Cockpit re-upholstery project

I've just been using the fibreglass resin & hardener you can get from any automotive parts supply house and have no problem whatsoever stapling through it once cured.....with a hand stapler or our pneumatic stapler.

One more thing...not sure if you intended to or not but....before we cover any pieces with vinyl, we cover the foam with a sheet of light weight poly/plastic...wrapped around and stapled behind the panels or on seat cushion bottoms......to help protect/waterproof the new foam. Seems many manufacturers do this during original construction. It also helps any fitted vinyl coverings slide onto the cushions etc easier too. Just a thought. :)

Good luck.
 
Why can't you use pressure treated plywood? Just curious...
 
rondds said:
Why can't you use pressure treated plywood? Just curious...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't want to based on the chemicals used to treat it. Open air it would 'gas off', but covered in vinyl it would retain it. Maybe the newer treated lumber is better, but who knows. Also, it leeches color when it gets wet, so putting it next to foam/vinyl would likely discolor....
 
Rich,

Check out these pics of a 93 270, same hull as ours, Sea Ray just renamed the boat a 270 for 91-93 (if memory serves me right) and took advantage of the overall dimensions to include the intergrated swim platform and through a rebadging turned our 25's into 27's. (big diference in re-sale prices on a 91 270 and an 90 250 even though they are exactly the same!) Anywhoo... They redesigned the helm seat and did away with the pull out rear facing seats... Ever since I bought my 250 I've been thinking about re-working the lay out and getting rid of the pull out seats in favor of a fixed bench, but like you I really like the drop down "bar" that the back of the helm seat provides. It seems like Sea Ray had the same idea back then.

http://www.boat-world.com/disppic.php?ID=1215777884&picno=10
 
Lakeway TX Sea Ray said:
Rich,

Check out these pics of a 93 270, same hull as ours, Sea Ray just renamed the boat a 270 for 91-93 (if memory serves me right) and took advantage of the overall dimensions to include the intergrated swim platform and through a rebadging turned our 25's into 27's. (big diference in re-sale prices on a 91 270 and an 90 250 even though they are exactly the same!) Anywhoo... They redesigned the helm seat and did away with the pull out rear facing seats... Ever since I bought my 250 I've been thinking about re-working the lay out and getting rid of the pull out seats in favor of a fixed bench, but like you I really like the drop down "bar" that the back of the helm seat provides. It seems like Sea Ray had the same idea back then.

http://www.boat-world.com/disppic.php?ID=1215777884&picno=10
Click to expand...

Nice, thanks for the pics! I knew the 270's from a few years later we're essentially the same boat, but I never chased down any cockpit photos, great idea. I like what they did with the rear facing bench, but since I have the mechanism for the slide-away I think I'll keep down that road to keep access to the EC easier. Also, I bet on that 270 helm seat a handy person could build storage cubbies in those seatbacks....dimensions look the same basically.

One thing it doesn't look like they fixed is the seat back angle for the rear bench - they made the seating surface deeper, but you'd still have a forward leaning seatback if you're sitting there. Better, but not perfect yet! I plan on making the seat back when you're sitting back there be comfortable, as well as functional.

Thanks for the pics - super helpful!
 
Well, I spent several hours today taking stuff apart, and it's clear that I'm replacing all of the wood. Some of the panels are even still wet despite the fact they've been in a heated room for 5 days. Even the jump seats which I had hopes of just modifying were shot - the wood literally crumbled as I took them apart. C'est la vie. I stripped them all down, labelled everything, bought some exterior grade plywood - still not cheap at ~$30/sheet for 1/2" and ~$40/sheet for 3/4" - and templated out most of the panels.

I'll post up some more pics later - I took tons to document how everything goes back together, but I'll post a few of how rotted the wood was just for kicks.

I also bought myself a compact router and some bits - gotta love projects for toy accumulation :grin:
 
Ah, that makes sense. I'm still thinking a hybrid retractable / bench seat for convenience when I want the rear cockpit area more roomy. I'm pretty jazzed about the reconfiguration after taking stuff apart today - it's going to be pretty cool when it's done. I got a bunch of samples of vinyl today too, and I think I'm going to go with Capitano Nautolex vinyl in Mystic White color. I have a few more samples coming this week, but this color/feel/price/texture is nice and unless I'm blown away with something else, this is it. Probably going to get the vinyl from Gary's Upholstery (google it), and foam/thread/staples from Veada.com

I ordered a bolster seat hinge on friday, and the next big projet is to tear down and rebuild the helm seat. Pics to follow
 
Yup...that's exactly what we often run into once all the wood is revealed. Bummer huh? :-(

When covering with plastic before the vinyl I'll often wrap right around the wood panel and overlap the top of the plastic over the bottom in the back to try to prevent water from getting at the new wood again.

If you're interested...we get alot of our supplies from here:

http://www.rochfordsupply.com/

Good prices and excellent service.
 
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Cool - thanks. Found some cool items on that site. I got a few more samples of vinyl, and I've decided on Nautolex Capitano Crystal White - the admiral weighed in and she liked it better than Mystic White. I've found a few sources with good prices for just bare vinyl, foam backed vinyl, and pre-assembled welting/hidem. Time to finish measuring for foam and vinyl and get stuff on order!

I've spent the past couple of days playing with my new tool (router) and have templated out most of the panels. I drew everything out thinking I'd use my tablesaw/jigsaw to cut things out, but a trim/template bit on a router is so much easier! Only snag was the soft/rotted edges posted a bit of a problem on a few panels and I have not quite straight lines, but nothing that will be an issue once everything is foamed up and vinyled over. No pics of the templates cut yet, but soon. I also took a trip to Fisheries Supply and picked up some epoxy for the barrier coat and a bunch of other supplies for the next step. Other new toys include a heavy duty staple gun, my old one died.

Progress is good, but will stall a bit - I'm out of the country starting friday until the following saturday so basically 2 weekends and a full week of evenings gone....Good thing I've got several months to get things sorted :grin:
 
Starting to come together - these are the 'complex' panels - 3 pieces of wood pieced together. Need to nail them together in addition to the brackets, and then I'll fillet the joints and do an epoxy barrier coat over the entire piece. Why so much effort? These stern side panels were the most rotten of everything.


P1010103 by Boykster, on Flickr

Here's the original piece


P1010067 by Boykster, on Flickr
 
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" Other new toys include a heavy duty staple gun, my old one died."

Stock up on staples....you'll be going through lots of them. :)

Your choice whether you use stainless staples or not...they're kinda pricey.

Just out of curiosity....did SeaRay use stainless staples on your boat? I'm guessing they did.

I've dismantled many different brands of boats now but we've never done a SeaRay yet.

I find that the higher end boat manufacturers do use stainless.....but many mid and lower end boats do not.

We haven't been using stainless staples but I'm considering changing that. All though if 20+ year old boat interiors are holding together OK with non stainless staples, I'm not sure I see a real need to incur the additional expense of the stainless ones. We'll see though....I may change.
 
I have a question- How do you attach two pieces of plywood that need to make an angle. I have a rotted combing pad in my cockpit and it's bent 45 degrees.
 
@OldVet - It looks like SeaRay used stainless... staples were intact and not rusty. I'm going to go with stainless for the rebuild

@rondds - these panels have aluminum angle brackets that are attached with short stainless screws to set the angle,and then they were stapled (1 1/2" long staples) for strength. To finish these panels I'm going to use my brad stapler to staple them together, and then do an expoxy fillet on the joint. Oh, and the edges of the panels were cut at an angle to for the correct angle. I used my table saw for that step.
 
aluminum angle brackets...edges of the panels were cut at an angle
Click to expand...

Ok - that makes sense. THANKS!
 
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