Thread:

'89 Commander open bow jet... high and dry

I traded my Bronco for a 1987 Commander open bow jet a couple weeks ago. Something a little bigger than the Circus boat is needed for those days the lake lice are chopping up the river, and this should fit the bill nicely.


It is equipped with a marine 460, jacuzzi jet and hydraulic Place diverter.


It was also built with cheap plywood seats that weren't resin washed, so needless to say it needs new wood. The interior will need to be replaced as the vinyl is faded, split in a few places and in generally rough shape, but this gives me an opportunity to practice building new seat frames and play with fiberglass. If I can get a season out of a repaired interior I'll be happy.

The worst was the passenger seat. The bottom was almost completely gone, and the bottom inside of the bucket side is pretty well rotted. If I can build a new frame and reuse the padding and vinyl, the rest of the boat will be a piece of cake.
I'll have pics tomorrow, but the first thing was to pull 10 billion staples out to remove the vinyl, and piece together what's left of the wood for a template. The plan is to use some decent AC exterior plywood, glass the joints, and resin wash the wood.
More to come....

Are you going to replace the foam?

Well, so much for screwing around in the Bahamas, I've got work to do!
I went to Home Depot to get some materials this morning. I probably could have shopped around and gotten it cheaper, but I don't have a lot of time to do this.
Since I'm re-using the vinyl and foam, I need to use the same thickness plywood as original. HD had some real nice 1/2" birch ply, and I picked up some resin, mat, cups and brushes. I'll be glassing all the joints and resin washing all the wood so it's strong and lasts.


I pulled the seat frame apart to use the old wood as templates


Even with as rotted as the back and sides were it, there was enough to lay it flat for a good pattern


This is where it took some investigative skills to assemble the pieces for the right size.


I kept every piece I could so I could line up the grain of the ply and match the staple holes. This really is the only way I could have figured out how it went together.


After cutting out the side panel, I made a nailer to attach the welting later. The vinyl will pull over this to keep it taut.


After attaching the nailer, I took it to the belt sander to get a smooth finish on the top.


Since the blocks were the height of 2 panels from the bottom, I stapled 2 pieces of scrap together to help get the height perfect. It started moving quite a bit faster at this point. I kept the old pieces along side the new and checked/measured often to make sure the pieces were exact copies of the originals.


The panels need to be assembled in a certain order, so I made sure the blocks were all mounted and started by mounting the back first. Everything else hinges on this being placed properly.


I finished the 2 other seat back pieces as well as the seat base and started assembling those but by that time it was too dark for pics. I get those tomorrow.
I've never done this before, but hopefully I'm on the right track. Tomorrow the plan is to finish the base, glass the seat back joints and resin wash it. The pictures will make more sense when it's assembled.

Lots of good work

Got a few hours in yesterday and here's where I am.
This is how I ended Friday night. Most pieces were cut and trial fitted.


I still have some trimming to do, but it's going to take a few days since dumbass me left the rear cushion at the river and I need it to cut the inner edge contour. This is the biggest drawback to building seats here when the boat is at the river. I guess I need to go to the river for a few days


This part threw me off for the longest time. The block on the vertical panel was 2 thicknesses but the block on the left of the bucket side was only 1 and I couldn't figure out how it transitioned. It made sense when I went back to the old pieces and found the seat back actually sat in a slot made up of the 2 base panels.




I wound up trimming the base to the correct size and decided it was time to start glassing some joints before something "happened". Glassing the vertical seams and the blocks helps it retain the correct shape until I do the final assembly. Until I can finish cutting the base beneath the rear cushion, I'm at a standstill. I may mix up another batch of resin and reinforce a few more joints, but that's all until next week.

Originally Posted by slowride

Hold down your shift button and click refresh.

Still in "red-X-ville".....

Great project BTW......

Originally Posted by Outlaw

you have three slashes (/ )not two after http; on your pics on post #10

Yep, that's it......