Inspecting the prop shaft through hull

So my boat is 31 years old and I don't doubt that in that time, the only thing done in the area of the prop shaft through hull is sporadic replacing of the flax packing in the stuffing box. This week, with the help of my brother in-law, I removed the prop-shaft from the coupler and slid it back far enough to remove the stuffing box and the hose that connects it to the shaft log. The stern tube is bronze and is in fine shape. The stuffing box is also bronze but was rather caked with gunk. The hose between the two was definitely showing its age. It was still water tight but the outer skin was cracking and the inner skin was cracking when flexed. The only reason it lasted this long was that due to its rather short length (about 4") it never really had to flex that much.

The stuffing box is not the common large packing nut style. It is more like the packing glands offered by Buck Algonquin here: http://www.buckalgonquin.com/pages/ProductPages/drivetrain/pbs_page.html
Unfortunately, they do not offer them in a 22mm shaft size so replacing what I have is not an option. I have found out that the studs in my stuffing box are metric, just like everything else on the boat, M7 x 50mm to be precise. It is not easy to find bronze studs in metric sizes. Actually, M7 is not a very common size at all.I wonder if I could have the holes enlarged at a machine shop to take 5/16 or 9/32 studs. Those might be easier to find here. I would like to replace them since one of the studs has crushed threads at the end and came unscrewed from the stuffing box when I added my packing. At any rate, when I brought the stuffing box home for a good cleanup, I noticed that there were six (?!) rings of flax packing in there. Normally, 3 or 4 suffice. when I put the boat in the water last year, the stuffing box was leaking. So I opened it up and removed what I though was all the packing and was only able to put in 3 rings. What apparently happened was there were 4 rings, I removed 1 and added 3 more. Ugh. At least the prop shaft wasn't scored. With the packing fully removed, there should be enough room to cut off the bad threads from the stud and still have room for 4 rings of flax. Next chance I get, I will stock up on some M7 bronze threaded rod and nuts.

As for the stern tube hose, the existing is much to old and too short to have any useful markings on it for getting the same part. So I found what I think is suitable hose from Thermoid at my local hardware store. It is Thermoid Valuflex/GS red hose, 1-1/4" inner diameter. The hose is abrasion resistant and can handle 200psi working pressure at 200F (93C). I purchased a 1" length for $10 and should be able to get 3 or 4 parts out of that.

Fugu is almost ready for the water.