Routing seadeck?

[t.franscioni]

anyone ever worked with the sheet blanks of seadeck and cut and routed the edges themselves? If so looking for advice on that process.

[NAWTEAK]

I've done it by hand a few times, it looks OK. I used a blade and steel rule for straight edges, very sharp upholstery shears for curved stuff and a side sander for small radius corners. If I had a bobbin sander that would have cleaned up some inside corners. If u have a real steady hand then an exacto knife can get good results too. Made paper templates first and then tack glued them to the back of the seadek. Personally I think a woven vinyl mat would look better, has a similar feel and is 100 times more durable.

[t.franscioni]

Do you know if the savings is significant if you DIY vs having seadeck cut all your pieces?

[MaineDR]

I started doing my boat last night. Here are my 2 cents. Use mylar to template. I used basic plastic sheeting and it doesn't lay quite as flat. Mylar is more expensive but will make it easier in the long run. When making your template use a straight edge as much as possible. Freehanding may look smooth at first, but when you go to route it it won't look even. When cutting, cut the template to the line, tape to the sheet, and then outline with a thin sharpie. This will get rid of any chance of the template moving. Use a straight edge and razor or very sharp scissors. I actually prefer the scissors. When I set up my router, I used a 1/4" cove bit. 3/8" cove bit may work as well. Set up a vertical and horizontal fence. If the sheet doesn't have the proper down pressure, it will cut shallow. When freehanding with the router, I just left it on the table and pulled my fences and very carefully cut the edges keeping my hands clear. Be careful not to push to hard or the sheet can slip off the roller bearing on the bit and gouge the sheet. After making a few sheets, I am not suuupper happy with the quality of the edges, but overall pretty please with the improvement over carpet. The up sides to doing this yourself is it will be overall faster (no wait time shipping to Seadek and waiting on your sheets) and it only cost me $260 vs $1200+ for the sheets. I only used two sheets. and covered almost my whole boat. Downsides are the edges are a little sloppy, no faux teak look or multi colored edges, and it took more personal time myself. It took 3-4 hours to template and will take almost 6-8 hours to cut, route, and stick down. I can post pictures of my results when I am done. If you are not picky about your boat looking purely factory and cost is a big factor, diy is a decent option.

[t.franscioni]

Wow huge savings! And I actually just want to go with solid grey anyway to keep the look of the boat as close to the original grey carpet as possible plus it will blend in nicely with the remaining grey carpet that will be left on the seat bases and various trim panels throughout the boat. I'll look for your pics when they go up. Thanks.

[MaineDR]

Attached are a few pics of what I did tonight. I still have a good bit of material left over.

[t.franscioni]

Oh ya DIY is definitely doable. Snow camo....Funny how no matter what it is you can never go wrong if it's in camo.

[MaineDR]

Yeah I was a little worried how it would look, but I liked they dynamic look vs. a solid look of the other colors they offered. I really wish they still offered the two tone sheets so that you get a black edge when you route them. I did email Seadek about custom ordering them, and I think that you can but it takes longer to get them. I think it is about the same price though of roughly $150 per sheet. I ordered these through boatstore.com from about $130 a sheet.

[MaineDR]

Also I think leaving the carpet on the seat bases is wise. I've had a few small areas on the larger seat chip already in small areas with the monstaliner. It is rock solid on all the fiberglass components and the other two seat bases. I did prep this one a little different than the others, but just wise not to mess around with it at all and save on all the disassembly time. I will likely have to recoat the one seat again later on. I want to see how it wears over time. Although I think you have an '02 which should have a fiberglass main rear seat. Mine is plastic on my '00.

[spiralhelix]

i did a very small area for my bow. i barely had enough material as you can only buy specific sheet sizes, so i didnt even try routing in case it didnt go well. plus the straight edges worked well in my application. i did get a quote for custom and it was about 4x the cost. look was less important than function for me. here is a link that has my pics.

http://www.correctcraftfan.com/forum...eadek-opinions

[t.franscioni]

Does anyone know if the brushed seadeck is offered as a DIY sheet? All I see on seadeck website for sale is the raised dot seadeck.

[homer12]

I've been told by Seadek a while ago you can't get the brushed in sheets. I will say though, there are some places on eBay that are selling very similar looking brushed and faux teak styled in sheets. I don't know why Seadek isn't yet


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[homer12]

Also, I've researched either here or another forum in the past and found someone who had used something like this to get a beveled edge. I think routing would look better if you can get straight edges.
https://www.amazon.com/NT-Cutter-deg...ame+mat+cutter

[homer12]

Hey T.franscioni, I just contacted SC Wake and they will do the Brushed Teak in sheets for you!