2003 208 seats

[Tom3holer]

Hi,
New to the forum but a longtime Grady owner.

I am having a problem with both seats on my boat. The plastic rails that the seats slide on are all broken so that both seats are very wobbly.

I took the seats off and brought them to by workshop and was lucky enough to have the local dealer, where we bought the boat new from, have them in stock.
4 large Philips screws was all I had to do to get the seat metal base off, no problem. WRONG, all but 2 screws would not turn and not thinking it through wound up breaking the imbedded nut loose from the fiberglass so unable to remove the plate.
One chair I was able to get all but 1 screw out and think I can lift the mechanism up enough to get the two runners in place after grinding the stop screw off.

Is there any other option that might work?

Thank you for any suggestions or advice.

Tom

 

[seasick]

I had a similar issue with a 2001 208. I needed to remove the slider assembly but the screws were 'welded' to the threaded inserts. The inserts ended up spinning and I eventually had to drill out the screws and install new stainless T-nuts BUT to do that, I had to make a larger hole in the seat mold near the old insert to allow me to position the new t-nut. I epoxied the area when the t-nut would be, positioned the t-nut using a piece of wire, slid it into position at the seat hole and inserted a bolt to allow me to pull the insert tight into the epoxy. Once the epoxy set, i could remove the bolt and do the next screw hold.
It was one of the worst, more frustrating jobs I have done on a boat!

 

[Tom3holer]

Seasick,
I think I was getting seasick half-way through your ordeal.
I may have found a semi fix with the one chair with only one bolt still holding it on.
Will report back.

 

[seasick]

 

[MarbleFalcon]

Hi,
New to the forum but a longtime Grady owner.

I am having a problem with both seats on my boat. The plastic rails that the seats slide on are all broken so that both seats are very wobbly.

I took the seats off and brought them to by workshop and was lucky enough to have the local dealer, where we bought the boat new from, have them in stock.
4 large Philips screws was all I had to do to get the seat metal base off, no problem. WRONG, all but 2 screws would not turn and not thinking it through wound up breaking the imbedded nut loose from the fiberglass so unable to remove the plate.
One chair I was able to get all but 1 screw out and think I can lift the mechanism up enough to get the two runners in place after grinding the stop screw off.

Is there any other option that might work?

Thank you for any suggestions or advice.

Tom

If the embedded nuts are already spinning in the fiberglass, I’d stop trying to force those screws before the damage gets worse.


If you can get enough clearance with the seat mechanism lifted, replacing the plastic runners without removing the whole base would probably be the least invasive option. I’d try that first, especially since you already have most of one side apart.


For the screws that absolutely have to come out, you may end up needing to carefully cut or drill the heads off, remove the plate, and then deal with the loose inserts from the backside if there’s access. After that they could be replaced with new hardware or properly rebedded inserts rather than trying to reuse something that’s already spinning.


I’d definitely avoid putting a lot more torque on the remaining Phillips screws. Once the fiberglass around the insert gets chewed up, the repair becomes a much bigger job.


If you can post a picture of the underside of the seat base and the runners, someone with the same 208 setup may have a cleaner trick for getting them changed in place.

 

[Tom3holer]

Thank you for the reply.
I did get the inserts in on the one seat and it works fine. The other one I think I will try and fabricate the rails from some sort of flexible plastic. I am sort of surprised nobody had come up with a fix as this seems to be a common issue with older boats.
IF that doesn't work will probably look for some low profile rounded head lag bolts and drill new holes from the top of the seat trough the aluminum plate.

Tom