More Seat Restoration

After giving the 66 Sportsman seat restoration project more thought, here's what I've decided:

Approach b) below. The four original seat frames and molded cushions are being retained, but trimmed of their sharp flashing edges and repaired for surface cracks. The "patio chair" webbing in the seat base is discarded; replaced by a plywood base. Fitted vinyl covers are covering the molded cushions. Type IV PFD's are retained under the seat frame, retained by two snap-on straps.

As a side note: When I pulled up the carpet I discovered T-bolts in the floor for FIVE seating positions. The fifth being in the center rear position. Anyone out there have a discarded 62 - 66 Seat frame and mounting hardware they want to sell?

I decided the original seat design is too cool to discard. It's part of the boat's character and provides a lot of utility and flexability. I'll post photos when it's done next week.

Lee Shuster
Salt Lake City

----- Original Message -----
From: lib1@...
To: omc-boats@...
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 8:30 PM
Subject: Re: Original Seat Restoration (LONG)

In talking with some local upholstery shops here's the options I can see for the early 1962 - 1966 style OMC/E&J seats:
(Some of this may apply to the 67 - 69 seats, as well)

a) Toss out the original seat frames & factory injection molded foam seat cushions and install either back-to-backs or pedestal seats from B&M, Wise, Todd or Garelick. In my mind, this approach gives up a lot of the boat's unique design appeal. These seats cannot be easily used on shore and don't have the aircraft-inspired, underseat Type IV PFD. I'm really trying hard to avoid this approach, but I have to admit it is the most practical and affordable approach.

b) Retain the original seat frames and attempt to reuse/recover the original molded cushions. The bottom molded foam cushion does fit new Type IV PFD's but the support webbing typically does need re-stringing. Fortunately this material is readily available. Or a plywood bottom can be inserted, doing away with the webbing. If desired the PFD cushion can then be retained between the floor and the seat bottom with bungee cord or by fitting a snap-on strap since there's not a room there for storing much else. But you will need some new foam between the wood and the molded cushion to sopport the area vacated by the PFD. The entire molded cushion can be covered in new vinyl and and the wood base secured to the seat frame with two locating "pegs," to prevent it from sliding off the frame. Then the top molded cushion can be covered in a similar fashion with new vinyl. If you've never removed the top (seat back) molded cushion, a note of caution. It can be fairly stubborn, take care not to destroy the foam trying to remove it. The top seat back frame does not have the lawn-chair webbing, but a single rubber strap, which is likely to have lost its stretchy tension. This approach is fairly labor and materials intensive and will probably eat up $100 to $250 per seat, possibly more at a pro seat shop.

c) Retain the frames, ditch the molded cushions and bolt on a new folding seat from B&M, Wise, Todd, or Garelick. The will set you back $50 to $100 depending on the seat. I've test fitted the 20-inch wide Garelick 350 and 360 folding seats and the are a good fit. Fairly cheap and you can still remove the frames and use them on shore. If you don't like 'em conver them to pedestal mounts later on. One big drawback is the exposed seat back frame, which is curved at the top and looks ugly.

Any other ideas or solutions that have worked well for others? One thing, about seating on the first generation 16-footer's ---- they have a shallow freeboard, so the seats are low to the floor to begin with. The Sport-16 and Sportsman have the side rails which help, but I'm curious to know if anyone has found the seat height to be an issue? This issue was taken care of on the 2nd-gen (68-70) Sportsmans, SeaSport II's and Revelers.

Greg -- BTW -- What a beautiful 69 Sportsman! I like your re-bunking the trailer for better weight distribution near the motor. Has it hindered getting the boat on and off the trailer at all?

Lee Shuster
Salt Lake City

"keep 'em floatin'"

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Gregory B. Fell
  To: omc-boats@...
  Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 7:00 PM
  Subject: RE: Original Seat Restoration

  My seats are important to me, as well. I have the 1969 Evinrude Sportsman (pictures are on the site). I am fortunate to have no cracks in my vinyl. However, the webbing that you've described has basically disintegrated on all of the seats. I was starting to sink in the driver's seat. I knew it was just a matter of time before that extra stretching caused by the lack of support caused irreperable harm. I handled it by placing pieces of plywood under the cushion. It's pretty firm, but better than no support at all. The frame had a lip on two of the four sides, so I didn't have to drill any holes.

  Greg Fell
    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-omc-boats@... [mailto:owner-omc-boats@...]On Behalf Of Mstvsnd@...
    Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 7:39 PM
    To: omc-boats@...
    Subject: Re: Original Seat Restoration

    I don't know how you'd go about recovering the original seats. The outer cover and color seems pretty integral to the seat itself.

    The work I've done on mine is limited to installing new web slings on the frames to hold the flotation cushions, and repairing a couple of cracks in the vinyl skin. To repair the cracks, I cut some vinyl patches, worked them under the skin and applied epoxy to them through the crack and them duct taped the crack closed until the epoxy dried, in effect gluing them to the inside surface of the seat cover. This left a visible "scar", but stopped the spread of the crack.

    I'll go to great lengths to preserve the original seats because they're cool, and because I like the fact they're individually anchored so I can use three, two or only one if I'm fishing alone.

    Mike Stevesand
Received on Monday, 17 May 2004