Hi all,
I know there are other iboat members who have posted their reupholstering projects on here but I thought I'd post mine too. I will post and attach photos periodically during the reupholstering process.
Here's a little background - I purchased my 1989 24' Grumman pontoon last July, 2013. Instead of working on cleaning it up and getting it all "pretty" last year, Jeff (my fiance) and I just wanted it out on the water for some fun in the sun. So, this year I'm focusing on fixing all the bugs and the doing the lengthy chore f reupholstering the seats. I was going to just replace all of the seats, including the bases and backs but Jeff made a great point - the pontoon is a 1989 and the seating is going to be worth more than the whole pontoon. So off I was to research redoing the seats. I came across woodonglass' thread on his reupholstering. Wow, what a TON of information he has on his thread. So, here I am about to start the reupholstering of my seats.
I have 7 seats - 4 which are 28" wide
1 which is 32" wide
2 which are 38" wide
I have the luxury of having drafting software so I drew up the pattern of the panels in AutoCAD so I could figure out the yardage for the vinyl. I am doing the seats in one color versus the original stripe pattern. I am also going to tackle doing the welting myself. My seats are going to be a very light gray with white piping.
So, with those size seats (and adding some seam allowance) I ordered 8 yards of light gray and 1 yard of white marine vinyl from a vendor on ebay. I also bought (10) Schmetz 110/18 needles and 1 Dabond UVR Polyester Thread V92 Marine 4oz SPOOL in white on ebay as well. Yes, I bought 10 needles because who knows how many I will go throught once I get going. I plan on using my Brother sewing machine I bought 9 years ago at Walmart. It's not an industrial or fancy model but just your basic sewing machine with different stitches and lengths. My other purchase was a roll of 1/8" cording I found in the marine section at Walmart. The cording will be used to make the welting.
Lastly, I want to tell you that I researched what type of cleaner would work best to clean the existing seat backs and base on my pontoon. I found that Spray Nine Marine was what people most boasted about. So off to the marina I went to buy a bottle. I have to tell you, I was actually excited about cleaning when I got home. I wanted to see what all these people were raving about. After my first seat, I knew why they were so impressed with this cleaner. See before and after pictures.
As you can see, there are still some mildew stains but I can handle that compared to what it was! I did go over some of the darker spots a few times and used lots of elbow grease using a hard bristled brush to get it off the best I could. I found that letting the Spray Nine sit on the spot for a minute or two worked better than cleaning it off right away.
I know there are other iboat members who have posted their reupholstering projects on here but I thought I'd post mine too. I will post and attach photos periodically during the reupholstering process.
Here's a little background - I purchased my 1989 24' Grumman pontoon last July, 2013. Instead of working on cleaning it up and getting it all "pretty" last year, Jeff (my fiance) and I just wanted it out on the water for some fun in the sun. So, this year I'm focusing on fixing all the bugs and the doing the lengthy chore f reupholstering the seats. I was going to just replace all of the seats, including the bases and backs but Jeff made a great point - the pontoon is a 1989 and the seating is going to be worth more than the whole pontoon. So off I was to research redoing the seats. I came across woodonglass' thread on his reupholstering. Wow, what a TON of information he has on his thread. So, here I am about to start the reupholstering of my seats.
I have 7 seats - 4 which are 28" wide
1 which is 32" wide
2 which are 38" wide
I have the luxury of having drafting software so I drew up the pattern of the panels in AutoCAD so I could figure out the yardage for the vinyl. I am doing the seats in one color versus the original stripe pattern. I am also going to tackle doing the welting myself. My seats are going to be a very light gray with white piping.
So, with those size seats (and adding some seam allowance) I ordered 8 yards of light gray and 1 yard of white marine vinyl from a vendor on ebay. I also bought (10) Schmetz 110/18 needles and 1 Dabond UVR Polyester Thread V92 Marine 4oz SPOOL in white on ebay as well. Yes, I bought 10 needles because who knows how many I will go throught once I get going. I plan on using my Brother sewing machine I bought 9 years ago at Walmart. It's not an industrial or fancy model but just your basic sewing machine with different stitches and lengths. My other purchase was a roll of 1/8" cording I found in the marine section at Walmart. The cording will be used to make the welting.
Lastly, I want to tell you that I researched what type of cleaner would work best to clean the existing seat backs and base on my pontoon. I found that Spray Nine Marine was what people most boasted about. So off to the marina I went to buy a bottle. I have to tell you, I was actually excited about cleaning when I got home. I wanted to see what all these people were raving about. After my first seat, I knew why they were so impressed with this cleaner. See before and after pictures.
As you can see, there are still some mildew stains but I can handle that compared to what it was! I did go over some of the darker spots a few times and used lots of elbow grease using a hard bristled brush to get it off the best I could. I found that letting the Spray Nine sit on the spot for a minute or two worked better than cleaning it off right away.
