Transom question

[thatkidhugo]

Ah, so my 14ft tin project is pretty much complete.. except the transom :evil:

You can see in the pictures below that I originally wanted to keep the transom all in one piece, but thats not possible without completely tearing the stern apart.

I tried to cut it into 3 pieces, but soon realized that I was still out of luck because of the 2 bends in the bench seat that are there so the bolts can go through the aluminum, into the plywood and bolted on the bends. Am I making sense here?

I thought about cutting those 2 bends out with a grinder and just have my bolts go through the aluminum and bolt at the plywood. Is this a bad idea structurally? Do those 2 bends really hold that much pressure?

Please, if somebody could give me some ideas to play around with it would mean a lot. Spring is here and I would love to get the boat on the water this weekend.

My boat has a 48in beam and I have a 15hp mercury 2 stroke.

 

[TheMaestro]

How are the bends getting in the way?
Assuming they are in the way, you could cut them out with the grinder, put the transom in, then use some L shaped metal brackets, rivet them to the seat and screw them to the transom for bench support.