1975 Mark Twain 170V Leisurely Interior Restore

[Dabbler_E]

Acquired my new sweetie back in May. Hull is in great shape, but interior was a mess.

Love the faux burl dash. The glove box lid is warped, and it will have to go.

First things first:

Took off the '70 85hp Evinrude (nonrunning -- bad amplifier, currently parting out), repowered with '79 Jonny 70hp. It's taken me 3 years to get the bugs out of it, but the Johnson is running great now. Love it, even if it's a bit underpowered for this boat (had to go down to 15 pitch).

Added or replaced (mainly stuff stripped from previous boat):
Smart tabs
Tach
Speedo pitot
El cheapo fish finder (mainly used as depth gauge, volt meter, thermometer)
Bilge pump w/ auto switch
Water separating fuel filter
Battery isolator switch
Rewired (was typical spaghetti. Now at least it's comprehensible, although not near as sweet as some of y'all's wiring jobs I see here)
Rear nav light
Bimini top (a little narrow for this beam, but works just fine)


Much of the vinyl is completely beyond repair -- crumbles to the touch. Seat wood is also pretty much rotten out. So, chucked the jump seats. Covered bow seat cushions with red duct tape for short-term use. Bow side cushions were pretty much beyond hope, so they're the first real project.

 

[Dabbler_E]

Re: 1975 Mark Twain 170V Leisurely Interior Restore

The bow side cushions were held on with stainless (a plus!) bolts, nuts, and washers. However, nearly all the nuts were inaccessible without pulling the cap off the hull. So, that meant whipping out the trusty grinder and cutting off bolt heads. Unfortunately, that meant ginches in the gel coat. Fortunately, the ginches will be hidden behind the cushions, but will get a simple patch anyway.

Once the old cushions were off, I traced onto 11/32" BCX, sawed, and rounded corners. These guys are checking to make sure they still line up.

Copied & drilled the bolt holes, and countersunk for use with christmas tree fasteners.

I treated the plywood with wood preservative and painted with 2 coats Kilz 2. These are not structural parts, and the original 35 year old plywood still held staples and bolts OK. Below, you can see the heads of the fasteners. These were the longest I could find at Advance Auto parts.

Below: if you're thinking "that doesn't look like there's enough length to hold in the hull," you're right! Blast! If you're also thinking "maybe he should have checked the length before installing them on ALL the panels" you're also right.

I then experimented with weird combinations of t-nuts, studs, and drywall anchors, but to no avail. So, double-headed christmas trees are on order.......I hate waiting. I especially hate waiting after wasting $$.

 

[Dabbler_E]

Re: 1975 Mark Twain 170V Leisurely Interior Restore

While waiting on the fasteners, I forged ahead with the upholstery. I'm using burgundy marine vinyl from JoAnns (gotta love 50% off coupons!) and stainless staples. The burgundy color is a pretty darn good match to the original, impossible-to-duplicate "dark wine with black marbling" vinyl, so I will be able to live with the boat having a mix of vinyls. I kept the foam from the old cushions, and used polyester batting between the foam and vinyl to smooth over irregularities. These will not be sat upon, so I left off the plastic sheeting.

Et Voila! Not too shabby for a first attempt

Much thanks to the expertise here, especially 109jb's Great Thread

Now I just have to wait for the #$%# fasteners to come in.

Meantime, I'm going to redo the bow seat cushions (the ones people actually sit upon) in white (less tuckus scorching), and hope to make use of actual sewing and welting, a la mrdjflores' Amazing Thread At this point, I've just cut the plywood, bought the vinyl, and ordered sewing supplies (welting, thread, needles).

Wish me luck on that!

Still to come on the interior:

Building upholstered storage box or bench seat/storage
Purchasing 1 or more lounge seats to replace captain's chairs.
Replacing rack steering with rotary (again, from prev boat)
Reupholstering long side panels (maybe w/ stripes, as 109jb did)
Adding cup holders!

 

[Dabbler_E]

Re: 1975 Mark Twain 170V Leisurely Interior Restore

Still waiting on fasteners. Welting and dacron thread arrived today. Hope to be able to do some trial stitching with my old Singer (home ec skills -- are you still there?) in the next few days.

In the meantime, I tore off the highly deteriorated upholstery over the "nose patch" (Not sure what else to call it) under the bow light, and replaced it with new vinyl. It's glued down with contact cement, and held down on 3 sides with aluminum trim. The front edge is tucked under the rub rail.

 

[Dabbler_E]

Re: 1975 Mark Twain 170V Leisurely Interior Restore

Double-ended christmas tree fasteners finally came in, so I was able to put up the bow side cushions.

In the meantime, I got some white marine vinyl (again from Joanns) for the bow seat cushions. I ordered some welting and Dacron thread in the hopes of extreme spiffiness (a la mrdjflores), but my sewing machine doesn't seem to be able to handle thread that heavy (anybody want some white welting and thread?), so I just went with the mold & fold method. Again, kept the old foam but cut new plywood. Covered foam with poly batting, plastic sheet (from contractor's bags), then vinyl and attached with stainless staples.

Here's the before:

And the After:

In this pic below you can see a lump in a side cushion. That was caused by drilling out the holes to fit the new fastener, and the drill bit caught the foam a bit and made a foam wad. Not too happy about that, but I'm not about to tear the whole thing down again. I can live with a lump -- at least it's not covered in duct tape!

Current tasks:
Replacing glovebox
Adding cupholders
Removing & stripping padded rail panels for reupholstery

 

[tburda]

Re: 1975 Mark Twain 170V Leisurely Interior Restore

One question, where in the heck did you find those double ended fasteners!?!? We searched high and low for them for my friends 89 sunbird interior, and could not find them. Finally gave up and installed stainless set nuts and bolts which worked good but were a pain to put in.

 

[Dabbler_E]

Re: 1975 Mark Twain 170V Leisurely Interior Restore

I ended up ordering the fasteners online at a site called thecliplink.com. Direct link is HERE