TOPIC: Wood slat bench type seat?

I have a '58 Lone Star that really needs some seats made. I really like the look of slats rather than plywood seat. Has anyone done this sort of thing that might be able to share a picture or two. What's your thought on the look?

Chris,
Here is what is in my Wagemaker Clipper. It's all solid Mahogany. Just a thought.



Bob

Man that mahogany seat looks beautiful....nice job! Could you possibly share a picture of the base and any bracketry in the back? I am brainstorming ideas for my Corvair and really like what you did. Thank you, Noel

Noel,
Thanks. I don't want to steal Chris's thread here. Here's a link to my restoration project that has all the pics to date.

www.fiberglassics.com/glassic-forums/main-forum/1960-18-wagemaker-empire-clipper-restoration#15853

If you have any questions drop me a line.

Bob

Would ceder be ok to use? Home Depot has 7/8" x 2" x 8' Ceder for $4.19ea where as there finish oak is like $1.79 a liner foot. I would like to keep the project down around $200 - $250 for both seats if posible. I know, it's my boat and things always goes over.

chris, the cedar would probably work,but the only oak to use in a marine environment is white oak. home depot,lowes,etc usually only have red oak and it has no resistance to rot. menards does carry some mahogany.


this stack of mahogany was about $125 at kime lumber



built this seat for my 60 seafair sedan and had some extra material left

Cedar is a very light wood which would be great for weight savings, but, it is also a very, very soft wood. It dents really easy.

Or seal it with alaphatic urethane the stuff they use in bowling alleys. Hard as the hinges. Great shine as well. Just a thought. Mike

I was looking for uv resistant polyurethane when I found Helmsan Spar Urethane (by Minwax), very satisfied with the results so far. Also a very hard finish. I'll post a pic of the project in Product Review section.

Thanks for the replys, great work and info. I would love to use Mahogany but being this my first real woodworking project and the lack of owning a table saw (yet) I'm going to be sticking to a little less expensive wood.
I thought my dad's friend who has a really nice home wood shop was going to be building these for me but when he came over he just wanted to build plywood type seats that I could get upholstered. Yes, white with yellow pipping would look slick. The boat is not a show boat it's more of a good looking camp fishing boat which is going to be docked on the Ohio river from May till snow uncovered. I'm not thinking the upholstry will last too long. When I told him I wanted slat style he kinda backed out. So now i'm thinking is a good time to make woodworking one of the many hobbies.
I have been searching alot of slat swings and benchs for ideas and plans. Also drawing and messuring, now I'm running into a slight problem with the front bottom and not having 4" - 5" to make it real curvy because of the factory seat/floatation and dash clearance. Here is a picture of the inside when I first put her in the water in July.

Sorry for the late reply guys, been working nights this week so things are out of wack.

Chris, I'm a hardwood guy and pretty much have been since I started woodworking over 28 years ago. Having said that you can use cedar just know that even if you use urethane, if you drop something heavy and sharp on it it will dent and go through the urethane, where as if the wood is harder you'll have less of a chance of deep dents and scarring.

If your dad's friend has a full woodworking shop, maybe he can let you use it and show you the ropes so to speak. Most woodworkers love their shops and tools and would love to show new woodworkers the joys of the hobby. If he has a thickness planer you can save a lot of money by buying rough lumber and plaining it yourself. Too bad your not in southern Maryland, I'd love to show you the ropes and help build them.

The biggest thing I would worry about using cedar is flex in the wood, which can be minimized, for the most part by keeping the supports under the slats about a foot apart. Might mean a little more wood than if you use hardwood. You should be able to stain it to look like Mahogany but you can't just use normal stain since the two tome color of some cedar boards show through. Cedar has "heart" wood which is the whiter looking wood compared to the redish color your use to seeing. If you can pick through the boards and only get the ones with no heartwood you'll probably be ok. You have to mask the heartwood. The filler stain should do that but know that cedar pores aren't as open as Mahogany or White Oak so you may have to not completely wipe the stain off so it will stay more "Mahogany" red, if that is the color your looking for.

Ok that's probably enough for now. Not sure what your trying to do. Need more pics.

Bob

I like the slant back and the curvy bottom of this one.

It will work great in the rear, hopefully I can make it work in the front too.

Or seal it with alaphatic urethane the stuff they use in bowling alleys. Hard as the hinges. Great shine as well. Just a thought. Mike

That's true but don't forget the first twelve feet or so is made of "hard maple" because of all the bowling balls landing on it. The rest is made of pine, which doesn't matter since the bowling balls are only rolling on it. If you look further down the lanes where the gorilla's who don't know how to bowl toss the ball you'll see dents. Doesn't happen often though.

Chris, something else to consider, Cushions. If you look at my resto thread you'll see pics of my old ones. I haven't gotten them remade yet. The quick pics I posted to this thread are of the bench without the cushions. Your going to want to have some kind of cushion believe me. Once you go bouncing around the water with the boat for a while your butt and back will let you know it won't take anymore without some cusion.

Bob

yea cushions are nice, I've been using my throwables as a cushion in front. Most of the reason I'm doing this is because I'm tierd of hearing how comfortable the back seats are. lol

I seen Helmsan Spar Urethane at Drug Mart last night for $14 Quart. So when it comes time probably what I'll use just because of avilabilty.

Just got done painting the engine cover to match, I'll find a place to post pictures of that when its done.

Well I went and bought $75 worth of lumber and Helmsman for the front seat. Here is my current working plans. Sorry for the ruff edges, I'm not much of a CAD person. I ran into "Larry", my dad's friend and Home Depot when I was getting the cedar and he agreed to let me use his shop and help when asked. I will be taking the boat to his house this weekend and by next hopefully seats. At least a front. I did get the motor painted.
Any tips, sugestions or advice would be welcomed

Chris,
Glad your dad's buddy is letting you use his shop and will help. My only suggestion would be to make sure the supports for the bottom aren't much farther than 12" apart. Cedar is soft and especially at 1/2" thick, it will bend/flex. You don't want that to happen much or it will crack under weight from passengers bouncing up and down on it from bouncing on the waves. Cushions will help soften the blow but 12" or less between supports will be much stonger. Also make sure you put plenty of coats of varnish on it. I actually have 12 coats on my deck and the bench seat. I also didn't want to have to revarnish any time soon.

Motor looks great by the way!

Bob

I agree with the use of the Helmsman's varnish. After building a custom base of marine plywood and capping the top with a hinged seat and back fabbed from African mahogany (the cheaper species) that i sourced from the lumberyards "shorts" bin I topped it off with six coats of the Minwax finish. It held up real nice in my old Avon that i used for island hopping out in Boston harbor. Awesome job on the paint from what i can see in your last post, the motor cover looks killer! Noel