It has been repowered several times with 2 stroke Mercury's. All done by the same dealer. All fittings in the transom were replaced every 5 years. Mercury dealer inspected the hull before installing this engine and said to was fine. I sounded the transom as I do when figuring out where to cut when a transom job came in my shop and it is solid to the edges in all directions. Champion really didn't start skimping on glass till around 1995-1996 but of course there is always a exceptions around.