Where to find skins/upholstery?

[mxhideout]

Figured I should start a thread in this specific section... My dad and I bought a '91 prostar 190, and most of the upholstery is in fair to poor condition. We're not going to pay someone 3k to do it, as I am very cheap. I would like to know who has done their own upholstery on here and where they got material for it. I realize it may be difficult to find oem skins for this old of a boat, so we are willing to get an old industrial strength sewing machine and do it ourselves. I would like the colors/scheme to look as close to stock as possible. Since we have all winter to do this, we'll just pull the seats out one by one and pattern the material after each one. Any tips or suggestions welcome.

[mxhideout]

Bump, anyone?

[JohnnyB]

Do some searches on this site...i know there are a few upholstry threads including a diy one

Sent from my Motorola RAZR MAXX using Tapatalk 2

[wheelerd]

I applaud your gusto to do it yourself -- I'm that kind of guy too. But in the case of a complete upholstery job I would think long and hard about trying to do it all from scratch, especially if you don't have experience in this field.

There's a reason upholstery jobs are expensive -- it's very time intensive and the supplies are not cheap. I know of what I speak!

Five or so years ago I completely redid the upholstery on my TriStar. I found a good person in town who worked at an upholstery shop during the day and then did custom work at home in the evenings. She agreed to do my stuff for a good price as long as I supplied all the materials. I pulled all the skins off, and once the new ones were made, I reinstalled them myself.

I used SurfSide marine vinyl which runs about $33/yd. Then there is thin foam underlay that is needed for some of the sections. Then there is special thread. Then there is the welting which has to be made to match. Then there is the Hidem strip material -- which either has to be made or, if you are lucky, can be purchased to match. Then there is the tack-down material to secure upholstery sections to the base between the seat foam sections. Then there is plastic to cover the foam so that the skins slide on nice and easy. Then there are stainless steel staples -- I likely spent $100 on staples alone! And on it goes.

So when you add up all the supplies, and considering that time -- your time! -- is money, the amount that a professional upholsterer charges doesn't look so bad. And at $33/yd, learning how to sew vinyl can be an expensive lesson.

Im not saying you couldn't, or shouldn't do this. I'm just saying . . . carefully count the cost before embarking on a task like this.

(Just yesterday and today, I stripped the skins off the two bow seats and rear seat of my X5 which I'm planning to sell next spring. I'll be taking them to a local upholsterer who has agreed to do all three for $440. If you shop around you should be able to get most of your skins redone for somewhere in the $2000 range.)

[mxhideout]

Thanks for the detailed post, wheelerd! I did a lot of searching through old threads on the forum, and especially after you explained it, it does seem like quite a bit of work. I emailed a few guys that do boat upholstery that people on TT recommended, and so far copycat upholstery has responded. Depending on how much it costs, we may just go with the process of sending the old skins out and then put the new stuff on ourselves. We just need the three seats recovered, so I'm hoping it won't cost too much an arm and a leg...

Copycat sent a quick and very informative reply to my request for a quote. They just need to see a few pictures of each piece, as well as dimensions, then they can give a definite quote. I'll do that this weekend since I don't get home til after dark during the week.

[lakeoz tristar]

I was thinking of contacting copy cat for a quote as well.. I got a local quote in Missouri to do a 1989 Tristar open bow and it came in at $4500 and that did not include any of the side panels , the rear bench seat because I didnt have it in the picture, so I was going to take measurements for copy cat. Would love to know how much copycat quotes...My seats are rough but $4500 is darn near what I paid for the boat.. Have a guy coming to look at the seats Thursday hope his are reasonable.

[mxhideout]

Originally Posted by lakeoz tristar

I was thinking of contacting copy cat for a quote as well.. I got a local quote in Missouri to do a 1989 Tristar open bow and it came in at $4500 and that did not include any of the side panels , the rear bench seat because I didnt have it in the picture, so I was going to take measurements for copy cat. Would love to know how much copycat quotes...My seats are rough but $4500 is darn near what I paid for the boat.. Have a guy coming to look at the seats Thursday hope his are reasonable.

I was just going to say, some of these quotes I'm seeing are almost as much as an entire boat... I realize it's a tedious and rather time-consuming trade, but wow.

[wheelerd]

Originally Posted by mxhideout

Copycat sent a quick and very informative reply to my request for a quote. They just need to see a few pictures of each piece, as well as dimensions, then they can give a definite quote. I'll do that this weekend since I don't get home til after dark during the week.

I had Copycat do the observer seat on my X5 a couple of years ago. They did a great job and at a decent price . . . but it took forever. I understand they were going through some management pains at the time. (There is a Copycat thread somewhere here on TT.) As part of the job I had them insert the X5 logo that goes on the seat back. When they sent the completed skin to me the logowas upside down! I had to send it back and they fixed it at no extra charge, but start to finish, the whole operation took about 6 months.

[Jorski]

A lot of people had problems with copycat...I didn't.

I asked for the heaviest vinyl that they carried and they sent a sample. The quality and weight was as good as anything out there.

My skins fit and they did what I wanted. They included all of the extras to match, hide-um, welting, etc. All I had to do was install.

Now, the price worked out to about $1,200 to do my 1993 190.

On the pain in the azz factor...it is very high. I am a very picky person when it comes to this kind of stuff. I could get the same results as a pro, BUT, it took me way longer. I got faster as I went along.

A major issue is getting just the right amount of tension or stretch on the skins so that there aren't any wrinkles. There was a lot of staple pulling and adjustments on the first few cushions. By the end of the job, I was pretty fast.

My major tip, is to leave the skin you are about to work on out in the sun, and get it really hot. Then when you install, you want it tight, but don't over do it, that creates its' own wrinkles.

Ths isn't the greatest picture in terms of showing detail, but it gives you an idea. You can see the fit of the skins and the seems etc.

[wheelerd]

Originally Posted by Jorski

A major issue is getting just the right amount of tension or stretch on the skins so that there aren't any wrinkles. There was a lot of staple pulling and adjustments on the first few cushions. By the end of the job, I was pretty fast.

My major tip, is to leave the skin you are about to work on out in the sun, and get it really hot. Then when you install, you want it tight, but don't over do it, that creates its' own wrinkles.

Good point to emphasize. When I first slipped the skins over the base I was disappointed -- What the hey! These don't fit. But gradually stretching (I used a blow dryer on low setting), adjusting, stapling and restapling, making sure the raw inner ends of the seams were all turned the same way, etc., the result was as good as any pro shop I've seen. Just be patient.

When you disassemble the seats you'll notice thin plastic between the skins and the cushions. It's really important to either save and reuse these if they're not damaged in the process, or just use some very thin poly plastic when you reassemble. This is to allow the backing of the vinyl to slide over the foam of the cushion when you are doing the stretching. You can just let it hang over the edges and trim it when you do the final trimming of the vinyl.