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I have a 1987 Montauk and I want to remove its wooden seatback in order to refinish it. I can see that the mounting screws on each side rail have nuts behind them on the inside of the rail, but I cannot access them because I am not able to remove the stainless steel rod holders mounted thru the seatback. I see no obvious connectors that hold these rod holders in place, but they do not "budge" when I try to (re)move them (I don't want to use too much force). Any suggestions?
There are actually 3 screws at the bottom of the rod holder. Two screws hold the round mahogany block in place (vertically) to the bottom of the rps seatback; the third screw is tiny and holds the rod holder to the round block.
However, good news! The seatback can be removed - with care - by one person with sufficient hand-strength. What you do is place the seatback fully upright, and, standing one one side of the seatback, you place each of your hands onto the stainless mount rails below the mounting block. What you do next is pull on the rails simultaneously with your fingers pulling 1/2-3/4 inch out, while your thumbs guide the seatback down. Try not to let the stainless end scar the teak mounting block. Once the side is disengaged, the other side stainless rail can be removed easily from the mounting block.
I have used this technique successfully to remove the seatback from the mounting rails more than a dozen times. I was shown how to do this by a retired long-time Boston whaler employee.
thanks to both of you for your helpful responses. With the help of a very long screwdriver, I was able to both access and remove the screws that secured the rod holders to the seat-back assembly and to remove the seat back from its mounts. After refinishing the seatback, it went back on just as easily as its removal. Sometimes (especially with a little help from those who know more about things than I do) things do work out (but, as we all know from experience), not always
However he was asking how to remove the rod holder.
Usually the 2 screws will do it with a long screw driver.
This to me is the standard way of removing the rod holder.
However, many times only the one horizontal screw might be used to remove the rod tube but the tube has to be positioned so you can get at that screw.
That generally is not the case most of the time however.
There is also a way to remove the seat back without removing the rod holders.
It is fairly difficult but can be done as I have done it several times. Just have to be creative or have small hands or long fingers, etc.
