I can save you the trouble, you're looking at a full structural rebuild. Stringers, transom, and floor.
Is there any hope that's just a casting mark in the block?
Sounds like the wood is rotten. The only fix is to cut out all of the rot and replace it. It's likely to snowball into most of the stringers and transom.
At that age, I'm going to assume stringers, transom, and floor are rotten. That's probably going to be $5k in materials, and a few months of high progress weekends. I don't know about engine work, so I can't even guess at that.
I think the best bet if you're short on funds would be...
Short...
Metal strapping around the tank is pretty normal. Usually the tank will fit snugly between something side to side, and have strapping front to back. There are pieces of foam or rubber to keep the strapping off of the tank, and sometimes under the tank to cut down vibration.
It can still be a fuse. A lot of them I've seen, the power is chained to the fuses, then from fuses to gauge.
This sad diagram shows what I mean. I usually see this kind of thing on older boats, where the dash has a panel with those glass tube fuses. Sometimes its own panel, sometimes with...
1. Tank looks fine.
2. Yes, you can just take it out and put it back in. It's just the float that makes your fuel gauge move. Scrub it really well and sweep up all of the debris before taking the sending unit out. The hex head screws around the edge are what holds it in place, as well as the...
You have to get higher quality paint for it. That stuff gets expensive quick. We did a bass boat once that was going to Texas, so the boss wanted to spray a better clear than we usually do. I think it was something like $400 per gallon.
I read somewhere a long time ago that gel could be made...
#2 is what I was meaning. It will rot eventually, but you can prolong it's life for a long time.
Keep a cover on it, but open it up after every use and after rains to dry. Canvas isn't waterproof. It sheds most of the water, but it can still drip through after it saturates. Open every...
I'm not an expert on the electrical stuff, but there should be a fuse panel somewhere. Also, the gauges are all chained together with jumper wires. The jumpers are the power supply to the gauges. So those would be good things to check, fuses and good connections on the power wires.
