The Upholstery Forum

@LeatherJohnny I use the 4 way stretch a lot for dirtbike, snowbike and quad seats. It goes on nice and stretches great for a wrinkle free seat, it also has a slightly grippy feature that’s helps when ridding any of these. Sometimes I will use a side panel.....but snowbike seats see a lot of moisture so I try to do them in 1 piece with no sewing so water can’t leak in and allow the foam to sponge it up which makes for a miserable day.

@RevvUp, Can you post a picture of a snow bike? Many people on here don't even know what that miserable stuff (snow) is. I was looking at the seats on a new Ski Doo they use very thin material. Do you think they use Morbern 4 way stretch?

@Revv Up Thats a good point. Ive never done a snow-bike seat, but now that you mention it makes sense how a wet seat and wet butt would not be fun up there in the snow.

@BigRig , thank you very much for your generous offer and I have sent you a private message, but I guess that shipping would be extremely expensive, so I'll have a look at this type of vinyl over here. It is the first time that I send a PM in this forum, so if you have not received it, please let me know and I will try to do it again

@Revv Up Yes, when I had my dirtbikes, I did not modified the seats because I had no idea about upholstery, but I would have used this type of vinyl to avoid seams I think that most watercrafts use this type of vinyl to be able to conform it to their seats shape? If the seat is very contoured and needs to be made in several pieces sewn, one could always waterproof the seam? Most of my scooters come from the factory with a king of plastic/vinyl waterproofing the seam to avoid water wetting the foam

This 4 way stretch vinyl probably has a lot of trimmers confused. It is really thin and flexible and like Revv Up has said it has really good embossing so that it is not really that smooth and grips the rider.

Has anybody here used this for automotive seating?

BigRig wrote: ↑Sun Jun 03, 2018 6:02 am @RevvUp, Can you post a picture of a snow bike? Many people on here don't even know what that miserable stuff (snow) is. I was looking at the seats on a new Ski Doo they use very thin material. Do you think they use Morbern 4 way stretch?

The sled manufactures are not using 4 way stretch.

Nice bikes!! I miss my old KTM 500 exc and it would have been even more fun with that kit!!

@Revv Up

These machines need a specialist like Rev Up to do their seating. When you invest $15,000 into a bike like that your wanting a specialist like Rev Up in your corner.

@John, I have a real thing for truck seats! I am just putting the plastic and rails on the Ford Lightnings and am going to pull the Kenworth Air Rides out of the garage.

Speaking about the 4 way stretch vinyl, I have the curiosity if with this type of vinyl would be possible to cover a seat like that, that I have searched online:


That particular seat, which was for sale, has a textured vinyl:



I have always wondered how the factories cover these seats with so radical shapes without needing to sew different panels Perhaps always use the mentioned "4 way stretch vinyl"?

That’s defiantly a tough shape with those compound curves but I think with glue and patience it could be done.

If your doing a lot of seats there’s a company called Seattle Fabrics that has awesome gripper material, http://www.seattlefabrics.com/54-Perfor ... p_170.html

They have a few styles and colours.... unfortunately it’s a pain for me to get up here in the ice floes.

@BigRig Never used it for automotive seating before. I don't see a reason too. For me the 4 way stretch is so you can wrap thing without having any seams in it to avoid water getting in. You can sew 4 way stretch but to me it really doesnt make sense to because the seam will not be as stretchy as the vinyl. So you should have just used normal vinyl at that point.

@LeatherJohnny You might be able to cover that in one shot with 4 way stretch. I don't know for sure but my theory is that a lot of factories that make these seats use some sort of heated vacuum forming method to cover these complex shapes with no seams. A lot of times the material they use doesn't have any backing at all making it super stretchy. Also manufactures seem to have access to a lot of materials that arn't available to us.

@Revv Up Those are some breath taking photos. That must be a blast.

Thank you very much to you all for your input, and I also think that factories must have some special heated vacuum forming method because in only some occasions I see that they have glued the vinyl to the foam, and I have always thought that it would be very difficult to get the vinyl to shape without heat and/or special techniques, and if we do it with a regular technique, there is also the possibility of deforming the plastic base of the seat, and this way it would not fit as intended in the motorcycle's frame...

Seattle Fabrics' stuff is awesome!!! Thank you very much for the link, and if I were a professional upholsterer, I would, without any doubt, contact them to buy their products!! (if only they could ship it to Spain )

Vacumn form is a Naugahyde product, perhaps they supply some vinyl?

Local hospital wanted a cover for some of there portable equipment but I just couldn’t let it out the door till I put a custom label on it I love it when I’m given a rough outline and I get to fill in the blanks.

Nice! that must have taken some patience sewing around all those letters.

@Revv Up ,

You are slick! I love it Revv Up it shows you love to sew and take pride in your work.

It’s great practice and beats the doldrums of running long straight boattop seams. I can’t help but to think there got be a better foot to use for the fine work?

I have seen guys grind away half of the foot so they can see where the needle lands for detail work like that. might work.....

John wrote: ↑Fri Jun 01, 2018 9:05 pm I always use chipboard because that's what I always have around for patterns and other uses. I usually buy a 50 pack at a time for like $25.

Talking about chipboard, I guess that I know what it is, but I have had a look in Google, and wikipedia offers these definitions:

* A type of paperboard generally made from reclaimed paper stock; the term generally used in the US
* White lined chipboard, a grade of paperboard
* Particle board, a type of engineered wood known as "chipboard" in some countries

I thought that it was a type of cardboard, because I think that the particle board would be too hard for a sewing machine? Could you please explain it to an non-English noobie like me?

@LeatherJohnny ,

You are right it is not the particle (OSB) board but the others.