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I need to replace the pair of forward bucket seats on my 1970 katama. They are exactly like the pair shown on the oem parts index on this site. Unfortunatly, mine have succumbed to dryrot. I spoke with Lois at Halls who is supplying other upholstery for the boat, and she was unaware of anyone fabricating the wood frames, although she said it is a common problem with the katama and newport. Any Ideas?

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Is there enough wood left on the seat to scribe onto another piece of 3/4" A/C Plywood ?
If there is, you can just trace the old seat's onto the Plywood, cut out with a jig saw, and seal the end's of the plywood with a good paint, re-assemble, and bring it to an auto upholstery shop, they re-did my seat for $200, try to find a shop that also does "Marine Upholstry" as they will use stainless steel staples (request that).
mw
The seat's will need a cover if the boat is exposed to the rain.

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MW, Thanks for your suggestion. I had been led to believe that the original equipment seats for this model were constructed of marine plywood bent on a radius (aprox. 3'r) in a steam box. Perhaps I was misinformed. The seats I am replacing do not appear to be original nor to have been correctly done.

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Unfortunately, there is no one that I know of that makes these seats any longer.

You could make new bottoms and have them reupholstered in the original style fabric until you can find the seat backs on eBay or somewhere else.
You could do what Jeff did for his seat backs on his Newport in the meantime.
I don't know where he is keeping the photos of his Newport at this time. Maybe he can post the link.

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Here is Jeff's thread with photos linked:

Jeff's Newport Thread link

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Thanks Phil.
I didn't have time earlier to look it up.
Here is the photo I was referring to.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v427/jeff_rohlfing/76%20Newport%20Near%20Complete/DSC_3647.jpg[/img]

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Those are the OEM seat bottoms however, they are recovered. I do have the OEM seat backs as well but just did not like the way they looked and I needed Rod Storage. I plan to remove the seat bottoms and have Lois make one large cushion to cover the entire seat bottom area as one piece and just keep the OEM seats in safe keeping.

Are your wood parts for the seat completely shot? The wood for the seat bottom is not a big deal however, to remake the seat backs you need a vacuum press to bend the plywood internals. I bet Mike at Nautical Lumber could remake the internals from my seats and then you could have Lois cover them.

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One idea (off the wall?) is to make the seat backer and send it to Lois at Halls and she can make them match the rod cushions?

Just putting it out there.

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Phil,

Are you talking about the curved seat backs like were on the boat when I bought it? Which these in the images below actually had been recovered at one time however, the internals are still OEM. The last owner did not want the "WINGS" (which have no wood internals) to come down from the seat backs to the seat bottoms.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v427/jeff_rohlfing/76%20newport/DSCN5018.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v427/jeff_rohlfing/76%20newport/DSCN5010.jpg[/img]

The seat backs and rod holders I have on there now are off an Outrage / Montauk Console. I wanted to at least keep it OEM if it was not Model specific.

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Ah...Hmmm, maybe my idea is not that great.

Harumph :(

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Thank you all for your great input. I will start by following up on Jeffs sugestion re: Nautical Lumber and the vacuum press, and then forwarding them to Halls for upholstery. I hope we can pull it off.
I really appreciate the help.