So I have a Jackson Super fun that I picked up as a secondary boat ( Fourthary?). After talking outfitting with Corran and what you can get away with doing to boats I have decided to fix this boat up as a practice run for a different boat. The idea is to get a good fitting non slippery seat, leg lifters like my Project X and Mamba (but non adjustable) and a foot block. I may put in a ladder and ratchet backband instead of strings, we’ll see. I get the idea behind the strings and I think it is a good idea for club boats where 1 boat has to fit a lot of people but for a personal boat I am not a huge fan.
The Supplies I would need for this were already in my garage or were cheaply available at Canadian Tire. I got Contact Cement and a couple brushes, some of those interlocking Foam mats that are a 1/4″ thick for a kids play room. Cost for this was 30 dollars. I ordered some 3mm EVA foam in a black Snake skin pattern on one side ( for texture not because it looked cool) off of Ali Express. It was 15 dollars for 10 feet by 2 feet When I bought the Contact Cement I didnt know how much I would need and bought 500 ml. It was way too much you could get away with the cup size container to do the whole project. In all this was enough material to do 3 or 4 boats easily so you could talk to a friend into doing their boat and cut your costs considerably. Since I am splitting this out over 2 boats my cost for outfitting my boat will be about 20 dollars.
My first thing to do with this boat was rip out the happy feet and sweet cheeks and throw them in the garbage. Sorry Jakson Kayaks those things suck, especially the happy feet.
I put the seat in the neutral position ( middle setting). I then sat in the boat (wearing what I would normally be wearing while paddling) and slid chunks of the 1/4″ foam under my thighs until the tops of my thights contacted the thigh braces. I found 2 pieces was just about enough but 3 would have been to much. This works out ok because I have that 3mm Snake skin EVA foam as a top layer so it will probably be perfect when I am done. Now that I knew how thick I wanted it I figured out the shape of the foam pieces that I wanted And glued 1 layer in. When that layer was set up I glued in the second layer. I then proceeded to shape the foam so there were no ridges and every thing was a smooth and uniform transition form one material to the other. The reason for this was to maximize contact area when I glued in the seat cover and so there were no bumps pressing into the legs or ridges to create wear spots. Am I over analyzing things ? Maybe, but its my first crack at this and my inner pilot is saying lets do this right.
Once I was happy with the result of the shaping I now had to make the piece for the seat cover. This proved to be a little bit of a pain in the butt as you are taking a rectangle of foam and trying to attach it to a seat that has contours hills and valleys. This creates excess material in the foam at transition points so you get folds of extra material that you have to cut out with out leaving gaps etc. These were easily handled by overlapping the foam and cutting a new line down the overlapping pieces. This created a perfectly aligned edges where the foam met. If I did this again ( and I will be) I would get a sheet of paper or plastic and create a template out of it before cutting the foam. I have a couyple of little spots where I took away a little bit to much material. I then glued this in. I decided to glue this in stages as there was no way I could get this all lined up and put in at one go ( because of the contact cement). I started at the back and worked my forward in 2 stages. I put the seat in place all lined up and glued the back edge in. I then lifted up the seat and glued the seat prtion in. If I was to do it again I would do it in 3 or even maybe 4 stages.When I went to do the second stage air got trapped under the foam. I had to punch a pin hole in the seat to let the air out in several places and I am waiting to see if the glue sets up good now. I kept the edges where I removed the excess material held together with masking tape for the glueing process.
Overall the seat worked out well. We will have to wait and see to how it holds up in regards to gluing. I got 3/4″ of leg lift in there and I no longer slide around on the seat.
Next will be fixing the backband and foot block