Hired a local vinyl guy. Do you guys think this is acceptable?
 

Hired a local guy and this is how it came out. I asked him to fix some things, wrinkles, many of the lines are not straight, and he used a piece that has a crease in it before he even cut and sewed it in. He told me he doesn't care about my expectations and that I owe him the full value.

What do you guys think, am I being too picky?

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/...ps48c44cb8.jpg
http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5a97d82f.jpg
http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/...ps685633ec.jpg
http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8c6ff218.jpg

Guess I'm too picky too........that sucks!

It wouldn't make it's way into anything I owned.

awful . . .

+1 all.

He wants to charge me $1700 for this and says he's keeping my seat until I pay. Just on the moral level here I don't want to pay the guy 1 cent, because you are exactly right. That thing is not making onto my boat. So, now it seems I have to take the guy to small claims court to get my seat back.

My local trusted boat dealer/mechanic highly suggested him. The vinyl guys claims he has 30 years experience.

I'm so upset about all of this, and I'm slowly missing out on the short season.

+1 more...that looks like CHIT.

Wow. Guy needs a career change if he's proud of that work. :bong:

Looks like a 5 year old did it. Sorry you have to deal with it, I'd tell him to take his vinyl back and shove it up his azz. And 1700?!?!?!? Are you kidding me!

Good luck.

I was much more professional then that but yes I asked him to remove his vinyl and give me the seat back. He disagreed, went to the boat dealer and took the seat somewhere so I couldn't get to it.

Not good at all I would be piss also, unfortunately you may have to pay if you want your seat back before summer is over. Another board member GLH is from Burlington area maybe he could recommend someone to clean that up.

What's the boat? Might be able to find you a seat...

I don't know GLH but I do know of him. I guess he's had some work done by this guy on the Azimut. I haven't seen it myself and I'm guessing it doesn't look like this. I believe it was simple square couch cushions or something but not positive.

2000 Fastech 382

It would be cheaper to have it made over from scratch than to get it back...

I would not pay for that type of work.

DAM! What BS :bsflag: and now he holds your seat hostage.

You just need to talk sweet and negotiate the re-work that needs to be done to the seat :asskiss: It sucks but going to court will cost you a lot more in the long run as well as buying a new seat.

Good luck

Perhaps you might ask him if he'd mind if you provided him some exposure / advertising by posting photos of his work (your seat) at the local marinas & dealers? That would surely help to make other aware of the fine quality of his work, and maybe gain (or cost ) him some business. I'm enough of a hard head to put that on a billboard right outside of his shop & tell the world about his "craftsmanchit". He'll have a damned tough time blaming that crap work on anything but himself....

I would lean on your dealer / mechanic a bit and see if they can talk some sense into him. I realize they have no dog in the fight, but to J.B.'s point I'm sure they won't send anymore business his way if he sticks to this attitude. Worth a few phone calls for sure.

FWIW, that is completely unacceptable for $1700. HOWEVER, He should be given the chance to "fix" it. The right heat and a re-stretch after a week and it should be OK.

Small claims is $2500 or more... so that is bullcrap.

Either way, you can be just as much of a prick. Have everybody from OSO start emailing him and say they will give him more negative publicity than he can handle. If he wants to play dirty... you can too.

Thanks guys, hearing your opinions really gives me the confidence that I'm not out of line here. The dealer brokered the whole deal but now that it went negative they tell me I have to deal with him direct. I had no direct communication with him until I was asked to share my "concerns" directly when I didn't like what I saw. I'm really bummed out the boat shop isn't standing up to the guy. They are careful what they say but they have said enough to indicate to me that they agree the work completed was poor and doesn't fit into the quality of the rest of my boat.

You might find an atty that will "broker" a resolution for you. Certainly faster than small claims. And if the guy is a colossal jerk, you've got someone to give you advice on how best to handle it.

Did the dealer charge you any fee to "broker" the work? If they did, they may have a dog in the fight too.

Well they set it up and then I was supposed to pay them not the vinyl guy. So vinyl guy and dealer are being hush about the dealers cut which is understandable, that's normal business. Dealer has offered the info that they don't care about their piece of it at this point.

This whole deal has been at a stand still for 2+ weeks.

IF you've paid the dealer anything for that work, they have a "shared" responsibility as well. While it is normal business to "subcontract" work and charge a reasonable fee (mark up) the "prime contractor" is not relieved of responsibility unless you've agreed to release him of responsibility.

Better Business Bureau (BBB) may be the way to go. The issue is quality of the work done. Nobody (nobody) would say that is a quality job. Poor amateur quality at best.

Just for comparison, I re-upholstered the seat of my 242 myself . . . no professional training or nothing.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Etpenfield...fore-After.jpg

The top image is OEM, the bottom image is my handy work.

I haven't paid anybody anything at this point. I have been pretty clear that I feel the dealer stays involved.

Wow that looks really nice tpenfield. Want to come do mine?

You need to hold the dealer responsible as he set the whole thing up and, as such, has a vested interest in the transaction!

I would tell them both to pack sand. Especially the "so called" dealer that totally threw you to the sharks. Start over, the internet is a powerful tool for finding stuff. Get another seat from a wreck or whatever and go to a upholstery guy that has a clue. It may cost you more then the $1700 but it will also be right. That is not right. How anybody could expect to get paid for that is beyond me. Most likely, when you tell them to keep it, they'll come around and offer it to you at material cost, then you can go elsewhere and get it fixed. I would still bad mouth both of them anywhere I could. That is your pound of flesh and they both deserve it.

I'd want to know why the "dealer" let the upholstery guy take your seat back!

It is not that bad. But for 1700 it should be much better.

No way! Not 1700 worth. Tell him too tighten it up or come off price. I tried to upholster once and it looked better than that. I just can't sew around curves or straight line for that matter and it was better than that

I'd build myself a ply wood bench before I paid $1700 for that. I would tell the guy I would rather buy a new seat than give him a dollar for that work. That way he gets nothing and is stuck tripping over a seat that he won''t be able to sell.

because they are in bed together and are both looking to F this guy for $

I would stay the hell away from the middleman "dealer" from here forward also
they should have called the dude out on the work right when he dropped it off...
especially for that kind of coin.

They all sound like dirtbags to me.

I will tell you my little reupholster nightmare. that happened about 5 years ago that will make you feel you are not alone Ryan.

I have a little 19 foot Baron that is the same design that the Powerplay/Powerquest 185 xlt originated from.

My older brother designed and used to build them in Michigan back in the late 70s and they had a tuck and roll interior very simalar to what you find in a 27 magnum with all the skins stapled to wood with no formed corners or anything difficult just a nice simple tuck and roll .

I had the privileged when i was 14 to help build the boats and even assist the old hippie that used to make our interiors that were immaculate at his shop.Nothing to hard to sew if you have the patterns and if the tuck and roll sheets have been sewed 1st which also was nothing hard to do even as a 14 year old.

So 31 years later I still own one of our original boats that we built and I decided to put it in the water for the 1st time in 20 years .

I am sitting at the gas station putting gas in it and a guy jumps off a Harley and comes up to the boat and goes hey cool boat what kind is it.So I tell him the story behind it and he tells me he has a shop with his dad doing interiors and that the interior was showing its age.

After telling me how many years experience he had and that he did nothing but top notch work he convinced me to skip the boat ride for the day and and he could do a hell of a job doing duplicating and could have the new skins back 3 days after I dropped the old ones off to him to use as patterns.

I said cool but I will buy the foam and Naugahyde and piping as I wanted the best material money could buy. He said no problem 1200 for labor for sewing the skins.This is for 2 bucket seats and a bench seat top and bottom and .side bolsters.All white with red piping.

So I canceled the 1st maiden voyage in 20 years and went home and stripped off the aged but presentable interiopiping andr of the skins for patterns .

Next morning I go out and buy 400 dollars of Naugahyde and and the thin foam you need for doing tuck and roll.and drop off the interior skins at his shop.

Next day I happen to notice the driver side bolster panel skin was still in the boat so I run across town to drop it off at his shop.

I walk in and he has all my materials sewed not with hidden stitching pleats as a tuck and roll is done but with just a straight simple stitch pleat that shows all the stitching and lets water in the foam.

I told him this is not what I wanted and he flips out on me and said if I expected tuck and roll He needed 3000 and I was crazy to think I was going to get what We had specifically discussed the days before that I was very concerned about exact duplication.

He than takes all the old and new skins and throws them out in the parking lot losing his mind along with his 75 year old dad doing the same thing.

So I start gathering up all my stuff and putting it in the truck and suddenly he and his dad come out and starts grabbing all of them and throws them in the shop and closes the door.

He says he needs 300 additional dollars for the work he had done.I had payed him half up front so I am already out 400 in materials that is garbage and 600 i gave him when i dropped it off.

So I call the cops because this guy is gone berserk on me 180 from the super nice guy he was 2 days earlier.

Cops show up and I tell them he is holding my stuff hostage and the cop says either go to court or pay the guy and the interior guy tells us that stuff gets thrown out if not picked up in 30 days .

So I eat it and pay another 300 bucks to the thief and get my original skins and all my new materials which is simple y the whole roll that now has stitch marks every 2 inches which if it took 2 hours if he was handicapped and ruined my materials.

So that now I have a boat with no interior and I am out 1300 bucks and a bad bad taste in my mouth.

So back into storage where the boat has set until last wek when I finally pulled it out to try to get the interior done again after I meet someone and let them do a small part as a sample 1st.

The dealer that is allowing this to happen to you is the culprit and I would lean on him . if no satisfaction there I hope the OSO crowd will find you a seat so these crooks can sit on that seat for their lunch for the next 10 years.

Also I would send the dealer a link to this thread and let him see what all the guys on this site think of his QUALITY work he has his contractors do for him.

If you don't get a solution and that "lucky" shop owner gets to keep the parts, start looking for some seats from another donor Formula and order skins from the factory. I paid a little over $400 for the rear bench seat skin. It fit 100%, not the cheapest way to go but had it in a week, done and onto more important things.

Call Formula and see how much a new seat is, they are not bad on parts. Best revenge would be for him to keep it.

I recently sold a 419. Before I sold it I had to re-build the rear bench. I called formula, they sent me the autocad drawings of the pieces that make up the framework for the rear seat, everything in your pics. I plotted them on paper, glued to the air expanded pvc plywood, cut them and they all fit together like a glove. used stainless steel screws to secure all the pieces. Order new skins and foam from Formula and tell that guy he owns a nice boat seat that he can keep. If your existing seat is pressure treated wood and not the air expanded pvc, then you might want to consider this route anyway. I would rather have $1700.00 in a entirely new rear seat (base, foam and Formula factory skins) than that "work of art" in your pics. Good Luck!!!!

just junk looks like a first timer

Another option might be to call Chris at McLeod and see what they might be able to do for you. It might be another option to consider.