Welcome to the board mariah_virginia! You'll find answers to all your questions here!
1. The gold shields are very hard to come by these days, occasionally they'll show up on ebay, usually fetching about $125 for a pair of them, however a few of our members have purchased the new Silver shields from Sea Fox Mariah (for about $20 each). They say once they're installed, you can barely see the silver. Here's a writeup one of our members put together.
Installing new shields
2.
Swimplatforms.com makes the best aftermarket swim platform, and we have quite a few members who have those as well. Price is around $1500-$2000 and that's without professional installation.
3. The upholstery can be done by any local canvas or auto upholstery shop. The original vinyl is called "Nautolex with Prefixx", it's still available, and is somewhat expensive, but worth it if you'd like to keep your Mariah as beautiful as it was originally.
4. I'm assuming when you say "replacement vinyl covers" that you're talking about the bow & cockpit covers? If so, this is where I'll advise you to stray from the OEM material and use Sunbrella fabric. It's much more durable, easy to clean, and readily available. Contact your local marine canvas shop to build you new ones. They'll come out and take the measurements for a custom fit. Don't ever skimp on "universal fit" covers, because there's a 99.9% chance it won't fit right.
Hope this helps. All of these subjects have been discussed before here on the board, some with much more detailed information than what I've given. Feel free to browse around the board and get yourself educated! If you have any other questions, by all means, feel free to ask. We're all here to help!
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