reupholstering cushions

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I'm in the process of reupholstering the seat cushions in our '74 Boler. The original upholstery is starting to seperate but the vinyl on the bottoms is in good shape.

Should I salvage the original vinyl from the original covers and use it on the bottom of my new cushions? I just don't know what the purpose of it was/is. I have enough material to completely recover the original foam (also in good shape).

I'm new here, BTW. Great site!

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Orginally posted by Rob H.
I'm new here, BTW. Great site!

Thanks and Welcome to our site. I’m sure you’ll get some good info.

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I was thinking I would do exactly the same thing. I took all my covers apart and I was going to save the vinyl and the zippers for re-use, but I ended up finding mildew in about half of them.

I decided to buy new vinyl. The time and $ involved in the rest of the cushion cover construction and fabric just wasn't worth risking getting everything all mildewy again. Sorry, I'm not sure the reason for the vinyl, I thought maybe so that the cushions don't slide around on the fiberglass, but I'm just guessing. (The old vinyl made a great template for the new covers though! It was also cheaper to buy the vinyl than the upholstery fabric, which works fine for me as you don't really see it much anyway.)

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Can't say for sure why they do it, but most do.

I can, however, tell you why I'm glad they do.

1. Since these are campers, there are times when our clothes become damp or less than clean but we still need to sit down. Flip them over and all you have to do is wipe them off - no stains.

2. Sliding - I put a small piece of the stuff for under carpet between that and the seat and it doesn't move an inch.

3. Although I have several layers in between, I still use them for the base of my bed. Much easier to keep clean. Just wipe them off and they're good to go. For those of you that aren't aware, mattress are the greatest collectors of dust and (eeeuuuwww, gross) dead skin cells that our bodies shed.