Using the holes drilled beside the frames as guides the bottom is cut off in sections leaving the frames intact .

Some sections of the bottom actually don't look too bad , but others are in pretty bad shape . Unfortunately with a bottom that has been glued together the only way to repair it is to cut it apart and replace everything .

With the main sections of the bottom removed , the remaining planking is split off with a chisel to expose the stainless steel screws and thousands of staples that fastened the planking to the frames . The goal is to remove as much of the skin as possible while keeping the frames as intact as possible . As the pictures show some of the frames just crumbled .