best way to repair seats?

[Chasespeed21]

I called my local marina today and told them that my seats in my 72 srv180 were starting to rot on the bottom. they said to bring it in and they would just put a fiberglass resin on the rotting wood to keep it from getting worse and to strengthen it up. Is this safe to do and is it the best way to deal with this problem without having to replace both lounge seats? Please let me know!

 

[Big Island Lifer]

how far has the rot traveled? You may be able to remove the seats and replace the rotted wood with some marine plywood. Once you peel back the vinyl you'll have a good idea of how far they are gone. You could build a new base and remount the seats.

 

[Chasespeed21]

yeah i bet i could take the vinyl off the wood and just replace the wood but im not the most handy man out there. i have a feeling i would ruin the look of them and im trying to restore this boat to its originaly glory. every single part on the boat is original except my throttle control which im looking for. I just want to make sure my seats are done the right way.

 

[Henry Boyd]

Given your boat is a 1972, I think the least invasive way to fix this is the best. Vinyl does not age well, and yours is definitely aged. I'm not saying you (or a canvas shop) can't un-staple and re-staple, just that you might want to make that a last choice after exhausting all other reasonable approaches.

Henry

 

[Old Vet]

Given your seats are 40 years old I'd be a little reluctant to simply coat them with fibreglass resin. I'd want to see how far gone they really are. What is the vinyl covering on them like? If the vinyl covering is "well aged"...and the wood is rotting....simply coating with F/G resin would kinda be like trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

"im trying to restore this boat to its originaly glory."

This may cost you a few bucks but you may be better off to simply get someone to do a proper reupholstering job for you....replacing wood where necessary. Just depends upon how serious you are about this boat....and whether you really want it's "original glory"....or you want it to look like it was a make shift job. "shrug"

We strip and recover many seats and very often I'm confronted with alot more rot once I uncover them than was initially visible....more often than not resulting in the replacement of the wood. When replacing rotted wood....I've taken to coating the new wood with fibreglass resin to protect it before we reupholster. A substantially less expensive option than using marine plywood.

 

[Chasespeed21]

Yeah I looked at the seats last night when i had a few minutes and it appears that only the driver seat is in bad condition. The passenger seat does have a tear at the top but thats the only issue there. And the vinyl has been well taken care of over the years and is still in great condition. The drivers seat is not in as good condition. The back half of the seat has rotted to the point that it cant be attached at the hinges. So now the entire seat wobbles when you sit in it and its not very stable. I believe its going to need new wood and hardware to get it back to working condition.

 

[Old Vet]

"The back half of the seat has rotted to the point that it cant be attached at the hinges. So now the entire seat wobbles when you sit in it and its not very stable. I believe its going to need new wood and hardware to get it back to working condition. "

Yup....sorry to say that in our business.....this is the case more often than not. What initially looks like something "not too bad"....very often reveals itself to be much more underneath once things are taken apart and a closer inspection is done.

When we estimate a job....we always caution our clients that the estimate could change based upon what I find once I start taking things apart. Unfortunate thing is that once I've torn things apart...there's usually no putting it back together.....so they are kinda stuck then and have no alternative BUT to have us continue.

The nature of the beast.