new cabin bolsters & LED rope lights

[Drifter80]

I've been wanting to redo my cabin for a year or so now. I finally found a fabric that I liked for my cushions and bolsters to replace my old ones (they were getting a bit rough). I also added a 14' rope light around the back of the bolsters. I wanted to use spacers and have the lighting between the bolster and the hull but that would have made the bolster cushions too wobbly unless I made some brackets (and those would take away from my storage space). I just used small plastic p clamps for plumbing to hold them to the backs of cushions.

Everything looks purple but its actually blue

I like the glow from outside.

I'll add more pictures when I'm able. I replaced the cabin light with a white LED fixture. I also have 6' rope lighting strands for the back of the boat but one of strands was defective so I'll post those when I get them both working. I have small white washer lights I plan on installing under the the side cupholder areas of the cockpit to shine down on the ground and 2 led lights to shine on the two speaker pods I have down there too. As of now everything is working off the courtesy switch but I am going to have a friend fab me a small switch pod for the cabin, cockpit, and aft lights. I have new spreader lights for the back of the hard top and small washer lights for the hardtop itself but I broke one of the spreader lights so I stopped before replacing those.

It might be a little tacky but I dig it 8)

 

[jpendejo]

I have the same design bolsters in my 1995 Explorer, and the fabric is drying out and just flaking off. How did you get the fabric off of your bolsters? I can't find any screws or brackets holding this fabric and cushion in place. I really like your LED light idea for the cabin.

Captain Jim

 

[Drifter80]

The bosters screw straight into the fiberglass behind them. The fabric was stapled onto the wood from the backside. I didnt see the screws the first two or three times I looked for them. I actually posted here asking about them because I was having such trouble. They are very hard to find but they are in the center fold and on my boat most of the screws had cut small holes in the fabric and slid behind them making them easy to miss. Your best bet is to slide a screw driver down the groove in the center until you hit one. I tried to prevent the screws from cutting into the fabric again by putting plastic washers and small (i actually cut them smaller) poly bushings on the screws. Hopefully they dont bite into the fabric again... we'll see. My cushions may have been messed with by the original owner because one side had a lot more screws than the other.

Thanks, I like the lights too. A friend helped me wire them in and it was pretty easy with two guys fishing and pulling wires around the boat. The cabin was the easiest part. I'll post some more pictures this weekend. I want to mount an amp in the cabin. I'm thinking of using the foot rest bolts on the bulkhead to mount a bracket for the amp. I think I can make it look cool and save (much needed) space. I also want to have someone make me a replacement for the anchor well door. I want a mirrored panel with a Grady Logo on it... probably a winter project.
Also, we fished last night with the spreaders off and the blues (the one working rear blue) on and we were able to see what we were doing and with a lot less bugs. That alone makes it worth the time and money!

 

[Drifter80]

I used 1 foot LED light bars for the cockpit. It lights up the helm pretty well.

Both rear LED rope lights are now working. I have them tucked up fairly high so the light isnt too bright.

The cabin rope lighting mounted to the back of the cushions

Replacement LED cabin light. The fixture was smaller than the original light so I just used to original wood base to mount the light.

 

[el jefe]

The led's look great. Are you going to go whole hog and replace all lights with led. I was thinking of doing the interior cabin lights with led because I have two cracked lenses on the lights and the metal is pitting on most of them. Just something to do and led is so much cooler (both heat and style).

 

[Drifter80]

yeah I am going to replace the anchor light. I hope that will cut down on the bugs a bit more (and have a minor saving in battery use as well). I probably wont switch out the red & greens this year but if I do that will be a winter project. I want to use white leds for the courtesy lights also but I want to put those on a seperate switch.

http://www.cbconcept.com/
I got the rope light off this site and I got the small light bars and the cabin light off of yacht lights. One of the 6' rope light strands didnt work and CB was nice enough to credit me for the 13' strand in my cabin instead of the 6' one. No problem with the lights off of yacht lights either.