Trying to re-attach port side "double-lounger" seat on 290 AJ

[wakeboarder72]

Hi all. I just bought a 290 AJ and the previous owner had the port side lounger seat (for lack of more 'technical' term) unattached because he was going to have one of the cushions/seats reupholstered. I ended up buying the boat and taking care of getting the seat re-upholstered, but now I'm having a heck of a time getting it bolted/screwed back onto the base of the boat. The rails that are attached to the boat itself were still on the boat (not the seat), but I couldn't reach between the seat and those rails in order to screw on the seat rails (that screw onto the bottom of the seat) to the rails that screw into the base of the boat (see photo). So, I took off the rails from the boat, attached them to the rails on the seat thinking that, because I had easy access to the storage compartment area under the seat, I could hold the nut and be able to screw in those bottom rails from above easier. Nope, no luck. Though I do have access to the nuts in the storage area, I still need to 'hold' the screws in place from above and keep them from turning, otherwise it won't tighten. I just can't reach between the seat and the boat 'deck', to be able to hold those screws while I tighten the nuts from underneath.

Hope I'm conveying my issue correctly, and thanks for any help,
William



Sorry, this forum only allows about 48k worth of files to be uploaded, so can only add one pic to this message.:huh: This is a pic of the rails that attach to the boat deck (above the storage compartment) already attached to the seat rails. BUT, I can't get the 'boat' rails attached to the top of the storage compartment because there's no room between the seat itself and the deck, once the seat is sitting on top of the deck. How do you re-attach that seat to the deck? Make sense? Thanks....