The Upholstery Forum

@TedP, Consider making the top piece with a seam along the upper leading edge. That will allow the material to drop down along that angle and will also give one continues seam along that whole upper edge.

John

Thanks, JL.

This is what I came up with for the template. . .
I considered a seam on the leading edge, but prefer to keep it as a wrap-around

Nice work!
Rolling along

This vinyl skin came out much better . . .
It is just tacked in place. for fit. I had to stretch it about 3/4" to fit, which is fine/preferable.

Onward to the remaining seat bases. then I'll be taking on some curved seat backs.

Quick updates . . .

I made the 'pull straps' for the three seats that are hinged to access storage compartments.
Also moving onto the next seat base. This one is the port side settee.
I have been trying different types of contact cement, because the water-based Weldwood cement has been difficult to work with. I tried the 3M 90 spray, which was no good. Then the 3M 77, which I have used in the past.

. . . and the winner is 3M 77

An update on the seat bases . . .

Here is the port side settee skin, loosely fit . . . Here is a last and largest seat base . . . .

cut out pieces:
Here is the final seam ready to get sewn. Most of the seat bases are made of 7-8 pieces joined in the center with a large curved seam.

[quote=TedP post_id=6378 time=1574716577 user_id=599]
The mooring cover is in process . . .

So far, I have made a large piece (16' 3" x 9' 6") out of four (4) 60" wide panels of Sunbrella.

IMG_3659.JPG

Next steps will be to trim it to the shape of the existing cover + 2" hem. I have 1" wide webbing to use in the perimeter hem.
Looking Good. I also noticed that your hutch and chairs look just like my dining room furniture. Just a side note.

Working on the new backer boards for the seat bases . . .

1/2" Exterior Plywood with a homemade wood sealer.
These will take a few days to 'dry' and then I can apply the foam and vinyl skins.

This is the backrest for the forward section of the 'U' shaped seating. Rot has set into the wood, so this will be a bit of carpentry to fix.
The rear section is marginally better, but might be save-able.

Seat back repairs . . .
.
.
.
I'm now working on attaching the foam and the vinyl skins to the new seat bases.

Looks great @TedP!! Thanks for sharing the process with all of us.

One tip I have for you is to steam your covers before installing. A lot of the wrinkles your having trouble with will relax and stretch out with steam. Especially around the seams this will help a lot.

John wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2020 12:45 am
One tip I have for you is to steam your covers before installing. A lot of the wrinkles your having trouble with will relax and stretch out with steam. Especially around the seams this will help a lot.

As for the steam . . . I am putting a towel over the cover and then pouring boiling hot water on the towel. Although it is after the vinyl is installed, it seems to take out some of the wrinkles. Not sure if that is a 'prescribed' method or not.

Here are the first 2 covers that I made, now installed on their new backer boards.
.

Here are the 3 sections of the bases for the U-shaped seating . . . done.
. . .
There is also the port side settee base, shown below.
. .
In total I have 5 pieces done out of a total of 13 pieces.

Looking good!
Thanks for keeping this going

@TedP The seats are looking great!

As for the hot towel method that really doesn't work well on vinyl. I highly suggest using a steamer on the back side of the corners as your installing the cover. It will make a big difference.

This is the steamer I personally use. Jiffy J-4000 Steamer https://amzn.to/2GKa8X0

Rebuilding the backrest frames . . .

A fair bit of carpentry was needed to bring the backrest frames back into good condition. As a manner of preparation, all of the existing wood that was still in good condition was dried out, chemically treated and soaked with wood sealer to prevent water absorption and rot. The new wood was treated with wood sealer.

This piece is the 'lid' to the aft backrest/storage compartment. I added SS brackets to hold the right angle better than the original, which just relied on the wood itself.
. .
The curved surfaces that you see were originally made of a thick cardboard material, which had completely disintegrated. I replaced these surfaces with a tempered hardboard material that I pre-treated with wood sealer. Hopefully they will last a long time.
. .

More pics on next post . . .

Additional pictures of the backrest frame restoration . . .
. .

I have been working on the templates for the backrests. This one is the port side settee backrest. there are about 20 individual pieces that will make up this backrest. My plan of going with 'capped' ends rather than 'wrapped' ends adds a few pieces to each backrests vs. how they were originally.

Here are a couple pictures of the new templates . . .
. .
Here is a comparison of the new templates versus their equivalent pieces from the old skin. It seems like making the templates new, rather than using the old skins, results in templates of a slightly bigger size and different curvature.
. .

Here is the curved backrest for the port side settee.
. It is a bit imperfect, due to my rookie status, but overall it looks OK.

@John,

I am curious on his template question @TedP ,

I am envious looks great .