Upholstery Help

[lotas]

put a layer of some thin foam over it. then when you stretch the material or vinyl over it, it will compress and cover the imperfections

Foam from a fabric store or something? Where do you get a sheet of foam like that?

[geolemon]

You'll have to strip your current upholstery off, fill any crevaces (a plastics filler material like Duramix would be better for plastic panels), and then sand, sand, sand - literally until near-perfect.

Even if you are stretching vinyl over it, it's amazing what imperfections show through vinyl.

Carpet is your most forgiving - carpet covers everything.

[joeyc]

well i don't know what bondo you used(probably evercoat if it was yellow, we don't use cheap bondo for what we do), but the kind jr and them have used for years is blue. the company is dynatron, and any filler made by them is good. the one we use in particular is "puttycote", its a polyester filler. Sands EXTREMELY well, even when cured completely. BUT, the one problem in his situation is that bondo is probably harder than the material it is being applied to. So what happens is that the sand paper actually cuts the surface as much if not more than the bondo. An example is when idiots try to sand the shaft on there pool cues, joe you know what i am talking about, the ferril is much harder than the wood so it causes a dip in the wood just before the ferrill. So you would have to put the sand paper on the end of your finger and grind it down. The absolute best way to do it, as someone mentioned above, is to use a grater. We use it all the time in bondoing wood. The grater when used properly, not hard to do, will not cut the surface, only the bondo...which leaves little sanding to do at all. That particular bondo will stick to 99% of surfaces out there, that is why we use it exclusively.

just my 2 cents :)

[joeyc]

Foam from a fabric store or something? Where do you get a sheet of foam like that?

yeah probably a fabric store, like maybe something for a quilt. I would suggest some of secondskin's padding they offer. the thinner stuff is closed cell and would probably be forgiving of imperfections

[JeremyC]

Hay Joey, they have this 1/8 inch thick white foam at American upholstery that works great for prepping a box for vinyl. It does a great job with imperfections, and is thin enough, and dense enough that it doesn't press in when you vinyl over it

[MobileAudio219]

I'd go with the thin foam...

[lotas]

I had to get batting, as their thinnest foam was 1/2" and way too thick, at all the fabric stores I went to

But so far the batting is working great.