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Vinyl repair in SF Bay area?


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Now I've got about 4 or 5 very small tears in various places in the boat and want to get them taken care of before I put her away for the season.

Can anybody in the SF bay area give me a name of someone they've either used or heard about that can do a good job at repairing these?

I won't call my local dealer (those of you that live here know why), since I don't trust them to even answer the phone with an honest greeting.

Any help?

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Unfortunately, my kids go back to school on the 28th of August this year, and other than the final shakedown cruise that the wife and I take without the kids Love.gif that's about the end of it for us. Too many drunken idiots to take her out on the weekends, so we pretty much pack it in when school starts..... :(

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Too many drunken idiots to take her out on the weekends, so we pretty much pack it in when school starts..... :(

For clarification, I when I say "her" I mean the boat, not the wife :)

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Unfortunately, my kids go back to school on the 28th of August this year, and other than the final shakedown cruise that the wife and I take without the kids Love.gif that's about the end of it for us. Too many drunken idiots to take her out on the weekends, so we pretty much pack it in when school starts..... :(

I know what you mean. We'll have to see how this year goes. The main member of my crew has been my daughter, who is my youngest, and she is off to college this year in a couple of weeks. My oldest is home from college deciding what to do with the rest of his life and I have a few regulars around still, but it won't be the same. She is the one always pushing me to go out.

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Unfortunately, my kids go back to school on the 28th of August this year, and other than the final shakedown cruise that the wife and I take without the kids Love.gif that's about the end of it for us. Too many drunken idiots to take her out on the weekends, so we pretty much pack it in when school starts..... :(

I'd have to disagree, once the school season starts the wallies and weekend partiers drop off dramatically. The most drunken fools are from Memorial to Labor Day weekends.

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Barrios Upholstery

13165 Mnterey Hwy Ste 107, San Martin, CA, United States

Phone: (408) 683-5630

Very good work including bimini's custom covers, and complete upholstery. KC

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KTC- Do they do vinyl repair?

I'm not looking to reupholster, I'm looking for somebody like a DentPro, but for vinyl seats.

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I've used the guy that would come to the dealer I used to work at. I can't remember the name of the company but, you could call a few car dealer service departments and ask them who they use. They're mobile too.

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I'm looking too. I've got about 8 tiny tears all over the boat, some inconspicuous and others that will get bad over time.

Thanks KC, I'll give them a call. Only 1/2 hour from my house.

Jay, if you find someone please let me know. I need to get this done this season.

And BTW, if you're interested, we'll be going out at least once a month. If you want a pull let me know, it'll be behind a wakeboard boat though - just need a dry suit :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a word of warning with those mobile vinyl repair guys that dealers use. I did this 2 years ago on some minor tears I had in my viynl, I used the guy that was most hightly recommended from 3 top dealerships in the area. It looked fine after he did it but now that's it's been 2 years you can totally see the areas where he repaired it when the sun is bright out (which is most of the day) They basically try to match the vinyl color by mixing a special paint and after they repair it they paint the color on with one of those special little sprayers like dent fixers use. I think the paint they use fades differently in the sun than the vinyl does so over time you can tell the areas that were painted to blend.

Anyway, it looks worse than the little tears did at the time and now I'l contemplating reapholstering all of the areas that he worked on.

just my 2 cents

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Just a word of warning with those mobile vinyl repair guys that dealers use. I did this 2 years ago on some minor tears I had in my viynl, I used the guy that was most hightly recommended from 3 top dealerships in the area. It looked fine after he did it but now that's it's been 2 years you can totally see the areas where he repaired it when the sun is bright out (which is most of the day) They basically try to match the vinyl color by mixing a special paint and after they repair it they paint the color on with one of those special little sprayers like dent fixers use. I think the paint they use fades differently in the sun than the vinyl does so over time you can tell the areas that were painted to blend.

Anyway, it looks worse than the little tears did at the time and now I'l contemplating reapholstering all of the areas that he worked on.

just my 2 cents

My repairs (for those 1/4"-1/2" tears) after the sun and sunscreen have affected the touch up paint now measure 2-3" accross. I wish I had never had them fixed also. I had the "repairs" repaired twice now and it only lasts one season before the paint fades or comes off the repair. The repair without the paint looks to be a clear substance. The repair guy (for lack of a better term) stated that sunscreen will remove the paint. Huh?

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I should just leave the seats with small tears? Cry.gif

Man I want these fixed, but not if it will look worse down the road....

I feel your pain Cry.gif Doesn't it just drive you F'ing crazy looking at those little tears? It doesn't matter how clean the boat is or how incospicuous those little tears are but they catch your eye every time Mad.gif

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I have some tears too. They are all <1/4 inch. I bought a vinyl repair kit and just used the adhesive part of the kit. The kits contain two parts adhesive which glues the two halves of the tear together and then a bunch of colors that you mix to fill and blend with the surrounding vinyl.

I have heard allot about the repair looking worse after a few years than the tear itself, so I just used the adhesive inside each of the tears. This way no colored filler is needed and therefor won't discolor over time.

In the end the repair can just looks like a little slit that has been glued together. But I think that over time it will continue to look like that, rather than discolor in the way that a large blended patch area will.

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Do you have any pics of this repair?

Maybe this is the way to go, the tears in my vinyl are very small too, the need for repair was to keep them from getting bigger....maybe I should just use the glue like you did and skip the future discoloring.

Thanks.

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I will take some pictures and post them. It won't be until this weekend though.... They don't look like more than a knife slit in the worst case. The smallest repairs are unoticeable.

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I will take some pictures and post them. It won't be until this weekend though.... They don't look like more than a knife slit in the worst case. The smallest repairs are unoticeable.

haven't forgotten to take pics, but the marina flooded in a big storm and we couldn't go out this weekend. Boat is fine, though it is sitting on the trailer in a foot of water under its shelter. Will take them as soon as possible

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  • 7 months later...

When i had me boat in at topside marine (408.224.2628) for some repairs last june,

they had a guy come out and fix several of these annoying little tears on my 93 bu.

After ~100 put on the boat since then. (nearly every weekend out july-oct) they are still fine.

Maybe this year will prove different?

cheers

chad

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thanks Chale, I can't believe that we can fake a moon landing in an Arizona warehouse yet we still can't repair vinyl properly.

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