tcelano

Hi All,

I have an older Cigarette that does not have any padding around the cockpit sides and fairing like most of others of '80's and newer vintage.

I was going to order some marine foam and marine vinyl to match the color scheme, and have at it.

My question is, how are these attached? I can't see any exposed fasteners in most of the pictures I see. Are they glued, velcro'd, etc, or are there screws hidden under the edges or something?

I'm wondering if the padding should have it's own plywood, plastic, or aluminum backing plate, or if it should be just built in place over the existing fiberglass. Seems like making templates out of doorskin would be a good start regardless of how it is to be attached.

I'd like this to look halfway decent, but am really building it to soften the blow should we get the boat crossed up. I've done almost every other project, but I am a complete newbie where uhpolstry is concerned.

Thanks!

mr3dman

you can do it one of two ways. Use a marine ply or use a plastic lumber base with foam on top then wrapped in the vinyl stapled to the board on the back side. Cut the boards to a slightly loose fit first and drill your mounting holes in the board and cockpit. You can then mount studs or blind nuts into the front side of the board and then finish them. Just be sure to keep track of the orientation of the boards so the holes line up when reinstalling them when finished. You may have to enlarge the boat side holes to allow fitting due to the padding and vinyl thickness. Keep that in mind. hope this helps a bit

tcwcar

iTrader: (1)

Just took mine off on my 2000 cig, the panels are held on by black," i call them christmas trees" theres a stud that is shaped like a christmas tree, they just push in to a hole, i use a plastic ply tool you can get at NAPA or any auto parts store....my backing is plywood that got some type of resin on it and the vinyl is glued and stapled to it.....

mr3dman

cool deal, I have never seen the tree type of keepers used on a boat. Holes have to be spot on for that to work though.

tcelano

Thanks guys.

That makes sense for the panels, but what about for the top of the fairing. That is tricky because there is no access from the inside for studs, and it has to be on there good because it will be out in the wind, and it will most likely get grabbed while docking, etc.

mr3dman

Why would you want vinyl on the top of the fairing? But if you have to, you make up the panel and drill a pilot hole and drive a SS screw in with the male side of a button and cover it up with the female side done in the color of the vinyl.

tcelano

Most of the Cigs seem to have padding around the top of the coaming as well.

Thanks

tcwcar

iTrader: (1)

I'm getting that recovered as we speak, mine was held on with the same "christmas trees" no screws or studs, just the trees.....it popped right off

BDiggity

i just made all new cockpit panels & had them wrapped. Cig did it just as tcwcar explained. all my fasteners are hidden.

when i replaced the wood trim around the berth entrance w/ padded vinyl, i had to use the procedure mr3dman explained. But i dont think it looks as good as the plastic fasteners.