Re: 1984 Skeeter Champ 16' Restore
I got off work late tonight and it was pretty pretty good so I decided to skip wetsanding tonight and instead jumped a bit forward and started thinking about my seating. Originally, I was going to try some vinyl dye on my current seats. They're pretty much brand new so I didn't have much to lose. If it didn't work out, I was doing to disassemble them to make patterns and recover them. After talking with my mom, she seems to think that maybe would could make our own. I have experience with sewing vinyl and she is quite handy with the sewing machine and making patterns, so what the heck, let's give it a shot!
When I bought the boat, the previous owner had raised the seating about 8" off of the factory base. I had converted that space to be usable by hinging the seats forward to allow us access to the box for storage. While it may have looked a bit goofy having the seats stick up more than normal, it sure was nice! I enjoyed the extra leg room (I'm a bigger guy at 6'3" and 260 lbs) and the extra storage was excellent (this boat doesn't have much storage space). I think that may have been the ONLY thing the previous owner did right to the boat.
So, sticking with the raised seating/extra storage, I drafted up some first-run scale sketches of what I think will fit nicely. I've got to run it by my mother to see if she thinks we can do it, but I think I like it. I may lower the box from 8" to 6" so that there is a little more surface area for the back of the seat, but time will tell. The plan is to make the seats in 2 parts; a back and a base. The back will be permanently attached to the cap back with the brackets the previous owner used. The base will be hinged at the front and have a pull strap attached at the rear so that it can be pulled forward for access to the storage box.
All 3 bases will be identical. The driver and passenger backs will also be identical. The middle back will be a lower to allow easy step-over access to the back. In terms of dimensions, the bases are pretty much 16" by 16". I'm going to use 4" foam for all bases and backs (and the wife has started the lookout for donor couches to use for foam). All of the backs will be 16" wide. The driver/passenger backs will be 16" tall from the base... well, actually closer to 20" with the lower point that will merge with the base. The middle back will be 8" tall, or closer to 12" with the lower point. The wife picked the color scheme, but I really don't know if I like the idea. It may be too much maroon (the top cap will be maroon and the carpet also maroon).
If mom gives it the ok, we will begin patterning it out. The biggest challenge is going to be doing all of the inner seams and contouring the foam to accept it. I see a lot of trial and error going on with it. Hopefully I can find a couple of couches for cheap/free!
