Thread:

anyone out there done there own foam and vinyl before???

Go to an auto re upholstery shop and they’ll sell you everything you need. Unless you have a wholesale upholstery place that will sell to you! Unless you have a good machine (like a Pfaff) it’s going to be hard. To cut the foam use an electric knife.
If you haven’t sewn before get some cheap vinyl and practice.

I did mine 3 time until I liked it and I only have $400 or $500 in it and it looks good, lots of hrs in sewing panels. Just do simple flat panels for now then redo it this winter. It's not easy but is not real hard.
Good luck.

I did mine 3 time until I liked it and I only have $400 or $500 in it and it looks good, lots of hrs in sewing panels. Just do simple flat panels for now then redo it this winter. It's not easy but is not real hard.
Good luck.

My last boat, I build the seat frames after pics I found on the net. I took one to an upholstery shop and had them use the cheapest stuff they could find. They ended up using a couple of colors but only cost me about a 100 bucks. I took it home and used a seam ripper to cut all the seams and disassemble it. I then used the pieces as pattern. Using the pattern I sewed up the covers using a nicer material I bought online. The back seat I just winged and it came out ok. Good luck.

I don't have any good pics (and it's dark right now). My wife and I (mainly her) re-covered all of the vinyl in our 21' open-bow jet. We essentialy copied what was done before (similar to west coast interiors, eliminator and etc) but we did make some mods too. This was a completely new experience for both of us.

Lessons Learned:
You really need a good walking-foot machine ... not a walking foot for a 'normal' machine but one where the presser-foot and the feed-dogs work together to feed the material from the top and bottom ... please forgive if this is old hat for you. I met a very generous person who gave me an old industrial singer ... which was a mixed blessing because I found myself working on it a few times. Also, alot of these machines have a clutch-style motor which can be a challenge to learn with because you have to slip the clutch quite a bit to go slow. If this is brand-new for you then do yourself a favor and get a $100 servo motor from ebay ... it is MUCH easier to learn with.

We were not able to find any decent books or videos .... there are a few videos that you can buy but we found it better to just practice.

Buy a LOT more vinyl than you think you'll need ... also along that line ... we could not find any good wags on estimating sq yardage for something like boat seats ... there are some rules of thumb you can find on the internet for furniture; we used that plus some fluff and it worked out.

In addition to buying good vinyl, buy some good UV resistant thread, spare needles, bobbins and etc.

You'll also need a good staple gun and stainless staples ... I bought a used gun and staples off of the net for pretty cheap. By good gun I mean something that'll easily go through 3-5 layers of vinyl and into resin or glass-coated plywood i.e. not the black and decker hotshot from lowe's. You'll need to practice with the staple gun too because if you turn it up too much the staple will just 'cut' through the vinyl rather than holding it.

Also with stapling ... leave considerably more excess than your existing pieces have ... it'll help you pull the cover taught prior to stapling ... after it's staple then you go back and trim the excess to make the back side look 'nice and professional'

Be prepared for some crooked seams and some 'puckers' in corners on a few spots ... invariably you'll have an aw-crap moment in the last few inches of sewing on a large time-consuming piece. Just remember this ain't your day job

Would I do it again .... read as ask my wife to do it again? YES, it gave her something to identify with on the boat and honestly she did really well considering this was a first; we get compliments all the time ... it's not perfect by any means but it's ours.

Good luck
Cheers
Corey

Originally Posted by buckjohnson

I did mine 3 time until I liked it and I only have $400 or $500 in it and it looks good, lots of hrs in sewing panels. Just do simple flat panels for now then redo it this winter. It's not easy but is not real hard.
Good luck.

I would be proud to have that in my boat. very nice job

Thanks, Adam R.

I am getting ready to try my hand at it does anybody know any good sources to get materials?I know there are places with shoddy customer service so if anybody knows who NOT to go to that info would be appreciated too.

go to how to do video . they have a lot of free stuff to watch . i got a sewing machine from them and now doing my own boat.its not real hard . just take your time.

sorry i forgot .Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ-1 Sewing Machine ZigZag / Straight Stitch Sewing Machine

Stoker, here is a link from when I did my interior a couple seasons ago.

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