DIY Vinyl Repair Kits... Sucess or Blunder Stories-gctid342943

[Guest]

Hi All,

I have developed few cracks in my upholstery. I was researching online and there is a repair kit made by Permatex. It is a seven step process that promises to match the colour and grain of the fabric.

Has anyone used this kit or similar ones and if so what was your experience, easy, hard, results etc.

Thanks in advance

91 2655

"Anchor Management"

Lake Simcoe

Ontario, Canada

[Canemah_Patriot]

love2speed wrote:
I have developed few cracks in my upholstery. I was researching online and there is a repair kit made by Permatex. It is a seven step process that promises to match the colour and grain of the fabric.

Has anyone used this kit or similar ones and if so what was your experience, easy, hard, results etc.

I used this on the seats of an old open bow Larson boat. It was easy to use and seemed to make a sturdy repair. Getting the color just right was tricky, and getting the grain to match was done by slecting the right "texture mold" from a series of plastic squares provided in the kit. You press the textured plastic square into the patch liquid before it cures. I recall that for tears, I had to slip a piece of backing material through the hole and somehow stick it in place (I don't remember if that was done with a clothes iron or what). Anyway, the repairs were a great improvement and a good way to stave-off the cost of re-upholstering the boat.

[kwb]

It works for vinyl that is still soft - if you have cracking then I would say you are too far gone and time for new vinyl.

I have used it with reasonable results but high traffic/stretched areas like the active part of a seat isn't probably going to be a place where you will get a repair to last a long time.

[richardson]

I have not tried the kit by Permatex; but in the past used similar ones with limited success. In places subject to flexing and stretching (as seats) they did not work well. In areas like an arm rest the results were better but still not a permanent fix.

[Mocoondo]

Once you have cracks, the vinyl is too far gone to repair with a kit.

Also, those kits are basically junk. If your boat is even just halfway decent, you will not want to junk up the vinyl with a patch kit.

If you do elect to try a repair, give your local automobile dealership a call and ask them who they use for upholstery repair. Every auto dealership has a local guy who comes right to their lot on a regular basis to do interior repairs. The guy I use has a process that involves an airbrush and he can even get the grain of the vinyl to look perfect. Once the repair is done, there is no evidence that the area was ever damaged. He has done a few worn spots on my boat over the years and it comes out perfect.