Ranger Renewal

[Fish Loco]

I would like to say what a great place to get help on restoring a boat, thanks for the information.

I bought this boat a couple of years ago for a good price knowing it needed buffing and some carpet. I held off on the carpet thinking it would get better.................... not. So I decided to tackle the carpet and get rid of the bench seat that gets stepped on all the time. Daryl said I could put bucket seats in even though a 481 never had them........................................ So a month later cut finger tips and hair pulling I have new carpet and bucket seats.

Here's a pic of the seat box I built

[ProcraftMike]

Awesome...lets see some pictures of that bad boy and the finished product.

[Fish Loco]

Here is the seat box after I glassed the corners with 10 ounce glass and put a coat of polyester resin and paint. Then with the carpet and billet grab handle.

[Fish Loco]

This is a Pic of the seats and new carpet in the boat what a difference some hard work and imagination can do. I will post some more pic's later in the day.

[ProcraftMike]

I likey!!!...awesome job...

[ghare]

Nice Job

[Fish Loco]

Boy when I started this job I didn't have a clue what I bite off. The carpet in the boat was charcoal it really didn't look good in a dark blue boat ! So I went with a med gray also called midnight star.

One thing I did not like was the molding that was pop riveted on it was a bear to get off and it broke. So I said to my self ( self we are not putting this crap back). So I filled in all the holes with epoxy paste and got some tuck type molding. This stuff worked great and if I ever re carpet it will cut down on the prep work. That's what was so time consuming was the prep work.

You can see the moulding in this pic

[Fish Loco]

Well I was in this project so deep I decided to go deeper. So I bought a comfort troll and installed it, turned out to be one of the easiest things to do. I decided to give it a finished look. So I carpeted over it and tucked the carpet down inside the comfort troll......................... hope I like it.

[Fish Loco]

Hope I am not boring you with the pic's, maybe it will help someone else. One thing in this project I didn't plan on was a crack in the floor. It was a seam where the top cap was glassed to the floor. I sanded down and fixed it with some chop mat I had. I also had a lid with the corner broke fixed it too.

This was a hell of a project and I don't what to do it any time soon. It's not that hard, just time consuming. I don't drink but I thought about it.

[soulsekr]

Great Job Thanks for sharing

[SwatDawg]

Good Job

[Trent_in_BG]

Great looking job.

[Frogchunker]

You should be proud,great job

[Ritchie]

Very good job! I would like more info on the trim, style, installation, manufacturer... A good addition!

[JoePA]

The boat looks great! I'm going to be doing the same to my boat here real soon. Just a few questions. Where did you purchase your carpet? Also where di you get the trim for around the carpet? Once again it looks awesome...very nice work.

Joe

[Fish Loco]

I bought the trim and the carpet from bassboatcarpet.com. The trim is a tuck style you just trim the carpet about a 1/8 past the trim and tuck it with a thin scrape or awl. The trim has a 3m adhesive tape like used on car molding and it sticks it stays. The trim has it's limits on the radius it goes around, on corners I trimmed it 45's like wood molding. The trim I used wasn't very flexible cold so I put it in the floor of the truck with the heat on it really limbered up. I have noticed some boats don't use trim, friends 361 has none.

[ASTROCRAZY]

Ain't nothing like a boat thats been redone. Looks awsome you should be proud.

Jeff

[Klail]

Looks great. I have thought abot changing to bucket seats in the 482VS.

[sjpg77]

Looking good.....Nice

[492slayer]

Looks really sweet... The carpet is the last project that needs to be done on my 492VS. Mine came stock with bucket seats, and when I had them redone, the guy who did the work made a jump seat for me that snaps in. You can take it out in about 10 seconds