Upholstery Repair

First the questions, Where can I get new Upholstery foam....the stuff that goes on top of the board to give it cushion? I suspect it has to be a certain type of foam for obvious marine use and abuse, would anyone know what that would be? Also, I noticed on my initial research that there is options for density... not just thickness, but density as well, what would be the norm for a typical engine cover or seat, or how is it the density determined???

Now, for the story. So, I had my boat stolen off the mooring a month ago. I suppose I am partially to blame here as I leave my keys in the boat, as 90% of everyone else does on Sebago Lake. Fortunately they decided to just take it for a joy ride and leave it beached in front of someone else's camp. Other then my gas being sucked up, and the bench seat somehow getting busted there was no real damage. They were even nice enough to leave my brand new Garmin Fish Finder alone. Now the previous owner just had the upholstery done last August, so the only thing to do was to take it all apart and change out the Marine plywood.....side note.....that stuff is expensive $104 for a 4' X 8' sheet.

To give you an idea of my particular setup you can check out the photo. The bench seat is removable as there is a storage compartment and a access panel to the fuel tank underneath.




As you can see, one has to crawl over the engine hatches then step down on to the bench seat to get in the boat. The thief / thief's must have been hefty or stumbled in the night to break the bench like that. I later discovered that it was built or rebuilt with Fir plywood, not marine plywood.

After finishing that repair, and it looking 100% professional, I decided to tackle the Starboard engine hatch as it appeared to also have a small crack in the sub structure.....besides, I had some very expensive left over material from the bench seat job. No sense letting it just lay around right....just another project to add to the list.

After removing about a thousand and one staples I discovered it was, or appeared to be marine plywood not fir like the bench (good sign), however to my disbelief, it was all rotted out. I was almost certain it was cracked...but rotten like this. Check out these pics.......

Re: Upholstery Repair

The individual layers were completely separated. It made for some interesting templating when cutting the new piece of wood. The foam had mold spores all over and there was a toxic smell to the whole mess.










I need to replace the section of vinyl that covers the bottom, the seam (it staples on to hide where the two sections of vinyl come together as well as the foam. The top section of vinyl was spared with a good air drying and some marine cleaner to the inside. Now my only problem is sourcing this stuff. The only reason I jumped into the bench seat repair myself was because I couldn't find anyone around here that does Marine upholstery including the local marinas & canvas shops. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Upholstery Repair

bottom section of vinyl





underside of bottom section



top of foam padding



bottom side of foam padding

Re: Upholstery Repair

I have read someones project where they used a layer of plastic between the vinyl and the foam. both the plastic and vinyl are supposed to wrap around the plywood and staple to it that way water should shed off. If this works then I would think you could use any type of foam as long as it is dense enough to hold you up.

Here were i live there is a mattress store that sells foam by itself maybe try something like that. I would guess - unless you are trying to get it online - you should just be able to sit on it and see if you like it.