Re: Restoring a 1989 19' Sunbird Eurosport bowrider
Carsten, When I renovated my 1988 19' SeaRay Bowrider, I bought some marine vinyl which matched some pre-made back-to-back seats I bought. Ask for samples so you make sure you like the color and texture. I then cut and stiched all the bow cushions, the rear jump seats and the rear cover over the navy cover storage area. I thought that the back-to-back seats were too hard to make in comparison to the sale price you could get them for, so I bought them premade. The balance of the cushions had plywood bases, so the sides did not need to be perfect in order to get a good job, since the imperfections could be hidden under the plywood.
I used my Grandmother's dress factory Singer Sewing machine from the 40's. iIt only has one type of stich, but it can sew 6 layers of marine vinyl. I also used polyester coat thread to sew the pieces and stainless stapels to attach it to the bases. I used 1/8 nylon line as the core for the cording I made, using the cording foot. I ended up using 4-5 spools of thread and 75' of cording. The entire job took 1 day to cut and sew. It took another day to cut new plywood bases and seal 'em up, before I installed the cushions. I reused the original foam.
