Best vinyl for seat upholstery

annton

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Oct 20, 2010
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Hi everyone, deck seats on my boat have faded and I'm looking to re-upholser all marine vinyl on the deck.

This is what it currently looks like:
upholsteryJPG.jpg


This is how I want my upholstery to look like:
27.jpg


I already have a shop who gave me a great quote on the work - all I need to do is pick the materials.

Please advise me on how to choose marine vinyl material. I see tens of brands of marine vinyl and all of them look and feel pretty much identical to me! Please share your thoughts on which typed/brands of vinyl will last, which ones will feel the best and which ones I should avoid. Specific recommendations of brands/where to buy would be great.

I assume I need three different materials: plain bright white, striped (what's the proper name?) white for the seats and blue for those decorative lines.

Also, if somebody can point me to stock Bayliner materials it would be great.
 

bruceb58

Supreme Mariner
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Mar 5, 2006
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30,454
Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

You don't want stock Bayliner materials.

Nautolex, Morbern makes good stuff. There are many to choose from.

Isn't your upholsterer supplying the materials? I am sure he can purchase them cheaper than you can.

The welting is the blue trim you are looking at. When I did some of my own upholstery, I made sure that the brand I chose had matching welting, otherwise it has to be sewn with welting cord.
 

wire2

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Jun 25, 2007
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Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

I needed some vinyl for an outdoor project, went to an automotive upholstry shop, they showed me auto vinyl roof material. It's specifically made to withstand years of UV from the sun and elements without fading, cracking.
 

Fireman431

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Sep 17, 2007
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4,292
Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

This is from your friendly neighborhood upholsterer:

There are a few name brand types of marine vinyl, but they only come from 3-4 manufacturers. Each retail/wholesale company puts their own name on it where allowed by the producer. Name brands such as 'Naugahyde' may be sold under the name Briton, Allante, WeatherTex, etc, but it will have the name Naugahyde printed into the backing.

Get with the person at the upholstery shop that your using for their recommendations. He advised that he had to PICK the materials, not supply them? Get anything that has a soft, leather feel. Anything that is shiny or plastic feeling is usually cheap. If it's not a "shop" per se with a large selection, go to a true shop and have them order the materials for you. Look through the sample books and have them make recommendations. You will probably pay a 10%-25% upcharge, but it's cheaper in the long run.

The blue welting can be purchased premade in color, but you usually have to buy a 100 yd roll and you don't need anywhere near that much. Aside from that, it's formed from hard plastic and it's cheesy. Get the color blue you want and have the guy make it with plastic welting cord. You'll be happier with the finished product.

the 'lined' portion you want is called "heat pressed" and usually comes in 2" separations, but it is available in other designs. 2" seams are the standard. You can also get it sewn every 2" instead of pressed, but the final look in mostly the same.

PM me with any additional questions if you want.
 

bruceb58

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Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

The blue welting can be purchased premade in color, but you usually have to buy a 100 yd roll and you don't need anywhere near that much. Aside from that, it's formed from hard plastic and it's cheesy. Get the color blue you want and have the guy make it with plastic welting cord. You'll be happier with the finished product.
When I did some upholstery on my boat I specifically made sure that the premade welting was available. For this product, the welting was the exact same vinyl as the vinyl itself.

http://www.garysupholstery.com/mb-seabrook.html
 

annton

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Oct 20, 2010
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Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

Fireman431, bruceb58, wire2: thanks for your feedback!

Fireman431: PM sent

bruceb58, could you please tell me a bit about how you chose vinyl for your project: which brands you considered and which ones were good/not good. You clearly recommend against stock Bayliner: why is that?

The shop that I'm talking to has quite a few books with samples and they don't have any definite recommendations. They have 10 different brands, and I cannot find much info on any of them online. Just as Fireman431 mentioned, these are probably re-brandings done by the vinyl stores. Would it be fair to say that all of them will have very similar life time and weather resistance?

Here are some brands that the shop carries: Keyston Bros Color on Deck, Spradling Softside, Ship to Shore Ports O' Call, United Upholstery Fabrics, Enduratex Marine, Lindsey & Hall. Any of them known to be good? I believe they order them from a place called United Upholstery Fabrics in LA.
 

bruceb58

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Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

When I was buying marine vinyl, I just bought from Trivantage, formerly John Boyle. I was able to buy from them becase I was making boat covers for awhile so I bought a lot of Sunbrella. I was fairly new to upholstery. I just got a few samples of various vendors to see what I liked. Fireman431 probably has more ideas on this one.

I am a member of another site like this one and it is devoted to upholstery:
http://www.get-up-and-go.com/upholstery-forum/index.php?board=1

I have had a couple Bayliners and their vinyl did not see like the quality of the brands that I saw. Seemed lighter weight and didn't last long. Bayliner probably goes out and gets a contract with whatever mill gets them a good price and buys a ton of fabric. Even if you could identify the mill, unlikely that you could buy from them.
 

annton

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Oct 20, 2010
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Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

Looking online, one of very few readily available pleated vinyl materials is Nautolex Capitano. Anyone has an opinion about this particular brand?

I'll go check it out (available at Joann) and if it feels good, it will be my prime candidate.
 

bruceb58

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Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

Nautoloex is a good brand. Never used it though.
 

annton

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Oct 20, 2010
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Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

bruceb58, these a great pointers! I'll give Gary's upholstery a call and see what they suggest.

On a related topic, what year Bayliners are you talking about. My Bayliner is 2000 and the vinyl seems to be of a pretty low quality. Newer ones (in the showroom) use a completely different material which feels super soft and leather-like.
 

Fireman431

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Sep 17, 2007
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Re: Best vinyl for seat upholstery

I've used EnduraTex quite a bit. It's a middle of the road quality vinyl and you can probably expect 5-8 years from it with average care. More or less depending on what you do with your boat and how you maintain it. It is available through United Fabrics, Bry-Tech Distributers, Gulf Fabrics and a few others. You can use it as a comparison to other materials than may interest you.
 
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