TOPIC: '59 FiberFlite Run About interior pictures. Help!

I recently bought a '59 FiberFlite with out much of an interior. I'll post pictures of what I have and what I plan to do, but if anyone has actual pictures or input, I would appreciate the in put.
This is the boat:

What I plan to do is to build two bench seats and make the boat as near original as I can imagine. That's why pictures would help. I have started building the bench seats and this is what I've designed:


By kengerard at 2011-09-26

This is what I have so far:

I'll update this thread as I progress, but if anyone has any pictures or input of the actual interior of a '59 Fiber-Flite I would greatly appreciate it. I found the brochure showing the 58 Fiber-Flites, and I'm pretty sure I have and "Angler". If anyone else is working on a Fiber-Flite please jump in.

What I've found out so far is that they were made by Multi-Plastics out of Ft. Worth and that's where the info stops.

Help!

Welcome aboard Ken. See if this link helps with your quest for info;
www.fiberglassics.com/glassic-forums/2-main-forum/41985-interior-pics.html#41987

I already have seen the brochure, and the guys there are looking for interior pictures too. But thanks for the thought. If you run into anything else please let me know.

Thanks

I found some exterior shots of other fiberflites, but no one ever takes a pic of the interior.

I've got the orange & white '57 pictured above. Not sure if it is accurate but somebody did a real nice job on the seats (despite what the rest of the rig looks like). I can't seem to get images posted here so PM me your address & I'll email you some pics.

Needed to re- size them

Your designs look very nice as does your work. Please let me caution you though, about having storage compartments underneath the seats. Water will get into your boat and will find it's way to the worst places imaginable. The lowest place is the floor, and that is where the water will be. Not a lot of water, but even a little bit can cause serious problems. Most builders made their seat "bases" into built-in flotation chambers that were fiberglassed into place. These bases, if built correctly, had a tunnel of some sort that ran from the front to the rear of the chamber. The tunnel was open on the ends and served as a passage for water to travel to the rear of the boat. Maybe you have already accounted for this - but if not, be sure to consider it in your design. You don't want your seat bases or floor to rot, nor do you want your "stuff" to get wet. Personally, I've found that open designs work best for seat bases. I store my "junk" under the bow deck, or in a water resistant "junk bag" that can be tossed in the boat & removed at will. This makes the boat easy to clean - just hose it out & let it dry. And though you did not mention it - carpeting looks and feels real nice in a boat. It will also help the floor to rot faster than you can imagine. Polyester gelcoat spatter finish looks original, and if cared for, can last more than 50 years. Good luck with your boat - It looks like it's going to be a real nice one when done.

Bruce

Mine were built with a 1" pvc pipe going from bow to stern of seat box which is watertight.The only problem with the watertight box is when you sit on the seat after swimming etc or it rains out water collects in the"dry storage compartment" as the seats themselves are not watertight.The bottom of the hull does not collect water at the high side of the bases.As noted a dry storage bag and under the bow for the must not get wet or mildewy items.

Like Bruce mentioned, the seat bases in my '57 are glassed in boxes with a channel section at the bottom through the middle (about 1"x4")to allow for water to drain towards the rear. The inside was finished out with black astro-turf type carpet and this covers the structure of the seat bases as well as a lift out floor panel.I'll try to take more pics of these areas but it may be a week or so as I'm out of town. For some reason the rear seat in mine does not have a seat cushion, just the carpeted base.... maybe the cushion was lost.

awesome pics. You don't know how long I myself have been looking for even a glimpse of the interior of a Fiberflite. I take it yours is a custom Deluxe model? Any other pics you can send my way would be greatly appreciated. Expecially the dash and the storage area in front.

Wow! Aku-Aku, that's awesome! I'm more than impressed! That's actually inspiring. I have finished the frame for the seats front and back, and they are just going to be bench seats. I have been teaching myself how to do upholstery, so they won't be anywhere near that fancy. But I think they'll look ok. I have seen the "walk through" front bench, but for simplicity I'm just doing a straight bench, I really don't see any reason for it for me (other than authenticity). The seats are really low anyway so they are nothing to step over, and they are much stronger without the cut away. But yours are still the "awesomist". I'll just hope for 2nd place

Bruce. Thanks for the input and the caution. I totally agree with you. If you look at my design you'll notice the ends have a large cutout for ventilation. The bottoms of the benches are going to be cut so that there is a huge place for the water to pass through. The doors will be hinged on the bottom and open from the top down and when I put the boat in storage I'll always leave the doors open. Everything I store under there will either be waterproof or in a waterproof bag. The floor is very solid. I don't have a single soft spot. I hope to keep it that way.



(BTW Bruce, we have the same last name.)
Thanks again.

Big help (at least for inspiration) Aku-Aku. Good job.

Hey Guys,

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I am seeing some great work by all of you.

Aku-Aku - your seats are HOT!!! If any of my boat interiors come out that good I'll be estatic.

Ididntdoit - Don't sell yourself short. Your seat frames look really well built. The thought you put into the bottom water channel is very insighhtful. If I may make a suggestion, you might want to make a tray that sits in the bottom of your seat, similar to one from a military footlocker, that you can take out to get access to the deck but will remain elevated a bit. I would glass everything well to preserve all the hard work you've done already.

Well I've made some head way. I still have a problem though. This is a compilation of the seats I've made:

My new problem is that the old paint doesn't seem to go well with the new seat color. The paint on the boat is sort of a teal Blue, and the seat color is sky blue. My question is this: Do you think the colors go alright together? Or, should I change the color of the boat? If so, what color goes well with sky blue?

Here's a picture of my boat with the seats in it:

Please let me know what you think.

Hindsight,I guess you should of asked before doing all that nice work.It's going to be hard to match that hull,so most might have gone with a white or off white.The only thing I can think of is to paint the interior the same color as the upholstery or a shade close to it.That may pull it together a little more.Disclaimer..I am not a interior decorator so take it for what its worth.

Hey ididntdoit,

The construction of your seats is excellent. It looks like you put a lot of thought and time making them. Quality!

As for the color matching, you can take a swatch of your material to a good paint shop with a computer color matching system and they can match your paint to the color of your material. I did that a few times with cars and bikes and it worked really well. You have a great finish on your boat and reshooting it would be a breeze. The down side is it looks like you have a great finish on your boat right now.

Who says it all has to match perfectly anyhow? If you can still run her as she is, take her to the water!!! Up here we're getting to the point where time on the lakes is pretty rare. Enjoy your accomplishment!

Thanks for the input. I'm thinking that matching the color would not be hard like you said, just take a chunk of the blue vinyl down to the paint store. But I was thinking that a complimentary color would look better, and maybe even go for a theme. For instance what if I painted the hull red and the bottom white? The boat would be red, white and blue. And get a really nice flag to fly in the rear of the boat. Or would that just look like lipstick on a pig? Another thought is that I'm in a suburb of Austin TX. How about painting it burnt orange (UT color) Again I could fly a UT flag. According to the color charts I've seen orange can be a complimentary color for blue.
My gf had an idea to paint a small section of the tail the same sky blue, to tie it together, which might work even better if I did the interior too, like Mr. 88 said.
Whatdayathink?

I have the red white and blue fiberflite. I am a poor school teacher. I am doing this boat on a shoestring budget. Whatever I have on hand, I use. here is a pic

That looks good. Did you paint it yourself? Your boat looks very similar to mine. I can't tell from your pictures though, do you have the standouts the the seat backs attach to? What about your seats? What color are you going to do them in?

I painted it myself. I do not have the standouts for the seat backs. My front seats will be Gray with a blue stripe (two up front) and a bench seat will be along each side in the back, they will be all blue. Here is a pic of the funky interior space

BTW, here is what is going to power this boat.

I notice both of your boats still have the "Fiber-Flite" logo on the sides... mine are awol. Any chance someone could send me a silicone or clay impression for a casting or maybe a rubbing that I could make a decal from?

Sure, tell me how. (Didn't I see a place on here that does emblems for logos?) I'd be glad to.

What if I email you a picture straight on with a ruler under it? It would be as good as a rubbing and a lot faster (and easier).

Hi All,
I have enjoyed seeing the boats on this thread!
First stating that free advice is often worth what you paid, I would suggest that you check into dyeing the new upholstery to match the original gelcote. I checked into this several years ago for a car interior with a firm local to me. I would think that if you removed the seats, and seeing that the upholstery is new, that the cost to do the upholstery might not be too costly. Although two tone seats might look even nicer, you likely have enough white on the inside of the boat to make the single color look very nice.

Regards,
Joe
www.fergusonpoolemarine.com
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I was thinking about dyeing the vinyl. I have done that in the past with auto upholstery, and it worked really well. But that was in a car and I was afraid the the sun would be too hard on it in a boat. Has anyone else on here had any luck dyeing upholstery on boats? I actually just spray painted it in the truck I was working on with vinyl upholstery paint. When I got my last upholstery supplies for this boat, I notices a huge display of vinyl paint. Lots of colors. I was thinking about asking, but I had too much other stuff going on. Maybe I should have asked.
Yes two tone seats would look good. I wonder If I could tape off a pattern? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . .

If she were mine, I'd mix up some Rusoleum with hardener to match the Vinyl and either HVLP spray it on or Roll n' Roll it on. It would take two days to do it and would make her look Brand New!!!! Worked on My Blue Flamingo!!!!

Are you talking about painting the boat deck? Or the vinyl?

The Top Cap of the Boat! With Sanding, Priming, and Painting should be a two day job, Max!!! Cost less than $50 bucks.

I'd paint the top. very easy and quick. Just use the roll and tip method. Then again, you could just paint the wave the same color as your seats. (the area that is blue on mine).

What is roll and tip?

"Roll & Tip" is a method of painting where the paint is applied with a roller, then smoothed out with just the tip of a brush. It is pretty well described in "Boat Painting - Part 2" in the Research section here;
www.fiberglassics.com/research/79-boat-painting-part-two.html
Brian Lawson's "Paint it Black" is also an excellent read on painting techniques, also found in that section, page 2.

ididntdoit wrote -

"Another thought is that I'm in a suburb of Austin TX. How about painting it burnt orange (UT color) Again I could fly a UT flag."

Morning ididntdoit,

Sorry it took me so long to get back with you. I was at the end of a semester and thankfully its over. I've written enough papers this semester alone to be Mark Twain!

As far as the UT flag flying in Austin goes, I can only speak from my experience of being stationed at Fort Hood and enjoying the abundant hospitality of the Texas people. I would say that flying anything on your boat but the great Star of Texas would be sacrilege!!! Your neighbors will revolt, sink your boat and burn your house down. Just my experience - very proud people!

You're doing great things with your boat. The orange and blue would look pretty sharp, especially with some sort of blue graphics going down the sides. Maybe a "rip" design would look pretty cool.

Good luck with whatever you decide. I know you'll do a terrific job!