Help with upholstery

I have a 2005 320 Sundancer, can anyone help with upholstery manufacturer and
color? My seams are breaking down on my cockpit cushions and I was looking in to
redo with a vinyl piping to match ???
Some older Sundancers have used this piping and it appears the seams hold up much
better. Anyone have thoughts or suggestions
Thank you
Rich

An automotive upholstery shop can do it for reasonable cost.

SeaRenity said:

I have a 2005 320 Sundancer, can anyone help with upholstery manufacturer and
color? My seams are breaking down on my cockpit cushions and I was looking in to
redo with a vinyl piping to match ???
Some older Sundancers have used this piping and it appears the seams hold up much
better. Anyone have thoughts or suggestions
Thank you
Rich

Click to expand...

Is yours the nickel and cream combination?

The piping is a darker color but can be made with anything you want. 5/32” welt cord and a 1 1/2” strip of the material can be assembled into the piping.

SeaRenity said:

I have a 2005 320 Sundancer, can anyone help with upholstery manufacturer and
color? My seams are breaking down on my cockpit cushions and I was looking in to
redo with a vinyl piping to match ???
Some older Sundancers have used this piping and it appears the seams hold up much
better. Anyone have thoughts or suggestions
Thank you
Rich

Click to expand...

The seams are breaking down now probably because of age, exposure to sun and chemicals used cleaning it. Bleach is the big culprit and should always be avoid. The Sun will naturally bleach things too that is why using a decent UV protection is advised. The same goes for abrasives (especially those eraser cleaning pads) on vinyl - use of these is like using sandpaper to clean paint.

The use of piping will add character, design and in some cases a little structure but does nothing to affect the thread or material. In fact I have also seen these seams open up even with the piping and have had customers with issues with piping on seats. When the seats aged the piping stiffened and the vinyl began to break down from natural aging causing it to tear off the piping when someone step or sat on it. Here are some extreme examples:

(before)


(after)


If you are not doing the seat backs and trying to match the material in the stripe you can come close in color but the welt is no longer available from the original source. I have redone the entire 320DA cockpit seating and have extensive experience with it so feel free to give me a call if you would like to discuss it.

I am currently undertaking the task of redoing my own 340SDA this year (in phases). We are adding a pipe/welt where there was none before. This is simply to add a little color. I mocked up the step seat already to see if we liked the concept. It was the smallest and easiest to redo. Here is a peak at what we are doing:



One last note... keep in mind that all of these materials (vinyls, threads, etc) have an expected life span and in most of our cases the materials have far outlasted that in the worst environments.

-Kevin

Njlarry said:

An automotive upholstery shop can do it for reasonable cost.

Click to expand...

Auto upholstery and Marine upholstery methods can differ significantly. I have seen marine upholstery jobs that failed and had to be redone because it was not done by someone familiar with marine work. The job however probably would have lasted in and automotive environment. Only recommendation here is to do your due diligence when hiring anyone.

-Kevin

Like many shops our local automotive does a great many marine jobs every year. They use marine fabrics and stainless staples etc.

Check with Sailrite online. They have marine vinyl that matched my 93 Express Cruiser. They have everything you need and You Tube videos to help.

KevinC
thank you very much for the detailed response to my question! I may reach out to you
Presently I'm just trying to add piping in my cockpit seats only ( backs are fine)
Don't even know if I can do it!! I do have a sailrite machine
haven't taken off the vinyl yet but what causes it to have a profile shape rather than just flat against the foam -- is the foam profiled??

Thanks

Sailrite had piping in most colors. My seats and panels had 2 color accent stripes with piping between stripes and seat vinyl, as well as border of side panels. My wife sewed the piping between the pieces of vinyl for the cushions and it is just stapled around edges of side panels. It was tedious work sewing piping between each piece but turned out looking like factory job. My seats did not have pleats so we didn't have to mess with that.

SeaRenity said:

KevinC
thank you very much for the detailed response to my question! I may reach out to you
Presently I'm just trying to add piping in my cockpit seats only ( backs are fine)
Don't even know if I can do it!! I do have a sailrite machine
haven't taken off the vinyl yet but what causes it to have a profile shape rather than just flat against the foam -- is the foam profiled??

Thanks

Click to expand...

The piping will have a long piece of fabric sewn to the tail. This long piece of fabric is about 3” wide, spans the length of the piping and is stapled to the baseboard. There will be 2 separate pieces of foam used, one on each side of the piping.
This creates that dimension where the piping and the 2 pieces of vinyl meet.

SeaRenity said:

KevinC
thank you very much for the detailed response to my question! I may reach out to you
Presently I'm just trying to add piping in my cockpit seats only ( backs are fine)
Don't even know if I can do it!! I do have a sailrite machine
haven't taken off the vinyl yet but what causes it to have a profile shape rather than just flat against the foam -- is the foam profiled??

Thanks

Click to expand...

My personal opinion is that you should not expect to be able to just add piping.

You will need to tear down the entire seat and removal all the vinyl. As @Espos4 mentioned the seam between the seat and the knee cushion has a pull sewn into the entire length and this is stapled to the seat base. These staples to the base will be under the foam. If you are intent on adding the piping you will need to carefully separate the pull from the skin then carefully rip the seam between the pieces. Only then will you be able to add the piping and at this point the skin is almost completely apart.

You should also exam the seam to verify 100% that it is the thread only that failed. Most of the seats that I see including my own fail at the seam line but the seam is intact and it is the material failing along the seam line. Once the vinyl dries out the seam holes will allow the material to tear like a perforated piece of paper. If this indeed happened you will need to offset a new seam line and then it may be a lost cause.

If you are going to break down these old seats to this extent you may as well just redo the entire seat and put all new vinyl on.

-Kevin