The Top

Nice view of the dashboard area, with the huge crack on it.  Someone drilled a massive hole that all but removed the reinforcing plywood behind the dash, and then at some point someone probably stepped on top of the boat.  Also notice the lovely covering of bondo everywhere.

Closeup showing the layer of bondo on the top half, which will all have to be removed. You can see the metallic blue paint and gelcoat underneath is completely shot.  Not sure why someone thought that automotive bondo was good to use on a boat.  Not only that, they put the bondo right on top of dirt and did no prep work, so it just peels off and is cracked everywhere.  Still, it's a massive pain in the ass to remove it all, I am strongly considering getting it blasted.

Dash crack repair - first I did some preliminary work underneath the crack to line everything up and glue it in place with some thickened epoxy and small pieces of marine ply, and several long clamps.  Once that was cured, I added a 1/4" marine ply reinforcement behind the dash and clamped it tight, and also filled some of the remaining crack area with several layers of fiberglass.  There is more to do, but this is a good start.

Here is what it looks like under the dash, where I have a long piece of marine ply cut to shape and clamped down.  To get a larger area of clamp pressure, I use pieces of wood under the clamp, against the piece.

After removing all of the bondo, and wetting it down to see the defects.  Shape is pretty good everywhere except a depression area on the hood scoop.  Found that there are a lot of pinholes and drill holes and a few cracks needing repair, not too bad but will take several hours with thickened epoxy and some more sanding to fix them all. 

Here is the top after getting painted red, before the stripes are added: