floor is out. Stringers look good but transom is mush, comes out nice and easy so far. Need to make a little dust tomorrow to get the edges out.