Front panel popped out of place

[Rich&Lori]

Purchased a (very Nice) used 2018 SSRFBXP Salt Water Ed. The original owner took a wave over the forward starboard corner and dented the front panel and dislodged it from the seating grove. Seems like a simple fix to unbolt seat system from the deck and work the panel into place, am I missing something? New to Pontoons and want to make sure I'm not opening a can of worms.....

 

[BigKahuna]

Welcome to the forum R&L..... Hopefully you'll be able to do it yourself. A few years ago the portside corner/stern of our boat was hit resulting in a dent and the top part of the panel coming out of the groove. Pushing out/fixing the dent to look like new is almost impossible because of the panels not being flat. (I had 2 professional body repair people tell me that) Then I was told by the local Bennington dealer here that the panels are actually pressed into the rails during manufacturing and if they come out the panel as well as the rail needs to be replaced. What a pain! So I asked them what needs to be done to fix it properly! They said they had to remove the furniture (No easy task because they had to remove the aluminum underskinning to get to the bolts underneath) remove the panel/rails. Then replace the panel/rails. Reinstall all furniture involved. Reinstall the underskinning, have the panel painted to match and replace decals/lettering. Total price was a tad over $3000. No thank you! We pushed the dent out the best we could and lined up the panel as close as we could. About a year after this happened we had the entire boat vinyl wrapped and it came out great! Hopefully other members who have had problems with panel repair/replacement will chime in......

 

[SEMPERFI8387]

Yup, panels are crimped in from factory. You “might be able to bend the crimp back, flatten panel as best possible, reinsert, and flatten crimp back down. I believe the seats are screwed to the floor now. At least my 2012 and and 2017 are.
Other than that and you are looking at a new complete fence section.