84 Sea Ray Seville Cuddy - Floor work, new interior

[Panoguy]

Thanks, Broaters!
Yes, I did... I feel that you can't have too much deck support & positive floatation! I followed friscoboater's excellent Sea Ray rebuild videos, when doing this procedure (and avoided his mistakes!!)... I'll try to explain what I did.

All of my voids were fairly rectangular in shape, & not very wide, so before glassing the deck, I drilled 2 - 2" holes per void (1 midway back, & the other at the front of each void) to pour-into, I taped paint stirring sticks to each of the cutouts from the hole drill, in-order to allow me to suspend them over the holes after pouring. As it turned-out - I tried taping instead, but I needed to screw-down these stirring sticks during cure, or else the curing foam would have popped the plugs up higher than the deck.

OK - I tilted the boat on the trailer back as far as I could, so that the foam would run-toward the stern before expanding. I poured 2-part/4-pound density urethane foam to fill the voids... First the mid-point holes - when I saw the foam begin to fill up to the top of the hole, I placed the cutouts in-place and let tme foam ooze from the perimeter of them After full expansion (the next day for me), I actually scraped/dissolved with acetone the excess foam from the deck, then cloth/glassed it all in.

I did this during a hot summer day (several summers ago!!), I don't think this is a job to do during colder seasons.

Worked like a charm... completely filled voids have a higher-pitched sound than empty voids, when you wrap them with your knuckles - sort of like a full drum versus an empty one. I'm sure that I have very close to 100% fill on my under-deck voids - a solid build!

 

[Timr71]

Congrats on the splash. Love the interior. I purchased that exact same captain's chair for my own restore. Vaeda or something like that out of Indiana.

 

[Panoguy]

Congrats on the splash. Love the interior. I purchased that exact same captain's chair for my own restore. Vaeda or something like that out of Indiana.

Thanks, Timr71 - That's right, the captains chairs and the bench seat are a color-coordinated set from Vaeda. I purchased my seats like 4 years ago & then put them in the corner of my shelter when things started to slow-down for me progress-wise. I was scared that they'd never clean-up, but they cleaned-up pretty well! I Kinda lucked-out on the bench seat width, with the 2 side arms, came to within 1 inch of a perfectly tight fit without modification, so I ever-so-slightly modified my side panels to accommodate the difference.

 

[Broaters]

I followed friscoboater's excellent Sea Ray rebuild videos, when doing this procedure (and avoided his mistakes!!)... I'll try to explain what I did.

Thanks for your explanation it makes perfect sense to me and matches my idea of getting the boat tilted before pouring.

Can you be more specific about Frisco mistakes?
His video serie has been and still is a good inspiration for us.

 

[Timr71]

Thanks, Timr71 - That's right, the captains chairs and the bench seat are a color-coordinated set from Vaeda. I purchased my seats like 4 years ago & then put them in the corner of my shelter when things started to slow-down for me progress-wise. I was scared that they'd never clean-up, but they cleaned-up pretty well! I Kinda lucked-out on the bench seat width, with the 2 side arms, came to within 1 inch of a perfectly tight fit without modification, so I ever-so-slightly modified my side panels to accommodate the difference.

Glad that they worked out and cleaned up. If you look in my restore thread, what I did was pick out that seat for my captains chair. Then, I ordered vinyl from that same place in the same colors as the seat, and since my passenger seat was custom made, I had my upholstery guy mimic the patter so it would match. That's the only two seats that look that way. The rest of the boat got the three stripe pattern. I even had my bimini top made to match the stripes. But, I'm just anal that way.

 

[Panoguy]

Can you be more specific about Frisco mistakes?
His video serie has been and still is a good inspiration for us.

His videos are an inspiration to me, also.

No big deal on his "mistakes", may not even be considered one - I remember him over-pouring foam on a section, it spewed-out of the pour hole & needed to clean it up. My solution was to do the pour, then cover the hole-up with the drill-hole plug, so that it wouldn't push up, but instead push underneath, toward the next hole.

Again - no big deal at-all.

 

[Panoguy]

Glad that they worked out and cleaned up. If you look in my restore thread, what I did was pick out that seat for my captains chair. Then, I ordered vinyl from that same place in the same colors as the seat, and since my passenger seat was custom made, I had my upholstery guy mimic the patter so it would match. That's the only two seats that look that way. The rest of the boat got the three stripe pattern. I even had my bimini top made to match the stripes. But, I'm just anal that way.

I viewed you're thread, and I'm crazy impressed with your seats... and your custom shifter handle... your ship definitely looks "shape".
BRAVO, Timr71!

 

[Timr71]

Thanks much. We enjoy it a lot. And I have at least 6 more things to do. I need to go to the lake and get it so I can spend a week/weekend working on it, but who has time for that. My son's baseball team has been playing in Atlanta every weekend for the past 3. We leave at 5:30am tomorrow morning. And it's still hot boating weather here.

 

[Panoguy]

It's been a while since I've posted progress... Let me fix that now.
I've been plugging-away at the Sea Ray...
- I needed to install new helm/steering cable & wheel, & hook-up the power steering actuator - it's all working, I think.
- I also needed to hook-up shift interrupter switch (forgot to do that during engine rebuild, Oops), that now seems to work.

I've finally started building the sundeck engine cover... it's getting-there!

I needed to build a lip & structural supports for the sides of the sundeck to rest-upon, I now have those fabricated (see images, sorry for the poor quality)
Additionally, I have 2 cross-members running from the seat backs to the transom, on either side of the engine. These will act as framing support for the deck, but also allows me to divide the engine hatch into 3rds, in-order to enable building 2 storage lockers (or cooler wells, or live wells - haven't decided yet).

I roughed-in the plywood needed for the deck also, I've also been playing with Photoshop, and have a mock-up of how I'd like the deck to look - I think I'll be using SeaDek for the color. The sundeck will be glassed, and gelcoated the same color as the boat... (see mock-up images).

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Glad to see your update. Just out of curiosity, why The seadek and not vinyl pads? Will the seadek be comfortable to lay on? Just curious.

 

[Panoguy]

Glad to see your update. Just out of curiosity, why The seadek and not vinyl pads?

Thanks, @Baylinerchuck!

I've been agonizing between padding and SeaDek, but I'm worried about wear-&-tear, I like to fish, so I see myself adding seat bases, giving the ability to sit and fish off of the platform.

Honestly, the jury is hung on this one... but I NEED to do something, or I'll never get the boat in the water!

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Oh I see, multi purpose sun deck. Copy that. My Chap has a vinyl pad sun deck, and we really enjoy it. ‘Twas just curious is all.

 

[52FordF2]

Could you make a pad that covers up your fishing platform then remove it for fishing?

 

[Panoguy]

Oh I see, multi purpose sun deck. Copy that. My Chap has a vinyl pad sun deck, and we really enjoy it. ‘Twas just curious is all.

Well now I'm confused - just looked at your Chap - it really looks good! Do your sundeck cushions snap-in, or are they secured somehow? I could see them flying-out @ 50MPH, if they were just set-in-place.

@52Ford52 - I see your point, Perhaps if I make the cushions from 1" high-density foam, I could then somehow secure them to my roughed-out (soon to be gel-coated) sundeck. I could then just remove the cushions to expose the SeaDek below.

This is the hardest part of the rebuild!!!

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Well now I'm confused - just looked at your Chap - it really looks good! Do your sundeck cushions snap-in, or are they secured somehow? I could see them flying-out @ 50MPH, if they were just set-in-place.

This is the hardest part of the rebuild!!!

No latches, just hinges attached to the backer of the pads. The plywood backer is heavy enough to keep the lid down. All three of my pads open individually. My buddies Rinker has one solid pad across the entire width. His is attached with a piano hinge and closer arms similar to a hatchback. I like mine because I can open each compartment individually making more room for finding stuff. I’ve trailered my boat without a cover on the Interstate At 75mph and never had any issues. My family and I absolutely love the sun deck.

 

[Panoguy]

Thanks for posting those pics, Baylinerchuck - That is definitely a great way to go; looks fantastic!

After much discussion with the wifey regarding how we all want to use this boat, I think that I'll be reverting to my original plan...

When I started this project (like, 6 years-ago!!), my original thought was to use the same carpeting used in the cockpit as the covering for the sundeck. I in-fact have the carpet already - bought it way-back.

- Wifey & kids will want to sunbathe on the sundeck
- I prefer a comfortable place to cast my line

So, I'm going to follow-through on my original plan; I'll seal the plywood with Old Timers Formula, followed by urethane, & carpet the thing - if I hate it, then I'll perhaps revert to cushions, like what pretty-much everyone else has.

I'm inspired by the back-mounted bimini support poles that you made - I see that in my near future!

It will be unique!!! Check-out my Photoshop mock-up:

 

[Panoguy]

- Another thought - I could perhaps build wooden-backed cushions that would use the seat post receivers, to anchor/secure them onto the deck, for when we want only to ride/sunbathe.

Two cushions, each covering half of the sundeck....

...Hmmm.

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Yep, ultimately you have to make the call based on how you’ll use the boat. Love that mock up by the way.