Vinyl Seat Repair

DavidPJ

  One of our bench seats has very small tears or punctures from an animal. The punctures are only on the vinyl surface not all the way through and are only about 1/16 - 1/8". I've spoken to Dr. Vinyl and because there are probably about 20 of these small tears it's not cost effective for them to repair every tear or puncture. Does anyone have a recommendation for a vinyl adhesive to glue down the vinyl tears? I'm not looking to patch them. Thanks.

cjjjdeck

Believe it or not, your best bet imight be to check with some car dealers in your area.  Car dealers frequently have vendors that come in and "repair" vinyl upholstery instead of "replacing" vinyl, more so with used cars than new.  They repair the slit, scratch, scrape then paint it to match the rest of the upholstery.  I've had this done lots of times and, if the installer is good, it's better than new and often cheaper than replacing the vinyl (depending on how severe the damage is).  Very often these vendors are mobile and can come right to the boat to fix it or you can bring the cushion/seat to them.  They may need access to shore power for their tools.
 
Make some calls and good luck!

callforbids

Here is what I have done and it seems to be a cost effective alternative:
 
A company in New Paris, Indiana called Veada, Inc. ([link=http://www.veada.com/]www.veada.com[/link]) makes a lot of the seating for Godfrey and Hurricane. They were the suppliers on both my 2005 Sweetwater pontoon and my 2008 Sun Deck. You can contact their customer service department and by sending them a digital picture of the upholstery that is damaged they will in return you several samples, one of which will match your vinyl. Once that is done, you can purchase the vinyl from them at a cost ofr $13 per running yard (Spools are 54 inches wide so $13 plus shipping will get you a piece 54" by 36". Take the seat and piece of vinyl toan upholstery shop and replace the damged area.
 
Keep in mind that if your boat has some age on it, you may pick the correct vinyl color, but because of fading it may not match 100%. My 2005 whose vinyl was weathered, matched 95+ percent. Most observers couldn't identify the replaced pice. Although it was a small section less than 12" by 24".
 
Good luck,
Steve