Finishing up Folding Rear Seats

[sdunt]

I finally completed and installed one of the two rear folding seats for the boat. They are turning out better than I had hoped and maybe this will give someone else here an idea or inspiration to do something to the seating in their boat.

You can follow this sub-project on shareaproject at: http://www.shareaproject.com/pages/projectTut,p,260,00.html

Here is a composite of the seat folded and stowed and also opened up. We sized and designed these to use a boat seat cushion on them, that way we don't have to upholster anything and with the cushion stowed the seat folds into the 3 in deep package.

I still need to glass this in and seal everything. Time crunch is forcing me to install now and glass this winter.

 

[Kevin70]

Re: Finishing up Folding Rear Seats

Cool. You could make a living from building those things. Seems like they have alot more uses that just boats...............very cool.

 

[JasonJ]

Re: Finishing up Folding Rear Seats

Thats pretty clever. I have been thinking about some sort of jump seat arrangement due to only having seating for two. Not that I take anyone but the wife on the boat anyway, but you never know....

 

[Mark42]

Re: Finishing up Folding Rear Seats

Cool! I like it! Nothing better than stuff that stows itself on a boat. Great execution of you idea. Looking forward to some finished pics.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Finishing up Folding Rear Seats

necessity--the mother of invention, looks good,

 

[Realgun]

Re: Finishing up Folding Rear Seats

The bottom is open? I hope so cause the water needs to drain. Good Idea to store the seats.

 

[JustMrWill]

Re: Finishing up Folding Rear Seats

Wow. Great idea! The only question I have...how does it stay put once opened? Hmmmm...That would be a great way to install a bench seat in the back of my boat....great, now I won't get any work done today...gonna be sketching out plans all day.

-JMW

 

[dmarkvid2]

Re: Finishing up Folding Rear Seats

Great idea, and a nice job! What kind of wood did you use?

 

[sdunt]

Re: Finishing up Folding Rear Seats

Trying to respond to the questions:

Yes, the bottom of the enclosure is open towards the back of the boat. I had the same thought, how's the water going to get out of that area.

As for staying open, the rear pins slide down a ramp and rest in a notch in the top of the side supports. The front leg has a friction stay on it. If there is no one in the seat, yes it can bang around, the back especially, there is no latch on it, it just leans back against the drivers seat.

As for wood, I 'recycled' a porch swing that we had around and it was made out of Mahogany. I used it because I wanted the 1/4 inch thick slats for the seats, they make this much lighter than using solid stock. I also used some thick, 7/8 inch mahagony I had in my workshop for the side supports.

As I am assembling and installing the second seat I am documenting on my shareaproject. http://www.shareaproject.com/pages/projectTut,p,260,00.html