Have any of you ever removed the cheek plates from your kayak? If so, how did you do it?

I just ordered a custom Redfish seat for the stripper I'm otherwise ready to varnish. That's when I found out that cheek plates will be in the way. I'm sure a heat gun would make short work of the job--but it would make short work of the epoxy and fiberglass all around those areas, too. I could cut them out with an oscillating saw, but I'd still have a lot of material left to file or sand. Is there a better way?

As with many jobs I've done, I over-engineered the cheek plates. Getting fillets behind them looked to be difficult, so I epoxied 1/2" quarter-round molding to the hull, then epoxied the cheek plates to the molding.