Small Fighting Chairs. Anyone know how to build them, minus the $3K price tag?

[cobbcfi]

I am extremely wood savvy (converted my 3 car garage into a wood shop second only to the "New Yankee Workshop") and steel fabricator knowledgeable (Custom restored several cars including my replica Shelby Cobra 429).. I am looking to replace two small seats in the back of my Tcraft 24cc with custom home built wooden fighting chairs complete with a beneath the seat rod holder. I have looked all over and cant find a design or blueprint of they way they are built. I am not going to pay $3k+ a piece for two seats in a 1983 boat but would love to get rid of the plastic seats and use their mounts and sliders to build fighting chairs.

So my question is;
1. Where do I find a design or idea to build from? ( I can use pictures and go from there but wonder if there is something better out there that I can use)
2. What kind of wood would be best to use? (Rot resistant and readily available from what company)
3. How do I get that beautiful clear-coat finish that you see on large sport-fishers with their fighting chairs? (I know they were all professionally built but I can handle the task)
4. Where do I find the fighting chair hardware to build the chair? (I have searched Google and cannot find the under seat rod holders)

 

[ErikF]

Re: Small Fighting Chairs. Anyone know how to build them, minus the $3K price tag?

I know nothing about fighting chairs but here's my opinion.

Looking at pictures online it looks like building one would be more a fabrication project than woodworking. Do you have fabrication and welding equipment? Can you TIG SS? Have the machinery to cut and finish the material for the frames?

If you're set on building your own I would make a friend with someone who has the chairs, take the dimensions and make drawings to work from, a better approach might be to find some older decrepit chairs and refurbish them, then you'd only be looking and redoing the woodwork and maybe minor work on the frames.

I can't really comment on the wood other than to say that most of the better chairs look to be built with teak, I'm somewhat of a welder fabricator by trade and don't play much with wood!