Building a bench seat for my baliner - any advice?

[Isaacm1986]

I am restoring a 1973 bayliner super tahiti, I have decided to build a bench seat for the back of the boat, and then I am going to put front to rear facing seats in it. My question, do i need to fiberglass these into the boat floor or go ahead and lay the new carpet down and secure the seats some other way?

any advice would be great.

 

[scubadoo73]

Re: Building a bench seat for my baliner - any advice?

i have done a few bench seats and I would say put the carpet down useually the first thing to go is the seats weather its the vinyl or the wood

 

[o-jay]

Re: Building a bench seat for my baliner - any advice?

I'm not familiar with the model of boat you cited, so what I did might not work, but last winter I re-designed the stern configuration of my VIP I/O. I has a sun-deck with a bench seat across the front of the sun-deck with captains chairs. I built a wrap-around bench complex similar to the later model interiors (the boat's an '87). The center section is basically a short box, with a tall back to close against the front of the sun deck (envision a lower-case h ). I also replaced the floor at this time, so I carpeted all the way under the back seats to the edge of the bilge, then set my seat boxes on top. The center section is hinged at the short leg of the h so that if I need access to the engine, I just lean it forward. I carpeted the outside of the boxes to match the floor...I'm pleased with the results.

If you have the opportunity, you might think about something besides wood, treated or otherwise, to make the seat out of. I made all mine out of either hi or medium density polyethylene, but I had access to a ton of the stuff basically for free. Now my 22-year old boat is 'wood free' just like the new ones!

Good luck...

 

[Isaacm1986]

Re: Building a bench seat for my baliner - any advice?

So if I run carpet under the seats how do i secure the box to the boat without drilling holes and putting in screws?