Front Stateroom TV/Restoration Marine Project

I'll break this up into two posts... as I'm going to ramble on and on about the things I learned over the last 2 years with regards to replacing the damn TV's in this boat.

Mounts

I have bought and played around with every kind of mount under the sun. I have bought mounts designed for "RV's", I have bought wall mounts, shock mounts, articulating mounts of EVERY design and played with them. I have $1500 of TV mounts in my garage I will never use.

For the port side stateroom, I decided to pull the cabinet and redesign it so I could have an articulating mount so the TV could come out. Here is the original Sea Ray structure taken out and in my shop (the stuff behind all that fancy vinyl is not very pretty):

IMG_2333.jpg


I widened the opening:

IMG_2335.jpg


and

IMG_2344.jpg


Redid the vinyl and built a new internal box structure to hold a TV with a side DVD:

IMG_2395-1.jpg


I don't have a picture (that I can find) of it installed but it looks great... The problem is that articulating arm "wobbles" while underway. I can't stand it. I even took it out and put in some horizontal supports with velcro... now it still wobbles and doesn't look like something Sea Ray would ever do... (maybe Bayliner).

So I'm ripping that out again this winter and have a new "ultimate port stateroom cabinet" idea that I'm going to build. That's where Restoration Marine comes into play. That vinyl covering around the TV is history!

Even the mounts on the big TV in the salon wobbled. I ended up putting a spacer and directly bolting the TV from behind the backer board and then mounting the TV and backer board as one unit... I have sketches of that I can post later...

At the end of the day, I don't like the articulating mounts if you are going to watch TV underway because of the movement. The other issue with them is if you are in heavy seas, they move... All the things I've seen are friction fit and the TV's have to be tied down or the move... I don't like it...

I can put up sketches of the mountings I'm doing after my "sea trial" on this new install.
 
OK... the second thing people always bring up on these flat screen conversions is "storage". It's like "Look at all that space you have behind the salon TV!" So here's my 2 cents on that. Report me if you don't like it.

In my opinion, there really isn't that much storage behind these sets. If you recess them into the opening, you need about 4-5" for a small flat screen and like 8+" for a bigger TV. You have to look at the thickness of the TV and the thickness of the mount.

I really thought long and hard on this for the salon TV. I thought about a "drawer" that the TV mounted on the front... a "door" that could swing open with the door front having the TV mounted on it... And they all didn't p*** for one reason or another. The main reason was that it was a lot of complexity to make it look "stock" and have it work correctly. I kept asking myself "Would Sea Ray do this?" and the ideas would be shot down. The big issue was there was only about 12" of depth to work with after the TV went up... I just couldn't get excited about a wobbly door/drawer and something that didn't look "factory" for 12" of space.

I did use the space though. I added a lot of electronics for the AV system and all the video converters, power bricks, surge protector were neatly put back there and tied down and not "crammed in" a small space like Sea Ray had done.

Now some of the things I've seen here where people have mounted the TV in a completely different location and then put a door on it or made it a wine storage thing is fine... I didn't have that situation though...

My 2 cents on that.
 
so I tried to say p-a-s-s above and it's now p*** and it looks like I said p-i-s-s instead. WTF is going on around here?! F--king ridiculous.
 
Dear Mr. Pot Stirrer Man,

Here is a thought, FWIW. Why don't you hobble over to one of the Vikings or Hatts in the marina where you slip your boat in and see how they mount their TVs?

I am guessing that those TV mounts are designed to hold the TV right where it belongs when running in 6-8' or more.
Maybe those designs will prove useful to you.

Or you can keep screwing around at Best Buy, Camping World, and Radio Shack.

Your call.
 
Skip said:
Dear Mr. Pot Stirrer Man,

Here is a thought, FWIW. Why don't you hobble over to one of the Vikings or Hatts in the marina where you slip your boat in and see how they mount their TVs?

I am guessing that those TV mounts are designed to hold the TV right where it belongs when running in 6-8' or more.
Maybe those designs will prove useful to you.
Click to expand...

OK... you are on to me.... I did... Let me tell you... they don't have articulating mounts and they bolt the things directly to the mounting board and have a support tied into the TV base that also goes on the mounting board...

I was trying to have this come across as "my idea" but now you've spoiled it.
 
The material from Restoration Marine just showed up...

I'll be in the shop this weekend.. hopefully I won't cut any body parts off.
 
Gary

Does Restoration Marine sell the vinyl fabric that is used to rap the muff?

Last year I switched out my TV and cut my muff a to make the opening a little bigger. When I tried to cut the vinly to wrap the corners, I made one cut a little too deep. (those corner cuts are tricky) I think I can stretch it, but I am afraid it might tear. I stopped the process and was relunctant to make any more cuts until I found that material. I reinstalled the muff without stapling the fabric. It's not noticable, but I want to finish it right. It is on my to do list when I re-launch in April.
 
"I'll be in the shop this weekend.. hopefully I won't cut any body parts off. "

Bring your camera just in case.
 
Vince_nj1 said:
Gary

Does Restoration Marine sell the vinyl fabric that is used to rap the muff?

Last year I switched out my TV and cut my muff a to make the opening a little bigger. When I tried to cut the vinly to wrap the corners, I made one cut a little too deep. (those corner cuts are tricky) I think I can stretch it, but I am afraid it might tear. I stopped the process and was relunctant to make any more cuts until I found that material. I reinstalled the muff without stapling the fabric. It's not noticable, but I want to finish it right. It is on my to do list when I re-launch in April.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately we do not stock that material. As you might guess, stocking all the Sea Ray interior materials would be difficult. We have looked at carrying vinyl and carpet but it never seems to make financial sense so we focus on laminates. The funny part about laminates is that while we can provide 30 different patterns/colors.....98% of our orders are for Sovereign Cherry.

Check fpmarine.com for the vinyl....they have a great selection.

-John
 
What's the status? Any new pics?

Also, I noticed that you had the yellow video cable in your tv also, where does that come from?
 
PlayDate said:
Unfortunately we do not stock that material. As you might guess, stocking all the Sea Ray interior materials would be difficult. We have looked at carrying vinyl and carpet but it never seems to make financial sense so we focus on laminates. The funny part about laminates is that while we can provide 30 different patterns/colors.....98% of our orders are for Sovereign Cherry.

Check fpmarine.com for the vinyl....they have a great selection.

-John
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.. Sorry for the delayed response, I just read it.
 
OK... time to finish up this project as well. I'm going to be installing a boatload of stuff this weekend and finishing up this whole DAMN AV project. I have about 3 weeks before we leave for our month long trip this summer.

As a plug for Restoration Marine, I have rebuilt the frame for the TV and moved the air vents lower:

DSC_0002.jpg


The process involves basic woodworking skills. The frame is 1/2" cabinet grade plywood and I: Built jigs for the router to cut the interior holes, trimmed the outer edge to size with a table saw, shot it with some flat black, put the laminate on and trimmed it with the router and a laminate trim bit. The laminate went on just fine and if you follow the directions, it comes out looking factory (my wife said it was much better than "factory" but I think she just wanted me to fix dinner). On this frame, I reinforced that small horizontal piece in the vent with a small piece of maple glued to the back:

DSC_0737.jpg


As a note, the area for the HVAC vents is the same as the original cabinet... They are longer but a tad narrower.

Here's the frame with the TV... it has a 1/2" reveal around the edge of the TV which allows access to the screws that will be holding the backplate/mount to the cabinet.

DSC_0006.jpg


The problem I have is the "Sovereign Cherry" is the wrong dang color for my boat. Here's the original with the new frame:

DSC_0003.jpg


So I'll have to redo it... ugh... The frame is built with several jigs I made along with a router so it won't be too big of deal... other than having to figure this color out. Anyone with a 480DB want a "Sovereign Cherry" TV frame?
 
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I wonder if mine is the same color as yours? Is there any other cherry in close proximity?

I love that mod... and the DVD player broke in the port stateroom, so I could put the old master tv in there...
 
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