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Installing new skins


footnlongline

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I broke down and had Chee make me new skins. The old ones were still pretty good but I wanted to freshen my boat up a little. Chee did a flawless job and I would like to perpetuate the craftsmanship when installing. So, how so you keep the vinyl from gathering in the corners when stapling onto seat bottoms. I've stretched, heated etc. and it looks good, just not as good as the factory. Any advice?

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Try steam. thats what we use to stretch leather out with no wrinkles.

Thats what Chee said but how do you do it ? I'm not having trouble stretching it but when I fold it around the corners it bunches. Does the steam shrink the corners? Do I use a steam iron?

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I just had Chee make some skins as well, and I too was concerned about things such as wrinkles, bulging, incorrect fit, etc. If anyone have some good tips on installing these, it would be greatly appreciated. Also, I'm assuming that SS staples should be used to tack them on the back side? And hot glue the seam that covers the staples?

I'm doing seat bottoms and seat backs (the backs will be challenging since there is carpet on the back of each seat back...hmm...)

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I just had Chee make some skins as well, and I too was concerned about things such as wrinkles, bulging, incorrect fit, etc. If anyone have some good tips on installing these, it would be greatly appreciated. Also, I'm assuming that SS staples should be used to tack them on the back side? And hot glue the seam that covers the staples?

I'm doing seat bottoms and seat backs (the backs will be challenging since there is carpet on the back of each seat back...hmm...)

My staple covers were stapled. You can open them up, put the staples in and they fold back down and hide the staples

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Add me to the list of people interested on how to get the skins on nicely. I mailed Chee my check last week!!!! I can't wait to get the skins on and have the boat looking niiiice.

I recovered a few seats on my old boat, but just used a heat gun to stretch the vinyl real good before stapling on. The boat wasn't perfect, so I wasn't too worried about the seats being perfect. Whistling.gif

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Add me to the list of people interested on how to get the skins on nicely. I mailed Chee my check last week!!!! I can't wait to get the skins on and have the boat looking niiiice.

I recovered a few seats on my old boat, but just used a heat gun to stretch the vinyl real good before stapling on. The boat wasn't perfect, so I wasn't too worried about the seats being perfect. Whistling.gif

One observation(tip) Wash the old foam and allow to dry. This allows the foam to expand to its original size before covering. The skins Chee makes are from the original patterns. I found my foam to be compressed on the edges and corners so when I streached the new skins the seams looked lower than original. By washing and allowing to expand, I found this less problematic.... So far so good, just time consuming as I'm quite anal about the outcome. Take your time. do it right, do it once.

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Here is a link to some pictures of my seat skin install. In 92 still had the plywood backing, replaced al the wood with plastic sheeting. Had to use an air staple gun to get the staples into the plastic. I put the vinyl skins out on the driveway in the hot sun for about an hour before I started to install and stretch them over the foam. I need to post some more pictures of the completed job.

New skins on the bow seat bases, spotters seat and side panel.

http://www.wakesiderides.com/rides/index.p...out&id=1361

Jim

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