Good afternoon. I did figure it out. If you are just looking to get more access to the rear of the engine, the best bang for your buck is just to remove the carpeted wooden board that extends to the top of the engine. It's red in my picture. To remove this, there is screw at the bottom left and right side of the board. The board extends up behind the rear seat backs where it's held in place by two aluminum brackets. The brackets don't hold it very tight against the seat back. The brackets just keep the board from falling too far back towards the transom. After you remove the two bottom screws, that board should just slide down and out of those upper brackets, if you can picture that in your head. Once the board is out, removing the seat backs only give a couple more inches of clearance, because part of the fiberglass body is just behind the seat backs which isn't removable.
However......In my case, someone installed some extra screws holding that board against the fiberglass backing behind the seat back cushions. To remove these screws, I needed to remove the seat backs. There are four screws holding the center seat back cushion near each corner. The screws are located inside the cushion. Spread apart the small gap between the center cushion and one of the side cushions, and you'll see a small hole in the vinyl on the side of the cushion. Stick a philips head screw driver through that small hole in the cushion, and you'll eventually find a screw by feel. Take all four out, and that small center cushion should come out. It's kind of tricky, but not too bad. I had to enlarge some of the holes a little especially when putting it back together. The side cushions have those same hidden screws inside the cushion near the center cushion. As the cushion wraps around the side of the boat, it's held in with a number of small studs with a nylon locknut. I can't remember how many studs there were, but it was near a handful. They are not difficult to get, just need to lay on your back and reach up behind. At this point, I was able to lift the cushion enough to remove the screws holding the board in place, so I never fully removed the side cushions. But, I believe there may be some clips holding the cushion in, so you may need to pull the cushion up to completely remove.
Once I had all the screws out holding that board in place from behind the seat cushions, I left them out. Now, all I need to do is remove the two lower right and left hand screws on the board, and it will slide down and out of the way. Takes just a couple minutes. The board is not held as tight against the seat back as before, because it's just relying on the relatively loose fitting aluminum brackets behind the seats, but I haven't noticed anything detrimental effects.
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