[apickens99]

Hello all. I recently purchased a 1998 Z272 Bowrider. The boat needs some of the upholstery freshened up among a few other things. So this weekend I began the process. I took out the seats and will be taking them to a local shop that I have used in the past to do the work. I was wondering what your opinions were about keeping as close to the original pattern and colors as possible.

Here is what I am pondering... The rear seats are mostly white with a maroon stripe in them. I thought about eliminating this maroon stripe and going with solid white. Doing so will obviously cut down on the cost a bit and IMO getting rid of the seams in the middle of the seat cushions would improve the durability in the long run. I see often that rips tend to occur at the seams especially those that are high use areas from people getting in and out.

I would like the opinions of fellow Mariah owners... have you had problems with seams ripping out as I described? Would it hurt the value of the boat at all to alter the original patters/colors?

I am not planning on using the original vinyl that Mariah used but a very similar high quality marine grade vinyl.

I have attached a couple "before" pictures. Your opinions would be appreciated before I commit.

Thanks!

[depman160]

My 1992 2000Z has similar issues, like yours, with the seats in the bow.....I used cloth tape (similar to duct tape) on the tears to protect them a little, but I think when mine get redone, I am going to pick a solid color that matches the boat and just go with that.

[SEMIJim]

We were faced with the same decision on our '94 182 Barchetta, which is the blue/green colour. The sun deck, bench seats, two front side seats and the seat over the cooler all had damage, mostly on seams. To make matters worse: As I was cleaning her in preparation for winter storage, on a cold day, I put more cracks in the sun deck vinyl . All that stuff is in for reupholstering even now. We briefly considered eliminating the blue/green vinyl, but we found a colour sample that matches so closely that we felt that, especially after a bit of time in the sun, nobody will see the difference, and we felt that going with all white would detract significantly from the boat's beauty--particularly on that large-ish sun deck surface.

Everybody that sees our boat exclaims on how pretty she is. And she is . We wanted to keep that.

Jim

[DGR-Z246-98]

Same problem on my 98 Z246 with some of the sunpad seems, think the vinyl has done well to last 11 years though. Would love to replace all the upholstery if only I trusted someone enough to do it like the original.

Wish some of the original Mariah staff on here would start up an upholstery business, bet there would be a few takers!!

Let us know how you get on...

[ttownmatt]

We have the same problem redoing mine this winter in all white.