Restoration of 20' Sea Nymph

[SeanymphSA]

I am a complete rookie and never owned a boat in my life. I bought a 20' cabin cruiser project boat an really want to get into it. I am a very handy guy and work in the timber carpentry/joinery field. I am OK with general mechanics, structure building, fibre glassing, electrical work and generally quite technical, I have spent the last 4-5 months literally stripping the boat (South African manufactured Sea Nymph by Dick Manten) to the bare shell. I must at this point say that I am not at all pressed for time, have no deadline as such and intend tackling this project long term, literally building the boat from the hull up. I have thus far completely stripped the deck, buoyancy, old rotten stringers, ground out redundant epoxy, stripped all stainless fittings, bow rail and the rest. As mentioned I want to strip and prime and basically start with a 'new' white hull as if I bought it from a shop. Apart from the transom the hull and all other fibreglass work is perfectly sound. The big issue I have, and would appreciate advice in this regard is the transom itself. I realise this probably goes against every rule in the book but I have had to remove the ENTIRE transom due to damage...including inner and outer skins, it was simply nit possible to keep the outer since the boat was badly bashed at the back. I managed to leave a 3" section of the original outer skin on either side starboard and port but had to cut all the way to the hull floor where their is no damage, but regrettably no shoulder to tab onto. My thinking is to reconstruct the outer skin before I actually replace the transom itself. My gut says get it to the original state...as if I never removed the outer skin and my thinking is to replicate an outer skin by using 1/4" marine BS1088 and epoxy tabbing from the inside onto the two 3" mentioned earlier. Then tabbing onto the hull floor. This will leave a void that is the thickness of the original transom skin on the outside of the transom. All marine ply surfaces will then be epoxy coated and the outer skin re-glassed using epoxy and woven roving. Please any help and guidance will be welcome.