So, first of all, thank you guys for being such a great community.  I've lurked around here for a few years without joining, ever since I bought an old Don Hill design 16 foot high side a few years ago, and your forum has been a great resource.

I'm about to make my second repair to this old beast, and this one looks a little tricky, so I was hoping for some advice on it, and also maybe a quick seminar on bottoms, chine caps, and a few other things I'm redoing.  I've poked around the forum and haven't seen these exact questions, but if I missed them, please tell me to look harder or link to them.

So, first, what we had was a nasty little spot of rot on the side at the chine, pictured.  The rib is affected somewhat.  I'm going to remove the chine cap and the rock guard, and I figure I will just kind of scarf in a piece, and I'm hoping I can peanut butter the rib since it's only missing about a half an inch.  What do you guys think about my plan?  NB, this is a boat that gets in the water a lot, doesn't have a beautiful finish (I painted it orange so's the steelies would just jump in instead of me having to catch em) and I'm less concerned with appearance than I am functionality.  I'm probably going to either sell this in a year or two or add another boat to the fleet, depending, so I really am not worried about a perfect looking repair.

The corollary to this is that I'm hoping somebody has a nice little 7"x2" piece of 1/4 inch marine ply they'd like to post to me, or at least a suggestion on where to not spend a bunch of money getting such a thing.  Or, you know, should I just use some Home Depot wood?  This is not my plan, but if someone smart tells me it's cool . . .

Next on the list is the chine cap.  I figure I'll replace them since they're pretty beat, and I was thinking of replacing them with some high impact plastic like we used to use for rails on our skateboards if you know what I'm talking about.  I'm open to other suggestions, or if I should just get oak or ash I can do that.  I still have the plans for this boat somewhere and access to tools for ripping and cutting.

Finally, this boat had a Formica bottom which was in bad shape.  I'm in the process of removing it, and I'm thinking of replacing it with another Formica piece and then putting that Airboat Coatings stuff on it.  Does this sound like a good idea, or should I just Coat It and forget it?

I'll post some more pics of repair, replacement, and the remodel which will follow as well if people are interested.  In the meantime, thanks for looking!