Forward seat post base replacement

[fastfiat]

Thought i would share. Might help someone. Last week i had the base break on my 1997 181 and put me in the lake. Eye opener for sure. It had been making noise ( squeaking and such ) for a while but really didn't pay much attention to it.
First thing was to peel the carpet back.20210216_103251.jpg
Then i drilled an exploratory hole in the front storage compartment to see what it was going to take to get to the nuts holding the base in place.20210216_103310-1.jpg
Seeing what i had to work with i used a jig saw to open it up just enough to get the foam out and reach the nuts. 20210216_111309.jpg
A spade bit on a extension worked well to remove most of the foam. A little hand work and i could get on the nuts with a deep 7/16 socket and breaker bar. #3 phillips bit on the screw gun handled the other end.20210216_111327.jpg
Glassed the pieces from the storage compartment back together and glassed it back in place.20210220_123211.jpg
Forgot to take a picture of this but instead of individual nuts for the new base i used a 2 bar's of 3/8 brass (one for each side) That i drilled and taped. I knew i was going fill the void with foam so individual nuts were not going to work as i would have no way to hold them. The brass bars were held in place until the foam expended around them. If the base ever needs to be changed in the future it will just unbolt. The brass also works well with stainless.20210220_123516.jpg
With the brass bars secure its time to pour some foam. Made a couple of small pours to get the foam up to the drain then put an extension on the drain to keep the foam out. 20210220_123527.jpg
With the foam done i could remove the hardware holding the bars in place. I used some all thread just in case the foam didn't hold the bars in place so i would still be able to hold it but the foam did its job. Cleaned all the mounting surfaces and caulked with 4200 around all the surfaces. Installed new stainless hardware with tapered toothed lock washers.20210221_122415.jpg
Used contact cement to glue the carpet back down and made a trim ring so i could trim back the ragged carpet at the hole.20210223_105340.jpg
Im not sure filling the area back with foam is absolutely required but i feel better doing it. If you don't use the foam then you can go back with nuts and bolts as you will have a way of holding the nuts. That was just my personal preference. Hope this helps someone down the line.

[jerzia]

When I did my carpet, I replaced the base. I got a big hole saw and drilled two 4" holes in the front compartment to reach the nuts. I then mounted a couple of screw in access plates in case I ever need to reach them again.

[fastfiat]

Thought about doing that too but I wanted to replace the foam.

[Lea]

Great info, fastfiat!

[fastfiat]

Thanks Lea.