Good job so far, as for the removal of the skin its a strong debate same as uing plywood or Arjay like I did, I removed the skin on my boat because it was tough to remove the plywood that was not completely rotten. See my project posted on
www.nymack66.com. What is to be noted is NOT the removal but the emphases I placed on the re-attaching it back, My goal was to make the SKIN both inside an out stronger than before and trust me I did using MAT and resin. Just do the same if not better and you will be fine..Good luck and keep us posted ..Let me know if I can help in anyway ..