1991 Sea Ray Bowrider 170 - Trying to remove bench seats and put in captains chairs. Is this possible?

[Speadray]

I am trying to restore an old Sea Ray and I’ve encountered these giant boxes that hold onto the “bench” seats that used to be there.

I’d love to remove these completely and Mount captains chairs instead, but I have no clue how these things are built or what would happen if I tried to cut them out.

Does anyone know if it’s basically hollow in these boxes, or is it holding important parts undearneath.

Thanks!!

 

[Buzzsaw420]

I had the same thing, they were 2x4 or 2x6 I can’t remember and just had (L) brackets holding it down. BUT I ripped the floor up there so I could put some reinforcement wood between the stringers for the pedestal to screw into.

 

[dingbat]

Need to reinforce the floor and preferably thru bolt otherwise they will pull out of the floor.

 

[Speadray]

I had the same thing, they were 2x4 or 2x6 I can’t remember and just had (L) brackets holding it down. BUT I ripped the floor up there so I could put some reinforcement wood between the stringers for the pedestal to screw into. View attachment 377286

Thank you so much for the response! Do you have any other pics from your process? Or do you mind explaining your process a little more?

When you say “ripped up the floor” what do you mean exactly? We are worried about cutting directly into the deck of the boat.

Thanks again!

 

[Buzzsaw420]

Thank you so much for the response! Do you have any other pics from your process? Or do you mind explaining your process a little more?

When you say “ripped up the floor” what do you mean exactly? We are worried about cutting directly into the deck of the boat.

Thanks again!

I bought the boat for $500 of a guy that just wanted it off his land so it being a 1979 I knew that the first thing to look at would be the stringers. So once in there I opened the gates of hell. I decided to take the whole floor up and it was worth it to replace the rotten stringers and oil and water soaked foam in the bow. I ditched over 100 lbs. of unwanted crap. It’s no professional job but I feel a lot more secure knowing I was under there. These are the only pictures I could find. Hope this helps.

 

[Buzzsaw420]

I bought the boat for $500 of a guy that just wanted it off his land so it being a 1979 I knew that the first thing to look at would be the stringers. So once in there I opened the gates of hell. I decided to take the whole floor up and it was worth it to replace the rotten stringers and oil and water soaked foam in the bow. I ditched over 100 lbs. of unwanted crap. It’s no professional job but I feel a lot more secure knowing I was under there. These are the only pictures I could find. Hope this helps. View attachment 377307View attachment 377308

My pedestals are screwed into the 1x10 with 2x4’s under it in the second photo

 

[Lou C]

When I did my old '88 FW H-200 about 18 years ago....the square panels are the reinforcement for the pedestal seat mounts. Mine came with the pedestal seats so I just duplicated what was there.

 

[Speadray]

I bought the boat for $500 of a guy that just wanted it off his land so it being a 1979 I knew that the first thing to look at would be the stringers. So once in there I opened the gates of hell. I decided to take the whole floor up and it was worth it to replace the rotten stringers and oil and water soaked foam in the bow. I ditched over 100 lbs. of unwanted crap. It’s no professional job but I feel a lot more secure knowing I was under there. These are the only pictures I could find. Hope this helps. View attachment 377307View attachment 377308

Wow that is quite the job you did there! I am impressed haha.

I honestly don't think we have the wherewithal to do such a major move like that though. Here are a few pics of my situation. We were thinking of dropping some wood into these to mount the captain's chairs to, but since these are so long it'd create this sort of awkward box sticking out the back.

Do you know what exactly is inside of the actual boxes? Like if we sawed them to be shorter and cut off the back half, what would happen?

I really appreciate your help!

 

[Buzzsaw420]

All I can think of is peel that carpet off of them and if you can’t get a pry bar under them you could probably just run a sawsall under it. You’ll want them right out or you will be bashing your toes on them. Cheers