Tinny aluminum bench replacement?

[Boats_mcgee]

Hi everyone,

I have a mid 70s mirrocraft 14' tinny that I'd like to install a swivel seat on.

Unfortunately, all of the benches are aluminum. I was hoping to replace the one bench with wood.

I've looked online, and all I can find is either videos with the seats already removed, or videos where they are just fixing the swivel to the aluminum. Nothing that covers a straight up bench replacement!

​​​​​​A few things I'm unsure of, even more so as my boat sits under a tarp a few hours away;

Is the bench easily removed?

Are they typically riveted, or screwed to the piece below that contains the foam?

Has anyone done this before?

Thanks In advance all.. trying to find the pain points before I start treatin things apart and missing the beginning of jusb season!

 

[fishrdan]

Bench seats in small aluminum boats are structural, so you don't want to remove them. Install the swivels and seats to the original seat bulkheads.

 

[Boats_mcgee]

See attached. I thought the same.. but these don't look terribly structural to me.

It looks like I could just replace the bench with something of equal dimensions!

 

[fishrdan]

Different than what I had envisioned and looks like removing them won't be difficult, but still structural. The box underneath is no doubt filled with flotation foam, and you don't wan to lose the foam.

Possibly pull the seat from the side brackets, attack the swivel and folding seat, then re-attach back into the boat.

 

[Boats_mcgee]

Thanks fishrdan..

I'll pull the seat, see if it's a giant headache to separate the top from the bottom..

I'll take pics along the way

 

[oldsub86]

Why do you want to remove the seat? Why not just add a wooden top to the existing seats?

 

[Watermann]

You could always just fab up a seat base from plywood, seal well, paint and trim the edges. Use large flange rivets to secure the base to the AL benches and attach your seat swivel to the base, then the seat to the swivel.