Re: 1987 Sea Ray Seville Bow Rider Restore - Engine Questions
Re: 1987 Sea Ray Seville Bow Rider Restore - Engine Questions
Just caught up with the recent posts on this thread. The boat is coming on great. On the seat bases, my 89 SR180 had twin pedestal seats for driver/passenger. The seat bases that attached to the deck were the same shape and extended up to to hull side and were about 2" from the gas tank space. When I was deconstructing the boat, I kept hold of pieces such as the seat bases and it was an enormous help when it came time to size the new ones and recreate them accurately. Before you start cutting up expensive plywood, I would suggest you purchase a sheet or 2 of polystyrene foam from HD or Lowes and use them as the templates. They are easy to trim using a sharp knife and then trasfer the end shape to the plywood. The 2 bases on mine differ as the drivers side has the gas rubber hoses running from the gas tank space and up into the side of the hull. I re-used the corrugated plastic pipe that protects them. The passenger base is solid all round. One thing you may not realise unless you took note of them bases when you removed them is that they are double bottomed. That is underneath the base top is a second layer of plywood to handle the weight of the seats and something for the lag screws to bite into. To construct the bases, I used PL glue for the seams, SS screws countersunk, then 1708 tabs on the edges and CSM all over. To secure each base to the deck, I used PL again, then 1708 tabbing, then csm for good measure. The fill in any gaps and to curve joints, I used a Peanut Butter mix. Both seat bases were drilled out and foamed, just the way they were on the original construction, (only better). The rear seat bases are basically boxes made of ply for the sides with wood fillets for the inner frame, all resin sealed, then tabbed, then CSM with PB to curve out edges and joints. I would still like to re-carpet (kept the old carpets to use as templates), but for the time being have simply painted the deck area with Rustoleum Enamel from Lowe's. It has a nice shine, is holding up well and is easier to lay down than gelcoat, which I found to be a PITA.
On my engine /outdrive, sadly we found the engine was shot, so I sourced a newer 4.3 (1996) which had been thoroughly overhauled and runs smooth with perfect compression. My boat guy installed it and checked out the manifolds which he said were in good condition. I bought new manifold bellows, new flapper valves. I also cleaned up and repainted the Y pipe too. My boat guy dismantled the gimble unit for me and I cleaned it, repainted it and bought new parts, including bellows, bearing kit, cable, etc, which he put on. The gimble is pretty much rebuilt. The sterndrive is an AlphaOne. All I did was clean it and repaint it. My boat guy then checked it out mechanically and serviced it for me, including new impeller, etc. So far she has run fine.
