The Upholstery Forum

Morning,
Looking for some advice before I take on replacing the vinyl on some of the seats on my boat. I plan to buy the vinyl and have the stiching done for me, I will then cover the seats.

Do I need to have these sections sewn together? Why not fold around the corners and trim?



Why would the manufacturer (Four Winns) section off the foam for this bench seat (the grey piece is divided and glued separate ) instead of one section of foam covered by one piece of sewn vinyl? I plan to have a section of white and grey sewn together and go over the foam as one piece.
Thanks for any advice,
Paul

PaulWeiler wrote: Do I need to have these sections sewn together? Why not fold around the corners and trim?

Folding once piece of material around that shape will induce wrinkles and not end up looking or fitting good. IMHO

PaulWeiler wrote: Why would the manufacturer (Four Winns) section off the foam for this bench seat ....

From the pic, it looks like the foam under the grey is a little thicker then the white giving a bit of bolster. Or, they did it to sew a "stay" in that part of the cushion. Hard to say until it's taken apart and examined.

Thanks Wild Bill.

They attached the foam in two sections with fabric in between the foam.



I want to replace that foam with one piece of foam and cover with one piece of vinyl. Any concerns with that?

Thanks
Paul

Maybe they made it two piece to be able to use different colors - probably the white was on all of them but the gray could have been a few different colors? Hard to tell. If you want to make it one piece go ahead but it won't look the same. If you are looking for it to look original, then do it as they did, but if you're looking just to slap some vinyl on to cover everything just realize that it probably won't look as finished and will probably hurt resale if you end up selling the boat.

That is defiantly 2 different thicknesses of foam intended to create a bolster and give some shape to the cushion.

The piece of fabric was probably sewn to the inside of the seam between the grey and white and stapled to the board. Pretty standard procedure.

Not hard to due, lay the white area of the foam, staple the whit all round, staple the fabric pull down enclosing the foam, (don't pull to hard so you don't distort the shape), the put in the grey part of foam and staple the grey material in place.

Foam is expensive, you'd do better to have the bolster sewn it'll cost less than replacing foam. You can eliminate the flat seams and piping but unless you precisely cut down the bolster foam and glue the foam together you'll be spending more money and the time spent cutting and glue cost just isn't worth it. Bolsters are super common in boats, and a simple task. Folding corners will technically work but why? Again if you are having the sewing done already, it doesn't take that much longer, don't intentionally put flaws in a brand new otherwise beautiful seat. You'll still be in cheaper than replacing foam to make it flat i bet