How to fix small tear in vinyl seat

[viking]

I have a small tear in my vinyl on the observer's seat and want to fix it before it turns into a BIG tear or something where I'll need a new skin. What's the best fix?

[Jceclipse01]

you can tape a nice box around the tear and apply clear shoe goo i did it 2 years ago and not have any trouble out of it. you can pick up shoe goo at most shoes places

[Rugburn]

A few years ago I poked through my seat with a tube inflator. I found a local upholstery repair place in the yellow pages. He had these liquid tubes and mixed it like paint to match the hue of my seats. He also had this round texture things that he rolled over the repair so the "grain" of the vinyl would match the repair. I have a hard time finding where the repair, even today.

Prequalify a guy over the phone that he has done this kind of work and you will be a lot happier than sweating it out doing it yourself. I think he charged me 80 bucks.

[bergermaister]

I second Rugburn on this one. I attempted a few small repairs with a $25 do-it-yourself mixing kit, little hot iron and texture pieces and the results were ok at best to mediocre for the most part. Find a guy who knows what he's doing - money well spent!

[_sT_]

Shoe goo is a temporary fix (well it's actually pretty permanent) that solves the problem of the tear not getting worse, plus it keeps water out. But once you do that, I don't think that vinyl repairs will work anymore. I inherited a few of those on my boat when I bought it - the PO used crazy glue but I don't think I can fix them now short of recovering or cutting the section out and patching. So, to hide them, I used white silicon (I have the blessing and the curse of having snow-white upholstery with green trim). The white silicon actually works really well.

I have however put one of my own tears in the vinyl, and I'm contemplating this fix as well - though being an older boat I may attempt a kit. Either way, I've used white silicon to seal it until I decide either way - nice thing about silicon is that it peels off. Crazy glue or Shoe goop doesn't.

[sandm]

guy here charges $60/hr and can repair 5-6 in an hour. def. money well spent..

http://www.asseenontvguys.com/index....ROD&ProdID=148
you can try this kit, but personally, I'm going to pay to have mine fixed this winter.