Grady Pleated Vinyl

jasgator5220

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Trying to locate where I can buy marine vinyl for the port side bolster on my 257. It's channeled (vertical channels) and everything I'm finding online has horizontal channeling (running along the length rather than up and down the width of the roll). I want to avoid sewing two pieces together as the bolster is longer (ball park 80") than the width of a typical 54" roll. I was quoted $475, but I'm too cheap to pay that when I believe it is something I can do myself.

Thanks in advance . . .
 

jasgator5220

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Found what I was looking for . . . link below for the benefit of others.


 
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mhinch

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Thanks to both of you guys for posting what you were able to source. This will save others (me) time when doing ours.
 

Flot

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I realize of course that Grady is tight lipped about a lot of things, but has nobody been able to source the exact vendor? Those two above look to be from two different companies...
 

glacierbaze

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GW has always been good about telling you who the OEM supplier was, when they know it, but I don't expect a company who has been building boats for over 60 years to have a record of who they bought every item from.
 

Flot

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Well there are two different answers above, but some quick reading on old threads also references "sea quest" so maybe that's the ticket.

Most of my cushions are in good shape and appear to be oem, but I have a couple outliers - I'd prefer to match them rather than redo the whole boat.
 

seasick

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I used the Seaquest brand. They make pleated, plain and piping in matching colors. Materials come in many colors, I think there are three hues of 'white'. I got mine from
but that was a lot of years ago.
I also used the perforrated fabric that may be on the bottom edge of things like bolsters and cushion bottoms. That fabric allows water to drain out.
I Used this product which I see is available on Amazon

I think I used the almond Phifertex but it's not critical, you can'r easily see the bottom edges
 

Hookup1

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Sailrite is good with DIY boaters. Helpful and lots of videos. There are several manufactures of that type vinyl material. I did some coming pads, seat and helm chair with this stuff.

Another tip - my coaming pad on the port side curved around the corner and "leaked" a brown stain all the time. I opened it up and found a piece of wood at the corner that joined the plastic strips. I stuck a few stainless screws in it, bent1/8" stainless rod to form the corned and used a two-part plastic wood (house window repair material) to fill the corner out. No more stains! If you're doing them over look for this and lastly use stainless staples.
 

Blaugrana

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Just following up on this thread, what material did you end up going with? I was looking to redo the bolsters for my 2000 228.

Is the better match Seaquest Chalk white or Seaquest Sea white? Or something else?
 

Fishtales

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what seasick says. i went with sea white and it matched perfect.
 

Fishtales

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I went with Sea White. I also had a piece of Oyster shipped. Oyster was a little darker but I'd say any will work.
 

Flot

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Well, I'm fishing with my bolsters for another season, but I'm still trying to sort this out.. In addition to seaquest as above, another poster on here insists the oem grady vinyl is Voyager Soft Sand by Nautolex SKU #513784.

Anyone taken the cushions from a mid-2000s grady and done a direct comparison with materials?
 

seasick

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Comparison of what? As noted I redid bolsters on my 2001 more than a few years ago. I did use Seaquest Chalk and it wasn't a perfect match color wise but it was a perfect match physically; pleat thickness, width and welded seams size. Since I don't normally have the rear cushions installed, the color difference was not obvious. In addition, I would expect that the current color of your bolsters are not the same as in 2000.
You can get samples of the different colors and that is probably a good idea.
Disclaimer: In general I don't see colors all that well and I wouldn't rely on my color matching abilities at all:)
 

seasick

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That turn which is also on the 208 was the trickiest part and required several pieces of plain vinyl sewn to make the corner. I carefully took the old bolsters apart ( pulled the stitching) and used those pieces as patterns.
Since my rear lockers/seats are narrow, not having the turn probably wouldn't look or feel right.
 

Blaugrana

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I’ll let someone with a better memory jump in, but I used the other Seaquest color. It was a perfect match for my 2000 228 but many of my cushions were stored year round in the cuddy.