The Upholstery Forum

I got a referral from a former customer where a buddy of his has this engine cover where one of the french seams is splitting apart. He says the vinyl is still soft. Is there a way to fix this or is it a total recover? I know if it was a basic seam, I could just restitch it but for a french seam i am thinking at minumum I will have to take the cover apart at best. But, I also think I would not thave enough material for the fit to be right to rebuild the French seam...

Let me know your thoughts.

Make your customer understand if you repair it..... it becomes a “tear along the dotted line” looks like there’s some tearing on the other panel as well. I wouldn’t want to put the time in for what looks like a very temporary repair myself.

That's not the seam coming apart that is the vinyl tearing. You wont be able to sew that back together and make it look good because there is about 1/2 inch missing off the original pastern now. Even If you could sew it back together you would have the same problem a month later. That vinyl is done. A lot of boat manufactures use that cheep vinyl that has that really soft backing. Its not very strong and that's why its tearing.

You could replace just that piece but it would be almost the same amount of work to just make a new cover.

@vicstric ,

New cover a pay job!