Re-Upholstering My 330 SS . . . .


T

tpenfield

Member
I have been busy over the winter so far. The 23 yo vinyl upholstery was getting brittle and starting to crack. Sooo, I decided to take on the re-upholstery as a DIY project. I got myself an industrial sewing machine designed for upholstery & leather, did some practicing on some spare vinyl and went about making new vinyl skins.

I changed up the design a little bit to give the boat a fresh look. I also contacted TAG to get the vinyl color names/codes. They no longer stocked the colors, but gave me the name of the place that they sold their old stock to. My boat is the 'Palm Beach' colors of the 1990's (pink/purple/light green).

I was able to get the original pink, matched the purple, but could not find the light green. So, I settled on a darker green.

Here is the original color and design . . . (click thumbnails for larger view of pictures)

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Here is the same seat backrest that I made new . . . I changed the ends to be 'banded' rather than wrap-around, went with a 'channel' vinyl in the top white section, and added a little bit of color on the sides.

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I did have to re-make some of the seat base boards and backrest framework. . .
This piece (below) was completely rotted in part of it . . . the lighter wood is the new section that I made.

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Here are some pictures of the new vinyl seats for the U-shape cockpit seating . . .

The new seat bases and backrest set up in my kitchen for looks.

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I added the pink/green striping to the sunpad, which previously was just plain white.

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This is a view of the forward part of the U-shaped seating.

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Here is the helm seat - re-designed . . .

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I have finished the vinyl work (took about 3 months working nights & weekends). Next steps are to assemble all this stuff back into the boat. Right now I got all the stuff (13 pieces total) loaded into 2 cars ready to take them to the summer house (where the boat is located). I probably won't install them until April, when the weather warms up a bit. I'll post some updates then.

In making these new vinyl skins, I came to realize that the Formula upholstery is fairly complicated in its design. Lots of colors and shapes to deal with, which I found challenging at times.
 
Great job Ted, be sure to post pics of everything installed in the boat. BTW, you have an understanding significant other to let you take over the kitchen like that :)
 
Nice work. I bough a machine a couple years ago and make a new seat skin or two every winter. Last year I did a new cockpit cover, I have a 40 PC so it took up my entire living room. This summer I'm going to work on a winter cover.
 
Forgot to mention . . .

Before I made the new vinyl skins, I made a new mooring cover (sunbrella) and repaired the bimini and its storage cover, replacing all of the zippers. I did all of this just for practice before taking on the vinyl. The right machine makes all the difference in the world. When I owned my F-242SS, I made a new set of skins for the rear bench seat using a household machine . . . it was quite the struggle and came out nowhere near as nice.

Here are a few pics of the canvas work . . .

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I just need to install the remaining snaps along the perimeter (about 50 of them), which I figured I needed on the boat itself for an exact fit.

Since the boat is fairly old, I did not want to sink a ton of money into it (thinking of selling in a few years). Although I figured if I did not fix the canvas and vinyl now, they would deteriorate to the point of being unusable and a barrier to selling the boat in the future.

My cost was about $3K for the canvas and seat work (including the sewing machine). The same work through local shops probably would have totaled about $8-10K (I guesstimate).
 
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The seats are all done and installed . . .

Here are a few pictures of the end result.

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Now onto the cabin interior work. :)
 
Wow that looks great, you nailed it. I have a question for you if you don't mind. I've got a 98 280ss and the seam on the aft seat bottom of the D lounge, or seat bottom on the engine hatch is coming apart. I've been told that I will need to remove that cushion in order to have it repaired. My question is how can that be removed? I can not find any visible fasteners. Any info would be helpful.

Thanks,
Caleb
 
Looks great! You had mentioned that you redesigned the helm seat. Did you add the stand up bolster? I have a 1997 and do not have the swing up portion for standing. Do you see this as an easy addition?

-Robbery
 
Thanks, guys.

@Caleb - - - Pull the insulation on the underside of the engine hatch to expose the screws

@Robbery - - - I redesigned the vinyl pattern, not the seat. The seat was always the flip-up style.
 
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Thanks guys . . .

As I was going through the boat this past weekend, making a few final tweaks to the seats, I came across the 'filler' cushion for the stowable sunpad area. . . still in the old vinyl. Sooo, I'm working on that now, re-making the filler cushion using some of the spare vinyl I have left. Will post a few pics when done.
 
Amazing work @tpenfield. I know its an old thread but with your experience on the subject I have to bring it back, how did you remove the sitting surface of the seat behind the helm. It looks like there is a nice little unused "box' that I'm hoping to sneak a sub into?
 
Somehow, I missed this post from October - But I just answered the PM.

FWIW - I am now re-upholstering a newer boat that I bought after selling the 330SS.
 
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