Allsport 4-Way Stretch Vinyl | Do-It-Yourself Advice Blog.

The finished PWC seats

After all those high speed, sun soaked times out on the water this season, do your jet ski seats need a refresh? If your seats look brittle and cracked you can reupholster them following our latest how-to tutorial. We’ll show you two different methods of seat re-upholstery as we recover the seats on a 3 person PWC.

On our personal watercraft, the back seat had vinyl molded to the foam. Instead of trying to remove the foam we just added a new layer of vinyl on top of the old. On the front seat, the vinyl was not molded to the foam, so we removed the old vinyl and completely replaced it. The construction methods for both seats were also a little different. To create a tight fit on the contours of the back seat, we sewed multiple fabric panels together to mimic the shape of the seat. For the front seat, we let the fabric contour more loosely over the seat. Since PWC seat styles can vary greatly, you can take the principles from these two methods and apply them to your seat recovery project.

We chose to use Morbern® Allsport vinyl for this project. This material is perfect for personal watercraft seats because it’s stretchable, pliable, durable and easy to clean. The 360-degree, 4-way stretch of this vinyl makes it easy to pattern and upholster with as well. Even though the fabric is easy to stretch, it’s still a good idea to have at least one other person to help you pull the vinyl snugly while stapling it in place.

Brian lends a helping hand as Matt G. staples the vinyl in place

When upholstering with vinyl, it’s a good idea to use staples with a 1/2″ crown. The crown of the staple is the flat part that you see when it’s installed. The 1/2” crown is thicker than traditional staples. Vinyl has a tendency to want to rip through staples so these higher crown staples will hold the vinyl better without ripping.

For the full video and materials list, visit Sailrite.com.

Rear seat stitching

Have you ever re-upholstered a PWC seat? Share your tips and advice with us in the comments!

New year, new projects. We’re entering 2013 with a great list of projects and how-to advice that we can’t wait to share with you! Starting off right, we have a great new how-to video that features a new fabric option, Mobern’s Allsport 4-Way Stretch Vinyl.

We love this vinyl because it makes patterning around contours and frames so easy! The stretch in the fabric is forgiving when patterning (which is great for beginners) and it provides clean lines and a smooth appearance for professional-looking results. To top it all off, Allsport 4-Way Stretch Vinyl is durable and easy to clean. Allsport is great for car interiors, motorcycle seats, ski lift chairs, snowmobiles, tractor seats, personal watercraft, marine seating, and home office seating.

Watch this video to learn how to use this stretchy vinyl fabric to recover a curvy motorcycle seat. Don’t own a motorcycle? Use the techniques as a starting point for other seat recovery projects. This video will walk you through removing the old cover, patterning the top plates and boxing, sewing the plates and boxing, creating fabric pulls, and stapling and stretching the vinyl.

Mobern’s Allsport 4-Way Stretch Vinyl is available in a variety of colors at www.sailrite.com