The Triton is a boat you buy from the deck down: the solid hand-laid hull is nearly bulletproof, so what you are really assessing is everything bolted to it, cored into it, or plumbed through it after six decades of water finding wood. On this boat the purchase price is trivial next to the restoration cost, so buy the driest, most-already-refit hull you can find.
East Coast boats have balsa-cored decks (the defining rot problem) plus wood trim and bronze ports, while West Coast Aeromarine boats have solid-glass decks that sidestep that entire failure mode, so the coast tells you which survey you are running.
Pearson never sealed the balsa core edges, so 60 years of leaking penetrations rot the core into a spongy, oil-canning deck, and a dull thud instead of a sharp ring at the chainplate covers, stanchions, handrails, and mast step means wet core.
Leaking chainplate seals rot the plywood bulkhead the plate bolts to, and because the structural attachment is to that wood, a rotted bulkhead lets the rig pull out under load.
The deck-stepped mast lands on a wooden transverse beam that numerous owners report caving in, so check for a gap between beam and deck, arch flattening, jammed doors under rig tension, and gelcoat cracks radiating from the step.
The original spreader sockets are aluminum sand castings that Practical Sailor warns can break without warning, which is a dismasting item on its own.
The thin glass membrane over the lead ballast is easily ruptured in a grounding and voids in the encapsulation are common, so look for grounding scars, cracked or weeping glass, and a persistently wet bilge that feeds the rot chain.
The 60-year-old Wilcox-Crittenden seacocks are commonly found seized solid and some raw-water lines used a cheap gate valve or a bare glassed-in tube, so confirm each one opens and closes fully and check the bronze for pink, spongy dezincification.
The original mahogany-on-drift-pins rudder cracks as the wood swells and shrinks during haul-out, and the bronze rudder shoe at the base of the keel suffers electrolysis, so check for blade cracks, pin play, and a wasted shoe.
Most Tritons carried the gasoline Atomic 4, whose heavier-than-air vapor pools in the bilge, so on any retained engine confirm a working blower, a carburetor flame arrestor, ignition-protected electrics, and a bonded fuel tank, or verify a clean diesel repower.
Original non-tinned copper wiring shows insulation breakdown and green corrosion, the small molded freshwater tank is often unfit for drinking, and the head originally discharged overboard with no holding tank, so budget to replace these systems rather than repair them.
The full Pearson Triton volume walks every point in depth, with the fix costs, the service data, and the parts sources. Leave your email for the printable checklist and word the moment the doors open.