SKINS OR COMPLETE UPHOLSTERY FOR 1991 SN

[Chexi]

How's the rest of the re-upholstery job going David? My skins are due to arrive within the next 2 weeks. I now have a new compressor and pneumatic upholstery staple gun waiting for a job to do.

[DavidF]

I am almost done with the entire bow area including the pass-thru side panels. What I can tell you is that it takes time and patience to get it stretched just right and all (most anyway) the wrinkles out of the vinyl. Buy thousands of staples. I will probably have gone through two thousand staples on just the bow and pass-thru alone. Doing this without a pneumatic stapler woudl be unbearable.

I will take photos once I put the bow pieces back in place. One very important hint: Use heat. Especially on the pieces you think simply will not pull/fit over the cushion. Heat allows the vinyl to stretch. I neglected this step on the forward most bow cushion and tore a seam on the new skin. Luckily it was in a place that will be covered by another piece of material....but still. Good luck.

And, don't forget to keep that stapler oiled up....you are going to use it a ton. Make sure you keep the air pressure down or the staples will cut through the vinyl. I found 75-80 psi about right.

[Chexi]

Thanks for the advice David. I bought 10,000 stainless 3/8" upholstery staples. I thought that was way overkill... but maybe not.

[gride300]

im not positive but i think using steam on the material before applying helps alot.

[DavidF]

Yes, steam is a good method as it provides the heat with reduced risk of burning the material. I am using a utility heater and heat gun. I do not recommend the heat gun due to the risk of burning the material, but I am keeping it moving and at a good distance away.

George at Nautique Skins (aka Christine's) recommends leaving the skin in the sun for a period of time (?) before installing. That would be fine if the sun was out and you have the patience...I do not. I have now resorted to heating the garage and keeping the temp around 75 degrees.

[DavidF]

For those interested, I am still working on replacing ALL the skins in my '99 NSS. The task has proven to be very diffilcult and I consider myself a very capable person. For those who will attemp the same, my biggest piece of advice is to avoid stretching the new vinyl on too tight. I made this mistake in the bow. I stretched the new skins on tight enough to get ALL the wrinkles out of the skin. The pieces looked terrific on the workbench, but when I went to install in the boat, it was painfully obvious that the cushions no longer fit snugly together, but now more a loose fit with gaps. I guess I compressed the foam and descreased the height of the cushions. Now working on teh observers seat and it has another set of challenges in gettign the listings at the right height and in teh correct place. I left wrinkles in the skin to avoid the problems I had up front and my thoughts are that the vinyl will shrink a bit and the wrinkles (more like loose vinyl) will go away with time. Each cushions takes me several hours. Definately a time consuming task.

[nautiqueproski]

Re: RE: SKINS OR COMPLETE UPHOLSTERY FOR 1991 SN

An entire new interior will be about $3,500. Conctact Midwest Correct Craft as they usually have or can get the patterns.

I bought a complete set of skins for $950 for my 2004 Ski 196 Limited Edition from a link I found on Google. The link was http://www.nautiqueupholstery.com but it went to a company called Copycat Covers in Florida, I sent them an enquiry and I ordered a set of skins. I was a bit Skeptical at first but when they arrived a week later I was well impressed, the vinyl was thick high quality and all foam backed and the stitches were reinforced with nylon seatbelt type material the best part was because the vinyl was foam back like my original ones it look great when I stapled them onto the frames, plus they sent me all the trim and backing for free so that I could hide the staples and make the back side of the seats look nice, plus they also included the logo. If anyone would like to see pictures of my boat let me know and I will send you them. 8-)

[Rock Toy]

I would love to see those pics of the copycat covers. I don't need all new skins....just a few seat bottoms and thought about going this route.

[areford]

Copycat Covers

I just recently finished a complete replacement of my interior from copycat covers. They did a great job and the installation went very well. I would consider them in the future based on the quality and workmanship they have displayed.

[gride300]

is that 3500.00 for just vinyl?

[Rock Toy]

Yes, Christine's charges around $3,500 for just the "skins". The vinyl with the incorporated base padding. If you need new foam and/or framing, that's extra. I think that I might have to go with Copycat. So far, good reviews and at a third of the price. If I choose to do it, I'll follow up with pics....

[gride300]

when the time comes i'll probably just do it a seat at a time. i don't even want to know how much the average install price is to do the whole thing or get some primal seat covers

[oldski]

For those that have installed the skins, what size staples did you use? I am guessing stainless steel 3/8 inch. Please let me know.

[Chexi]

I used 3/8" narrow crown, but had a lot of difficulty when stapling into fiberglass. I had a dealer do my bow backrest and motorbox cover, and they used a wider crown staple that looked quite a bit heftier all around.

1/4" for throttle pad and any starboard that is not as thick as the seat bottoms.

I think David used T50's, but I can't remember for sure.

[areford]

Skins or complete upholstery for 1991 sn

I used narrow crown as well in 3/8 and 1/4 length to match the original. I bought an air stapler on amazon for 30 bucks that worked great. The wide crown guns and staples are much more expensive.