Minx20

Hey guys, sorry to butt in but I had an even worse situation trying to put bolsters in a 19' Chap Villain. Really a 19' 0". I did not want it to look top heavy, but wanted to seats to function as well. I found a guy who made them for me for $900 a pair. He is a bit more now; was several years ago. He only needed me to supply the max height that I wanted and the inside width of the cockpit. They came out great and gave a much more secure feeling when I was in 2 to 3's off Miami Beach. I still got beat up in that 19', but imagine sitting in the orig buckets. His url is www.hottopsmarine.com , and he is in Ft. Mayers. He recently made the bolsters in my 24 Carrera that I am restoring.

I attached two pics that show the config. The stern pic has a cover on, but you can see that the bolsters don't stick up too high. It is better to make the drop outs at least waist high, but at least giving you the ability to stand up. Makes for a much more secure feeling, and gives you much better visibility than it does if you are sitting down in a smaller boat.

Hope this helps,

E.S.

NoQuarter

Thanks Syclone and Minx20!

NoQuarter

Thanks for the link, Minx20. I just talked with these guys and they said they'd do seats for $1000. Basically I'd just need to measure the seat height that I'd want, and they cut the legs on the bolsters to fit that.

http://www.hottopsmarine.com/racing-bolsters.htm

Kind-of tempting. I think I'll pull the driver seat out and configure something to sit on to get the right height. If I get the seats, I'll post some pictures.

Thanks,



Tom

Minx20

Tom, Something else that I remembered that made a perfect fit was keeping in mind that when you are in the sitting position you need to have enough room for your legs\knees to fit under the steering wheel. I was able to correct the problem that I encountered with an extension hub that I bought at Doller Offshore Marine in Hollywood florida. They are great, even though I was redoing a 19' pocket rocket, they gave the same attention one would expect that was ordering much higher doller items. You can see it in the pics on the previous threads. It angles up the steering column because you need room to get out of the seat, enough room to clear the wheel when sitting, and the steering wheel needs to be close enough to you when you are leaning against the bolster when standing. A normal steering column is fixed, but is angled up a bit so the column extension will usually fine tune this seat location\height issue if you encounter it. Take a look at my pic at you will see the steering column extension. I believe I paid around $25 for it at www.dolleroffshore.com , speak to Dana or any of the other pro's over there. OSO members get a discount as well I believe. You set up bolsters in your 22 Scarab, you will have a really good looking and more functional seating arrangement.

Eric

airshares

Yss and Scarab 98, I emailed hottopsmarine and he said if we order 2 sets he would cut us a break on the price of the bolsters. I want a set so if you are going to order one lets coordinate our orders and save some money.

Bryan

syclone

sorry to interrupt the bolster sub-thread
but i have more pics.

early last week, engine and drive came in:

Mercury Racing 377 Scorpion plus Bravo XR Sportmaster drive

syclone

putting the transom assembly on was easy, but also the engine took only about 2 hours to put in

syclone

the engine ran on the first try (why shouldn´t it, okay) and we had it run for a couple of minutes, just for the fun of it.
the ggb exhaust does a fine job in mellowing the exhaust tone, meaning it sounds good but i still think its loud. well see when its in the water...

one hit we had to take, though, was that mercury has changed parts of their driveline during the last couple of months. namely, they have reduced (and nobody knows why) the size of the u-joint on the input shaft of the drive. so, the driveshaft that came with the IMCO box in april had the yokes for the older, larger joints. shaft is already on its way to IMCO for replacement, but they will get the new shafts in about 10 days. means at least 3 weeks further delay to the launch. aaarrrgh!

to get the whipplecharger on, first the stock intake manifold must go.
i dont know about mercury´s other products, but this is one fine piece of engine. flawlessly assembled, ARP bolts and Crane Gold Roller Rockers...!
the intake has not been ported or polished, however (nobody needs polishing in a blown engine, but i thought "blueprinted" meant the runners to be matched to the intake. however, as i said, very nice work).

the whipplecharger kit had instuctions from 2002, and obviously some details on the engine have changed since then, needed a little improvisation there. nevertheless, also some sweet engineering from them.
and finally the sundeck/rear bench is also taking shape.

rchevelle71

iTrader: (1)

YOUR A MADMAN!!!!!!

Nice Job!!!!1

Pantera1

WOW ..nice job