Question:
I have picked up a car topper john boat (again) made of aluminum, and am
considering removing the bench seats that support the shape of the boat.
What I hope to do is to put in some kind of aluminum frame along the
original rivet holes of the seat to retain the shape of the boat, and rather
than the bench seats, install a pair of swivel seats.
Anyone ever done this, or have suggestions on materials and how-to info that
they would care to share?
Answer:
-The seats may well enclose the foam floatation material for the boat
also. You would not want to remove it. Forming metal for stringers is
possible, but not with average home tools.
FWTW: I put swivel seats in a narrow (48") 14 foot v hull boat a couple
of years ago. Since I'm tall and wanted extra leg room I mounted the
seats on spacers to raise the seat height 2 inches. The added height of
seats plus the spacers caused the boat to be VERY tippy.
-On my 14 Valco, I have a Valco made seat clamp on the rear, that I mounted
the swivel seat to. Seat and clamp add about 4" height. the Valco is a
spring clamp attachment to the wood seat. This makes it nice to be able to
slide to different positions on the rear seat. When I am driving I can
slide the seat over so the tiller arm is not directly behind me and When
anchored fishing I can have the seat in the middle to both balance the boat
and if fishing 2 rods I can reach the rod on either side easily. The front
seat I just attached a swivel mount (West Marine ~$14) and the seat to that.
I also used 2" PVC and hose clamped that to the supports that run from the
seat to the gunnel as rod holders. Work better than the commercial mounts I
tried. I don't note the boat being tippier with the seats.
-There was an article about this sort of thing in Bass and Walleye Boats
a few months back. They put in a flat floor etc.
