First post please bare with me! I just bought a 1998 180 sportsman. Its in fair condition and I'm up for the project of restoring it to the best of my ability.
My first question, mostly out of curiosity is, can anyone tell me if my helm seat is original. In all the pictures I have seen of other 180s the seat is different. I am attaching my picture.
Part of the reason I am trying to figure this out is because I have a suspicion it was changed out. The reason being is because when I push on the seat I do see some flex where the 4 mounting points are in the floor. The floor in that area is not soft or rotten. But I do see some lift/flex.
I have read ( and seen first hand) that the nuts and backing washers are not accessible under the floor. So my suspicion is that a previous owner took the bolts out from the top thinking it was an easy change. Nuts probably fell down in to the hull. Then he realized there is no access to replace the washers and nuts. Then just used a larger self tapping wood type screw. Now with no backing, there is some flex.
This is complete speculation. The only thing I'm going off of is that the seat looks different and there is a little flex near the mounting points.
My first question, mostly out of curiosity is, can anyone tell me if my helm seat is original. In all the pictures I have seen of other 180s the seat is different. I am attaching my picture.
Part of the reason I am trying to figure this out is because I have a suspicion it was changed out. The reason being is because when I push on the seat I do see some flex where the 4 mounting points are in the floor. The floor in that area is not soft or rotten. But I do see some lift/flex.
I have read ( and seen first hand) that the nuts and backing washers are not accessible under the floor. So my suspicion is that a previous owner took the bolts out from the top thinking it was an easy change. Nuts probably fell down in to the hull. Then he realized there is no access to replace the washers and nuts. Then just used a larger self tapping wood type screw. Now with no backing, there is some flex.
This is complete speculation. The only thing I'm going off of is that the seat looks different and there is a little flex near the mounting points.