Open Bow Seating question

I am making the seats for the open bow in my boat. The seats that lay flat are a no brainer and i think i have them all set up right. My question is about the paded portion i want to put on the sides where your back would be touching.

Here is a picture of the old seats.


Heres a picture of it gutted:



Here is a picture of it in its current state. The boards are already cut for the seats but i have yet to determine how i will make/mount the back potion of them.




Here is a paintshop job i made. I want to put paded backing with vinyl coating on the tan areas. I want to know how you guys would mount those on there. Im looking for ideas and what may have worked for you guys.

Re: Open Bow Seating question

Wayno, The bolsters on my SeaRay bowrider bolted to the hull. Before the vinyl was stapled to the plywood base of the cushion, a 1/4-20 screw was installed in the plywood using a tee-nut to hold it. Then holes were drilled in the hull to accept the screw and a washer and locknut was put on the end of the screw. You obviously need access to the inside of the bow section to do this. My Seaswirl has flat sheet metal "hooks" screwed into the hull of the bow. The bolsters have a flexible plastic base with round holes cut into it where the hooks fit to hole the bolsters on.

For the base cushions, my SeaSwirl uses snaps to hold the cushion (no plywood, all vinyl and foam) in place.

Re: Open Bow Seating question

I like the snaps w/o plywood idea. Or could you use Velcro? Self adhesive on the hull and sewn Velcro on the cushion?

I had some plastic snap fasteners that fit in 3/8 inch dowel holes, but now I can not find the supplier. If you want to remove the cushions, you might look at woodworking shops for slide brackets,etc..

Something like: http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=5287

Re: Open Bow Seating question

sdunt, Velcro may not hold well enough in a windy, wavy environment. You will spend all day turning around to pick up your cushions.

Re: Open Bow Seating question

Sdunt,

I used Velcro and it is holding nicely. Just have to make sure that you put velcro close to the edges and a strip down the middle. Make sure you use the wide stuff.

Re: Open Bow Seating question

90% of manufacturers, use the bolt on method, it's a pain to get you hand up the but it can be done. use stainless if you can.

Re: Open Bow Seating question

You can use velcrose and it won't blow out. Buy the commercial grade. It will easily hold them in place. I made a wooden tray with decorative spindle rails and used velcrose to fasten it to my Engine Cover which is vinyl. At 38 MPH It hasn't blown out yet. The stuff I bought was about four inches wide and came in a 3 or 4 ft roll. I only used about half of it.

Stuff in the tray will blow out but it's great for when you are parked and it can still be used as a sundeck by carefully pulling it off but I haven't taken it off yet. I was afraid that might weaken the glue on the velcrose.

Re: Open Bow Seating question

It's hard to tell from the pics, but your boat looks like what mine used to look like (you can click my link to confirm).

Mine had simple cushions very similar to your photoshoped pic. The side, front, and back cushions were held in with aluminum strap hooks that were screwed to the hull, and the cushions had holes in them that the hooks fit into. The seat cushions were simply set in place with nothing to hold them. I never ran the boat prior to the modifications I put it through, but I figure if it still had the original cushions, they must have stayed put for the most part.

Re: Open Bow Seating question

Use a plywood substrate to affix you cushion material to. Use wood thick enough to attach aluminum piano hinges at the top of the cushion, leave the access holes to fasten the hinges and for storage if it is possible.

Re: Open Bow Seating question

my "73" lund uses a plywood backing for the cushons with that has holes make so that you push it on and pull it downwrd to lock it in place.. kinda like an upside down skeleton key hole. the screws are screwed into the fiberglass so that they dont make it too hard to attach or remove the cushons, but not so loose that they fall off. When i made the new cushons i just replaced the screws with new and used the same system.