Thanks for responding. I'm nervous about cutting the welds too, but as you said it is worthless unless I fix it. When I tear into it I'm going to try and take detailed photos and notes and post so the next person dealing with these old great boats will have a little help along the way. Thanks...
I had the same problem with the polish getting into the pits when I tried to polish my 77 tracker. I had to wet sand the whole thing with 600 wet sandpaper. Then I polished it with mother aluminum polish and a mothers polish ball. It was an exhausting process. it took me 4 weekends to finish...