bad upholstery!

[dpiano]

Hi folks
Our 2013 29 classic seat upholstery has been deteriorating over the past several years. The outer layer is peeling away, and looks horrible. Ranger lays the blame on the upholstery manufacturer. Ranger referred me to them a couple years ago and the manufacturer said they only guaranty the material for 2 years....typical. Just really junky stuff. Apparently Ranger does not use it any longer, but we are stuck with this, and we're quite unhappy that Ranger can't help. They have been great over the years with other issues.
Anyway I finally decided to have all the cushions and backs recovered, and it looks like a bugger to remove them.
Has anyone else been through this, and can you give me some hints?
1. The forward port seat looks like it must be attached by screws that can only be accessed by removing the wine cooler. How difficult is it to remove the cooler, and does that space allow access to the entire width of that seat? I'm wondering if I have to go through the cave, open up the access port and crawl in to find all the screws.
2. The aft seat cushion may be accessed partly by removing the microwave, but not the entire seat. I see no evident screws for it in the cave. Any ideas?
3. The aft seat backs are in 3 sections. The port one is hinged, so no problem. The center back has plugs visible in the cave "mouse fur" so no problem. I hope. The back section by the aisle is in front of the breaker panel. How easy is it to remove the panel? It appears that's the only way to get to that section of seat back.

I'd appreciate any help you can offer.

 

[SummerSteve]

On my C-26 - I've removed the seats to be reupholstered -

As you mentioned, I needed to remove the wine cooler in order to get to the screws above it - not difficult, but did require removing the vent panel in the Cave.

Happy to have the weak wine cooler out - will replace with storage space!

The other screw locations are likely different in the R29 - but I expect that with a little experimentation, you'll figure each out. I needed to lift /pry some cushions a bit and with a flashlight figure out where the screws were, then look at whatever was beneath. A couple seem like getting them aligned on re-assembly may be tough, but all appear do-able.

Good luck.

 

[Kevin Lamont]

Hello,

I have responded to your questions below:

1. The forward port seat looks like it must be attached by screws that can only be accessed by removing the wine cooler. How difficult is it to remove the cooler, and does that space allow access to the entire width of that seat? I'm wondering if I have to go through the cave, open up the access port and crawl in to find all the screws.

You are correct the wine cooler needs to be removed and can be done through the cave, you will need to remove the forward ratfur panels in order to gain access. The screws should have the button covers to help find the screws to remove. Once the wine cooler is removed there is plenty of room/access to remove the screws holding the port FWD flip seat.

2. The aft seat cushion may be accessed partly by removing the microwave, but not the entire seat. I see no evident screws for it in the cave. Any ideas?

I believe with this seat you need to remove the ratfur panels directly below the seat which would gain you access to the screws holding the seat bottom down. Let me know if that doesnt help and I will do a bit more research for you.

3. The aft seat backs are in 3 sections. The port one is hinged, so no problem. The center back has plugs visible in the cave "mouse fur" so no problem. I hope. The back section by the aisle is in front of the breaker panel. How easy is it to remove the panel? It appears that's the only way to get to that section of seat back.

You do need to remove the panel in order to gain access. It is very easy to remove and just for peace of mind I always disconnect or turn off shore power and all breakers while removing. There are caps at the top and bottom of the panel, just pull off the caps and you will see the screws holding the panel on, typically I remove all the screws, lean the panel back, remove seat back screws then put the panel back in so the panel is never hanging by the wires.

Feel free to email me with any questions, my email is below in my signature. Hope this helps!!

Thank you,

 

[Martin610]

I had the upholstery on my 2013 Cutwater redone a couple of months ago. My guy charged $150 to remove the seats and take to his shop. He then re-installed. Was worth it for me.

-martin

 

[Bart Keil]

Careful with the wine cooler. I found that it had screws through the unit into the wood spacers, so simply onscreeing the L brackets was not enough. Remove the screws holding the blocks and remove the wine cooler with them attached.