If you love to fish but have your fish cleaning station quite far from the sea, you will have trouble in your boat. Although you may have a cooler or an ice box to store the fish, and God forbid, you don’t plan to clean the fish in your boat, still the sun and salt water will affect the vinyl in your boat.

Your boat upholstery takes the worst effect of the sun, especially if you have vinyl material on the seats. The salt and sun will crack the shiny and smooth surface of the vinyl, wear and tear it away. The worst is when water gets in to the foam of the seat. This will cause mold to grow. At a time like this it is best to replace the seats.

Things You Need For Boat Replacement

Although most people will advise you to get the replacement done by a professional, still you have to at least attempt it. Granted it will be quite challenging but you will save money compared to having done by professionals. The items that you need for vinyl boat seat replacement are a seam ripper. This should be a quality one or else the upholstery will break it. You must select a vinyl material of your choice, if you were planning on changing the design or theme of your boat upholstery, now would be a good time. You will also need one inch thick foam rubber sheets, some pins, some stain less steel staples, a screw driver and plier, some zipper bags, a permanent marker, some foam glue or adhesive and some needles that are leather strength, for the sewing machine.

How To Do The Replacement?

The first step is to prepare the vinyl, when choosing the vinyl remember, dark colors will retain more heat compared to light colors. Then you must assemble new foam, needles and your sewing machine. Remember to not use the old foam, they would be worn away. Pull apart the old seats from the boat. You must then use the pliers and screw driver to remove the hardware from the back rests and for each seat have a zipper bag marked with a marker and put the hardware in their respective bags. Then you must proceed to remove the covers from the frame, flip over for the staples and remove the vinyl. Trace the new vinyl with the old also add half an inch for sewing and cut it out. Add new foam and pull cover tightly, staple the vinyl to it, and then fix them to the boat. Even though there is no prevention for salt water to touch the boat seats until you transport the fish to the fish cleaning station, still they can last for some time.