Installing Pedestal Seats

[mr kingy]

G day Raiders

Looking for advice on what would be the best way to install pedestal seats to a fibreglass floor on my boat?

The boat is a whiteline 4.8m fibreglass runabout , early 80's boat.

The boat use to have back to back seats which i have removed.

I know the floor will have ply underneath it and seems quite solid , but would like to install the seats without relying to much on the fibreglass floor.

My thought was to cut two sections of marine ply 19mm glue them together with epoxy , and then epoxy them to the floor.

I was also thinking of then fibreglassing over the ply to the floor so it becomes one solid unit and then fixing the pedestals to this solid base throught the new carpet. I know the floor will be raised through this section but planning on bevelling the ply on an angle so the height is not a toe crushing experience.

Does this sound alright?

Any valuable advice from felow raiders would be greatly appreciated ,as this is my first boat and would like to do a really good job on it.

Thanks Nick

[Floating_Medic]

Would it be possible to drill a small pilot hole of about 1-2mm in diametre to check how thick the floor is? I did this for my pedestal seat and the floor ended up about an inch thick so i just secured the seat base to the floor with sikaflex and some self tapping fibreglass screws with bolt heads. Strong as hell.

[Geoff]

Would it be possible to drill a small pilot hole of about 1-2mm in diametre to check how thick the floor is? I did this for my pedestal seat and the floor ended up about an inch thick so i just secured the seat base to the floor with sikaflex and some self tapping fibreglass screws with bolt heads. Strong as hell.

This would be the better way to go. Cutting & fitting plywood under the pedsetal base willl not make the bond between the base & the floor any stronger.

As an alternative , have you considered seat boxes. There are companies around that supply these or you could make them from plywood to what ever size suits & have a hinged top. They are great for storage.

Geoff