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DIY help

Jim_R said:
The pedstal and mount arrive today. They look very nice, and appear well made - even moreso than the oem pedestal and mount. Should have time to install this weekend. I do notice one small drawback. In addition to the swivel clamp, there is a swivel locking mechanism. The mechanism engages only when the seat faces forward. When the seat is facing forward, one of the six mounting bolts is forward. Looking back at the underside pics of the thru bolts above, I see that Bennington installed the OEM pedestal with two bolts forward. I suspect this was done to avoid the support beam. Not a deal breaker for me, as the clamping mechanism can always be used to lock the seat forward. Also, with the OEM pedestal I generally angle the seat to port anyway for the additional legroom - this with the seat slider all the way back. Still, thought others interested in this pedestal should be made aware; I suggest verifying your own bolt hole alignment before any purchase.
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With my "other era boat" as TB calls it, I had the swivel locking mechanism. The first think I did was knock the roll pin out and got rid of all the parts. I did the same thing on the spare pontoon years ago. It makes no sense and is a pain to unlock. With 3 Handles under the seat, which one do you grab? It takes about 5 mins to remove the handle and locking pin.
 
Remediation said:
With my "other era boat" as TB calls it, I had the swivel locking mechanism. The first think I did was knock the roll pin out and got rid of all the parts. I did the same thing on the spare pontoon years ago. It makes no sense and is a pain to unlock. With 3 Handles under the seat, which one do you grab? It takes about 5 mins to remove the handle and locking pin.
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I just might do that - this seat base actually has 4 handles - swivel lock, swivel, slider, and height.
 
Success!

Here's a comparison of the two pedesatals:

gallery_1279_123_1797476.jpg


The two seat mounts:

gallery_1279_123_244138.jpg


Install of the seat mount using existing bolts & bolt holes:

gallery_1279_123_1884676.jpg


Install of the pedestal using existing bolts and bolt holes:

gallery_1279_123_4565614.jpg


The end result with seat at lowest setting.

gallery_1279_123_4452172.jpg


Much more comfortable. Love the office chair like height adjustment. I am comfortable at the lowest setting, and have another almost 5 inches of height should I need to see over passengers, etc. This one's a keeper!

*edit - just adding the pedestal info.

Springield Model 1250251-L

Adjust: 11.75" to 15”

Post Diameter: 2-3/8"

Floor Base Diameter: 9"

Bolt Pattern: 8"

Bolt Holes: 6

$89.95 plus shipping.

http://www.cascadedepot.com/servlet/the-417/Mainstay-Ultra-Low-Profile/Detail
 
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Nice work Jim.
 
Great Pictures of the pedestal installation. How hard was it to get to the undernuts above the toons? Your gallery picture shows your toons with the corrosion gone. What did you finally use to remove it?
 
Remediation said:
Great Pictures of the pedestal installation. How hard was it to get to the undernuts above the toons? Your gallery picture shows your toons with the corrosion gone. What did you finally use to remove it?
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Getting to the nylock nuts was not hard at all, as I do not have the wave shield on my boat. I posted some pics of the nuts earlier in the thread. It did require a helper up at the pedestal with a phillips head screwdriver and a good grip to hold the bolts in place while I removed the nuts from underneath with a ratchet. The whole job took less than 20 minutes.

On the cleaning of my toons, I had my dealer apply muriatic acid to remove the calcium, lime, and algae fouling. The specific brand they used was Zing. I'm still uploading pics, I'll post here soon.
 
Toon cleaning. I've already posted my disappointment with JJV's Best Aluminum Cleaner, here's results from an acid wash by my Dealer. I had the Dealer do the outsides of both tubes and attempt from the water line on down on the insides of the tubes. The Dealer used 3 gallons of Zing, and about 3 hours of labor. My Dealer usually does not do the insides of tubes, but was able to in my case because of the access afforded by the Sea-Legs. Even so, the Dealer said it would take at least a couple more hours to get the inside of the toons as good as the outside. I declined, as I see some wetsanding in my near future.

Here's the best pic I could find of the condition of the tubes when I got the boat.

gallery_1279_161_414025.jpg


After acid wahing:

gallery_1279_161_2222966.jpg


Another view.

gallery_1279_161_2161741.jpg


Some faint discoloration along the area where the water line was can still be observed, but I am very happy with the results. The acid washing left some chalky residue, but I have already gone over both inside and outside of the tubes with a green scotch brite pad, which removed it. The acid washing did a great job of taking down the fouling. I do note that the tube surfaces below the water line while much smoother, are still not as smooth as surfaces above. Next I am going to attempt some hand wet sanding - my main focus at this point is to further smooth the areas below the waterline for speed (I've already picked up 1 - 2 mph on my top end), and to prep the outer toons for installation of the lifting strakes I have on order. I am trying to minimize downtime for the boat, otherwise I'd pull it from the water and use orbital or vibration type electric sanders.
 
Update - after some time in the water (and I'm thinking a couple hours) and a couple weeks on the lift, some discoloration came back.

gallery_1279_161_2613380.jpg


As I had already observed roughness below the water line, I had planned on doing some sanding anyway. Last weekend I used a 1/4 sheet vibration sander and 220 grit sandpaper, and sanded the outside of one of the toons.

[
gallery_1279_161_6135553.jpg


The toon does look much better, but is not as uniform as the picture suggests. The sanded area below the waterline is noticeably smoother, much closer to the smoothness above the waterline, but I am noticing pitting in the toon below the waterline. Note it is not pitting, but dock rash from the prior owner that is visible in the lower left of the pic above. The pic below provides a close up of the pitting.

gallery_1279_161_5788032.jpg


Not sure if the pitting is from the crud build up or acid treatment. Once I sand an area on the inside of the toons that wasn't hit by acid I should know more.

I will continue with sanding the outside of the other toon and insides of both toons with 220 grit. From there, not certain which way to go - heavier grit to try and sand out the pitting, or finer grit to continue smoothing? I'd be interested in any opinions.
 
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I'm not sure i would go with a more aggressive sandpaper, that will remove more material and leave deeper scratches that will require even more sanding to remove them.

The toons aren't real thick to begin with, and i would be afraid of them getting too thin by the time you sand out all the pits.

You may have to settle with a uniform, but slightly pitted finish, then a coating of sharkhide to keep them looking that way.

Just my 2 cents :)
 
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