Upholstery Repair

[Rogerscasey31]

Has anyone repaired the seams of a skin? I took this to a local upholstery shop and they want $180 to repair but a new skin from C&S is $217. I'm going to check around and see if I can find a better price or try it myself.

[bturner]

Labor is the issue along with quality of the repair at least up here. For something like this someone is going to have at least 2-3 hours into pulling the seat, removing the skin, properly sewing it to match the stitching then putting it back together if they're doing it right. The skin on the other hand if fairly simple to make from patterns but unless you plan to in the installation you'll still have the labor to install the new skin and I doubt unless you get someone doing it as a hobby or retirement job is going to want to mess with it for less than $100.The other issue with the skin is that although the material is probably the same, it won't have the age which will make that panel stick out.

I've done several flip boats over the years and upholstery is the gating factor on making or losing money and many of the used boats. Up here in the north a new interior for something like a 07 SAN can easily hit $6K to $7K depending on what needs to be done and what shop you have doing it. I've heard Texas is dirt cheap with Florida coming in a close second for interior work.

The other option you could try is a doing it yourself with a repair needle kit. I've heard others swear by these.....

https://www.michaels.com/loops-and-t...xoC3vsQAvD_BwE

[SilentSeven]

Is that an original skin? How long do you plan to keep the boat?

On my 97 Ski - now sold - I basically had decided I was going to replace a couple skins a year until I got through the entire boat. Not that anything was horrible, just the realization that at 20-ish years old, they are typically at the end of their life. To some extent, any original skin in the boat showed some amount hardening / micro cracks / stitching issues and it was just a matter of time before they were done.

If you plan to keep the boat for a while, invest in the new skin. If you don't, have someone stitch it but its likely throwaway money after a year or two.

It's not hard to install most skins. There a few tricks and you need a few simple tools. A staple remover and pneumatic upholstery staple gun. Learn to do it yourself and save!