1986 Sea Ray Seville Restoration

[SDSeville]

Well, my temporary terry cloth seat covers lasted almost 4 years before fading and ripping. I finally broke down and ordered some Deckmate replacements. They seem to match the existing vinyl pretty well.



I have run into a couple problems prior to installing them.

First of all, when completing my restore, I ran out of mat at the very end and just used glass and Poly resin (I know, I know...) on the sides of the deck from the lounge seats back to the jump seats. When I ripped out the stock seat bases (glassed to deck and hull), the glass came up like duct tape. I had to break out the grinder (forgot how fun that was :blue and grind out old glass and replace with 1708. Luckily, no water got through that crappy glass job over the last four years and the wood looked perfect.



The next problem is that this boat was designed to have the seats sit partially on the deck and partially on the sloped hull, so the new seat bases would not fit. Instead of cutting the plastic bases, I made platforms out of 3 pieces of 1/2" ply glued together. This will raise the bases high enough to fit flat over the deck/hull.



I still need to glass the platforms in, mount the seats, and install new carpet.

 

[Struc]

Long time... Good to hear you have a solution for the adapted seats, and that the boat is still going good.

Since the last comments here, I've purchased a place in Land O Lakes, WI, with deeded access to Lac Vieux Desert. It's a 4300 acre lake that sits at the top of Wisconsin (the lake actually sits 1/3 in upper MI, 2/3 in WI). So the boat stays at the cabin now, which luckily came with a 30' x 40' Quonset hut for it, and all the snowmobiles. It prevents me from working on it at length, except during our week long family vacation, but towing it back and forth 250 miles was a real pain.

 

[SDSeville]

Hey Curt! Great to hear from you. How is the Seville running? How did those Smart Tabs work out for you?

...and Congrats on the lake house. We always talk about doing something like that someday.

 

[Struc]

It's still running great - haven't had any issues with it yet. Well, minus last year when the electric fuel pump had sticktion at the beginning of the year and didn't want to spin. Had the boat launched, started it up, then it died and wouldn't restart. Didn't dawn on me I couldn't hear the fuel pump. Dragged it out and back to the cabin. Thought it wasn't getting power, but it was, so I rapped on it with the back of a wrench a few times and BAM, it started pumping again.

The Smart tabs have been fantastic. I mainly got them to stop the low speed wander, which they fixed completely, but I can sure tell they help get the boat out of the water too. Highly recommended.

 

[SDSeville]

Well, here they are installed. Not perfect, but well worth the $320. Still need to remove the protective plastic corners.

(I double posted these pics in that I had a replacement seat thread going in the main "Boat Topics" forum to help determine which seats to buy)






Still having trouble keeping the top inch of the carpet secured on the engine cover. The carpet glue I use (HD 6700) doesn't seem to like vinyl.

 

[GA_Boater]

In the other thread you said the red is off a little. Might be a hair brighter, but it sure is close. The ol' gal is looking spiffy, SD!

 

[198XLC]

hey i see you have the back seat cushions like on my chaparral did you buy those or redo them?. your boat looks brand new!

 

[SDSeville]

In the other thread you said the red is off a little. Might be a hair brighter, but it sure is close. The ol' gal is looking spiffy, SD!

Thanks GA!

 

[SDSeville]

hey i see you have the back seat cushions like on my chaparral did you buy those or redo them?. your boat looks brand new!

Thanks 198XLC. I had those seat cushions redone by a local seamstress. I brought her the old covers and she made new ones from the old patterns. It was very affordable since she was a seamstress and not an actual upholsterer. I know you take a chance by not using an upholsterer, but mine came out fine.