Upholstery restoration

I am about to purchase a 10 year old boat that has slight mildew stains on the white vinyl upholstery. It's a CC (everything topside). The seats and cusions are otherwise in pretty good shape, (no tears)

Does anyone have any suggestions on how or if it is possible to recondition these. Thanks

Re: Upholstery restoration

DriftingSun said:

I am about to purchase a 10 year old boat that has slight mildew stains on the white vinyl upholstery. It's a CC (everything topside). The seats and cusions are otherwise in pretty good shape, (no tears)

Does anyone have any suggestions on how or if it is possible to recondition these. Thanks

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You have multiple options to take care of this. There are loads of good cleaners out there that will get rid of the mildew and even stains. Your other option is to even recover them. If you need...and trust..send a private message with your phone number to contact. My fiance does this. She can't do it for you..but she can tell you how to do it. To give you an idea..I have a Ranger Boat...I would say she does a better job than Ranger Factory.

Re: Upholstery restoration

I am brand new to owning my own boat, so I am definitely lost in the sauce. I just bought a 88 model bass boat, the seats have ripped from the seam and the carpet is coming up. The carpet is blue right now and I wanted to change it to another color.

What is the best thing to do for the ripped seats, should I buy more seats or get them repaired.

For the carpet can anyone give me some help on where to buy it(cheapest) and (easiet) way to install it.

SGT Carney, Charles
USA, CBRN
Fort Bragg, NC

Re: Upholstery restoration

I am going to be getting into this myself over the weekend. I can't claim to be an expert, but I have done some vinyl work on motorcycle seats and car interiors in the past. Depending on how your seats are upholstered now, it could be really easy or really difficult to re-cover them.

It would be helpful to see photos of what they look like now. If there isn't a whole of lot of stitching work, you could probably get pretty far with a can of Spray77, a heat gun, and a staple gun. If there is a bunch of piping and seams then you are going to have to get comfy with a sewing machine. Also of note, if it gets complicated, you might need special feet for the sewing machine.

Re: Upholstery restoration

If you are trying to do it quick and cheap try Eastwood Garage. They have spray on vinyl and carpet dyes meant for car restorers. It's www.eastwood.com. The stuff might buy you a couple of season's before you need to replace it. I've only had one brand new boat and I was constantly battling stains on the white portion of the upholstery. I mostly used Simple Green but I kept up with cleaning it. I bet it would turn into a nightmare quickly if noone bothered to clean it for a while.

Re: Upholstery restoration

I use Mr. Clean Majic Erasers to clean up the vinyl in the spring. Then use Meguiars vinyl cleaner throughout the season. It looks pretty good when I stay at it.

Re: Upholstery restoration

If your comfortable with it, I would say go with re-covering them. If the vinyl is in good shape like it was in my 16' Starcraft, you can take the vinyl off, cut the stitching out and use the pieces as templates. Try it on a smaller cushion to see if you can get the hang of it, I think it's really about just taking your time.

TL

Re: Upholstery restoration

I agree with Freebird but make sure that you use a true vinyl dye. The Eastwood stuff maybe more of a coating. VHT makes a true dye that permenantly changes the color. I have used both with success however the VHT dye looks a little more natural.