How to Repair Boat Seats

Vinyl or fabric repairs can be made quickly

If you have a torn seat cover, you can replace the seat cover or you can repair it. If the damage is extensive, replacement may be your only option and you must decide if you want to replace the cover yourself or have it done professionally. If the damage is minimal, though, you can make most repairs with a vinyl repair kit, if you have vinyl seats, or with some heavy thread and a sailmakers needle--the sailmaker's needle is three-sided and slides between the warp and weft of the fabric, rather than puncturing it.

Things You'll Need

• For fabric seat cover repair:
• Sailmakers needles
• Heavy thread
• For vinyl seat cover repair:
• Household iron
• Vinyl repair kit
• Scrap vinyl

Instructions

Fabric Seat Cover Repairs

1. 

   Mark both sides of the tear with dots, indicating where the needle should pass through the material. Thread a sailmakers needle--the smaller the better--with heavy thread.

2. Puncture the fabric at the first dot and come up through its companion on the other side of the tear. Slide the needle down through the tear and come up through the fabric at the third dot, diagonally across from the second dot.

3. Dive through the tear again and come up through the fourth dot. Continue until you have a zigzag pattern the length of the tear. At the last dot, when you come up out of the fabric, cross over to the other side of the tear and repeat the zigzag pattern, diving diagonally through the tear and coming up, until you come up through the dot at the starting point. Tie the ends of the thread together and the repair is complete.

Vinyl Seat Cover Repairs

1. Heat the iron to the temperature recommended in the vinyl repair kit instructions. Bring the edges of the tear together as close as possible. If necessary, insert a small piece of vinyl through the tear to provide a bridge between the two sides of the tear.

2. Apply the vinyl repair material to the tear in the seat cover. Use the amount specified by the vinyl repair kit's instructions

3. Place the graining sheet onto the vinyl repair material and iron, per the instructions in the repair kit. Allow the seat repair to cool completely before using the seat.

References

• Deck Seamanship, Naval Reserve Training Center Manual, Ch. 5, page 9 figure 5-13 (PDF file)

Resources

• Good Boatkeeping