Re: Rebuild seat or purchase new?
Certainly depends on what's involved. Here is my example: I have a 1983 Chaparral bow rider with bucket seats for the pilot and passenger. This spring I noticed that the front seat cushion in the bow had rotted wood in it. I decided to fix that, as it was just replacing the wood. About the same time I leaned against the cushion on seat back for the driver's seat and the darn thing came away from the seat frame, as the wood backing crumbled into the bottom of the seat. Another one rotted! :facepalm:
I decided to replace the wood in the seat backs and bottoms in both seats, since all showed various signs of rot and numerous bug colonies were developing in them.
These seats consist of an outside "frame" cushion and a different colored insert cushion, for both the back and bottom, fitted into a vinyl-covered plastic seat frame.
I have learned in this process that this has likely been done before, as whoever did it last time did not use stainless/monel staples and the wood was not treated at all.
I went cheap on the wood and process, but better than the last go-around, since I'll never get my money out of this boat and I can't justify sinking a fortune into it.
My tasks consisted of cutting the 1/2" treated wood by laying the entire seat cushion over it and tracing. I had to do this because the deteriorating wood was going to fall apart when I released it from the vinyl holding it together. Once the wood was cut out, I sealed it with deck sealer. I figure the treated wood will deter the bugs, and the deck sealer will deter the bugs and deter the water. OK in this case because the cushion backs do not see water as often and your floor or stringers will, I am now in the process of wrapping the cushions in HD plastic trash bags to keep moisture out of them, should it make it through the vinyl/seams, and reassembling the cushions with the new wood and monel staples.
This is about 2 days worth of work, I'm guessing, for 9 cushions, spread out over when I have time to work on it. I already had the treated plywood, but the monel staples cost 20 bucks and the deck sealer cost ~100.00 bucks.
If I were planning on keeping the boat for a long time, I would look at replacement seats for the buckets, perhaps bolster seats. If you have a custom situation, it could cost as much as 1000.00 to have it rebuilt. I'd get estimates/quotes from people who offer the service before you make the decision, then weigh that number against your time, and how much you like doing this kind of work.
In my case, I'd do the replacement of the seats backs again, given the same situation. I don't think I'd do the vinyl sewing if that was required, but I wanted to do this because it seemed simple enough to do, and since I didn't do the "proper" method of fiberglassing the wood on both sides, to seal it, I saved money and time.
Chris
