Upholstery removal 2000 270 Sundancer - how to ?

D

dogturd21

New Member
Apr 16, 2008
28
Annapolis Maryland
Boat Info
2000 Sundancer 7.4 Bravo III
Engines
7.4 L Bravo III
trying to figure out how to remove the Port - left side Bolster so I can have it recovered. I am told the cushion skins are no longer available from Sea Ray (the boat is only 13 years old !!). I cannot figure out how to remove it: the backside is pretty much blind. One shop told me it might be held in place with plastic trim fasteners that look like tiny Xmas trees. My one attempt to pry it off had no success- i was afraid I was going to damage it further, and the parts manual for the boat did not clear it up.

Any guidance on how to remove the cushions ?
 
If I'm understanding you right you they're probably through bolted. You may have to remove sections of the headliner in the cabin to acess the bolts.
 
sdarc said:
They are thru bolted. There is a thread in the late 270 DA section.
Click to expand...

Through bolted ?? oh no ... getting to the back from the cabin would require a great deal of tearing out of the liner. I see you have the same boat and year as I do- have you done this before ?
 
I know we have different boats, similar though. Getting to the back side was not a big deal. Took me 10 minutes to find out that mine was screwed in (not actually thru bolted), from the inside.
 
We reupholster boat interiors and have torn apart many boats. Never.....YET anyway.....have I had to tear out any liners to remove components. Now that's not to say that day will never come....but just haven't seen it yet. And we haven't done a boat like yours yet.

Everything I've ever removed for us to redo has either been through bolted.....or secured from the front with screws hidden in folds of the original fabric covering. And some of them can be very hard to locate....it takes quite a bit of searching. Some of the manufacturers are very good at hiding these things.

Some times pieces are hung on clips along the top....and screwed along the bottom. After locating and removing those bottom screws the piece can be lifted off those top hanging clips. Found that type of thing in a Cruisers Inc.

Weirdest thing I've come across yet was in a 34' Silverton. Couldn't remove a rear facing seat bottom of all things up in the cockpit. I simply couldn't determine how it was secured.....had to actually call Silverton to find out. Believe it or not it was secured down with the toughest Velcro I've ever seen. It literally took a crow bar for me to break it free.....and they told me it might.

And BTW.....I haven't yet run across any of those "tiny Xmas tree" type trim fasteners either on any boats.

So before tearing out any liners anywhere I'd suggest you keep searching a bit more.....and call SeaRay Customer Service and ask them if you need to.

Any chance you can post a pic of what you're trying to remove?

Good luck.
 
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Old Vet- very good info, thanks. I did look in the Sea Ray 270 DA thread and found a mention of another thread on the same topic, but no actual info on how to do it. I am going to include a pic of the part of the seat bolster I am trying to remove- and bolster might not even be the correct term but that is how it is labeled in the Sea Ray parts manual. My goal is to remove it and send it to an upholstery shop for a new skin, along with the bottom cushion that is held on by velcro. thanks in advance :)
 
bolster3.jpg bolster - cushion I am trying to remove
 
I do not have a pic of the backside, but there is no way to access it without tearing out the foam-vinyl liner- it is one solid piece with no folds, seams, buttons or anything within 8-12 inches of the border of the bolster. the speaker grill on the left is too far away to be practical. On right- the pic is a bid misleading from this angle but access from there is not possible. some sort of bolts or screws on the bottom with a clip or rail on the top makes sense but I have not seen any screws.
 
Your headliner should remove easily in that area. Next look into folds around the welting. Sea Ray hides the screws in there. Then the panel should come off and you can access the through bolts that hold the cushion on.
 
Damn these manufacturers can get creative sometimes building these things. They've obviously figured ways to hide those attaching points behind or underneath something else it appears. I wish I could actually see it for real.....but looking at your picture I have to believe it's "through bolted" as sdarc also thinks.

It should not require any major demolition or destruction of anything to get that seat back off.

If you simply can't see what the heck they did.....then I'd call SeaRay and ask them if you haven't yet.

Or try the "go to" guy around here....Cap't Rusty....maybe he can shed a little light on it for you.

Wish I could offer you more. Sorry.
 
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Your layout (at least on the surface) is pretty much identical to my boat. This winter I removed every cockpit seat to have it redone. While "Christmas trees" are occasionally used, I doubt this is the case in your boat, as my boat didn't use them either (but there are times when they're used). For me, I had to remove a small, false wall that was on the opposite side (interior side) of that forward layback cushion. But to get to that, I had to first remove the large vinyl "ceiling panel" assembly.

To remove the port-side backrest cushion, I needed to remove the the mid-cabin mirror, which meant first removing a number of trim pieces in the midcabin. I also got to some of the port-side cushion's nuts through the speaker. There was a still one or two left (aft) and the only way to get to those (since they're actually in the bilge and there is a wall between the bilge and living areas, which meant I couldn't reach the nuts through the speaker) was through the bilge, which meant removing the hot water heater and doing 6 months worth of Yoga before I attempted to squeeze my body into the right angle to reach up and get the nuts. I elected to make a 6" hole in the cockpit wall and then just used a deck plate to "neaten" it up, which I then painted with a color that closely matched the gelcoat.
 
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As I stated early on, they are held on form the inside of the cabin. My 280da has a similar seat/cushion and I wanted to get it re-covered this year but after lloking at what it takes to get it out I'm waiting for next year. I'll remove all the cushions on the port lounger while I have it aprat and have everything re-covered. Good luck but as you will see that cushion is either thru-bolted or screwed in form the inside of the cabin.
 
I will take a closer look again this weekend, but if I have to semi-destroy the interior to get this off, its not happening :) I was considering just cutting the vinyl and disassembling it from the outside, perhaps even drilling the bolts out if needed, then using plastic trim fasteners or super-velcro to hold it back on. I have my doubts about calling Sea Ray customer support and actually getting some helpful info: has anybody gone that route that can share their experiences with me ?
 
I called SeaRay recently about something and they got back to me within a day......unfortunately they couldn't help me with my question. So my next course of action was to call in the heavy hitter here.....Cap't Rusty.....and he saved the day for me. Maybe he can help you if you have to call on him.

Good luck.
 
Sea Ray is very good with customer relations - I've contacted them numerous times (personally, not as a dealer) and have always been pleased. They may not be able to tell you everything all the time, but they sure don't shy away from trying.

Regardless, you'll definitely have to take some things apart. There's no magic trick here and contacting numerous people about is going to yield the same result. If you can post a picture or two of your interior - especially the backside area of the cushion you have in mind, I might have another idea - but I need to visualize the area and I don't remember the boat well enough to be 100% positive.

Destroying the seat and rebuilding with velcro is not a bad idea, either. But, to give you an idea of the time it took me to remove ALL of my cockpit seats... Now, keep in mind, I've done this before and know where to look for/access fasteners and have a good idea of how the boat is originally put together. But, it took me a little over 3 hours to get ALL the seats out. If I just had to remove the piece you're talking about, it'd probably be less than an hour.
 
I tried calling Sea Ray Customer support on Friday- all of the numbers I found using web searches were disconnected. Does anybody have a recent customer support phone number ? Also, I think I found at least part of the puzzle: there is a large panel that covers the backside, which is going to require removing 4-8 other panels before I can even get to it, and which and in what order the panels are removed is a puzzle. And it still might require some destruction of the ceiling. Hopefully I can get some feedback from customer support.
 
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