Don't take this as absolutly necessary but the guy that welded new skegs for me pulled the gear set from the lower gearcase prior to welding.
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Call Gary Cook, owner of PFE in Harrison twp. Fabricator and a boat guy. 586.465.2120

If you are replacing the complete skeg make sure the welder can pull the gear set out and knows how and what need to be replaced when reinstalling, it takes about 175 amps to weld on that application and aluminum tranfers heat through the entire piece and will compromise the o- rings, also make sure the welder is willing to go the extra mile in cleaning and rewelding a couple of times there is a ton of crap that gets into the pours of aluminum on outdrives and they can take some experience to make it look good and strong and not a black porocity filled mess. I have done a ton of these and a specialty welder by trade and I normally charge $275 per repair hope this helps

If you want any kind of decent job at all you will need to pull the drives, the aluminum has to be prepped and heated and no one is going to do a decent job welding upside down.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Still debating whether or not this is worth doing, as there's nothing wrong with the skeg guards.

P.M. your shipping adress

I have to weld upside down all the time, it sucks but sometimes thats the only way it can be done

Run the skeg guard during the short summer season and have the work done over the winter. Boating season (in michigan) is just to damn short to tie up your boat doing a non-necessary repair......... Just my opinion......