24 Super Back Seat Rot
 

A couple of weeks ago we found that the wood in my back seat had rotted out. Stepped on it to go up to the pad and went right through.

After talking with Jim at PPI Interiors, I decided to tackle the wood replacement myself. He gave me a step by step and told me to email or call with any questions. Not only have I not spent any money with him in the past, but he talked me out of spending money with him now and do it myself. The guys at PPI are first rate, and when it is time (financially) to do my interior, they will get the call!

Pictures of the rotted out seat attached. I spent 6 hours removing staples! Doing that in a 100+ degree garage was really fun!

After getting it all apart, I picked up a new board from the lumber yard. I had it cut to size and then rounded the corners and sanded the edges. I put in the recommended 3/4" holes for drying the foam.

We cleaned the vinyl and then I hit the foam with Lysol to kill any mold that might still be there. It's ready to be reassembled once the vinyl dries from the cleaning.

Total spent including buying a staple gun is about $120.00. Losing 4 gallons of water in the heat = priceless! :eek:

More pics when it's finished tomorrow.

You may want to steam clean the foam if it did'nt come clean. Jim at PPI is a great guy,

I've gotten the wood off of them, but they are still discolored somewhat where the rot out occurred. Where would I take the foam to have it cleaned?

Try Home Depot for a rental, or perhaps a good dry cleaner could help you.

Dont forget to put some resin on that wood, or you will be doing this again in a few years.

STARBOARD it and forgettaboutit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kind of what I was thinking. Jay any idea how it got so wet? Your cover doing its job? If there is something else contributing to it you might want to look into getting that fixed also.

This is meant to be only a quick fix until we can get the whole interior completely re-done. If it lasts 2 years, we should be good. I looked into starboard, but it is way too expensive for this kind of fix.

What type of Resin are you talking about putting on the board? Can I get that at the Home Depot?

No idea how it got so wet. I know the boat sat in the water for quite a while with the previous owner. It is always covered and on a lift with me. I imagine the water damage and the rot began before I bought the boat.

YES,

Any fiberglass resin will do to waterproof it, Home Depot, or any Auto parts store, no nned for epoxy or anything fancy. I realize you will be replacing in a few years anyhow, but its just good practice to resin any wood used in a boat, plus it will only cost ya like $10 for a quart of resin.

Ok, I put some resin on it! Are ya happy now?! :evilb: Home Depot's small can was $15. That plus the other necessary items like brushes and what not came out to $25. Not too bad for a little reassurance. I finished one side. I figure in about an hour I'll flip it and hit the other. Hopefully it will be dry enough by tonight to put it together. Thanks for the info & help everybody. I'll hopefully have some completed pics up tonight.

As Keith said. All the seat backs and bottoms are Starboard now, and have been for years. As for replacing the wood. Simple.. Go to Home Depot and get some CCA plywood. No need to resin coat it. I redid quite a few older seatbacks. We used to have our upholstry done in Florida and switched to a local guy. Steam clean the foam ??? Alittle too crazy for me.

Fot the money you spent on the wood and resin/brushes/acetone etc. It would have been cheaper to do it with Starboard. Starboard is around $ 45

Everybody said it was really expensive, and the internet searching I did confirmed that. The cheapest I found Starboard on the internet in the size I needed was $150 (+/-). I bought the wood for $60 and the resin+ stuff for $25. The other money I spent was on the pneumatic staple gun and other tool related items that I may be able to use later on.

Well, I am where I am now, and it will work! Thanks for the info though Rick!

And make sure you use stainless steel staples randy! You gonna be on the water this weekend?

I'll be on the water! We're heading down tomorrow afternoon sometime. Is the Banana boat gonna be out?

All done!!

Ya did good, looks great.

Looks great.

I just did the exact same thing to the rear seat back on my Pantera. The tips of my fingers and knuckles were numb for about 3 days from pulling out old staples and pulling tight vinyl to re-staple. :eek: :drink:

I tried to keep cost down cause I figure (like you) in a year or two I'm gonna replace all of the interior anyway. I used pt plywood and hit it with some Thompsons on both sides. Most expensive part were the stainless staples. ;)