The Upholstery Forum

Hi Guys! I have trouble getting consistant tension when i staple down the pulls when recoving boat seats. I am not sure if there teminology is correct but I am talking about the equilivent to what on automotive seats is the listing that is pulled between the foam. On boat seats that is normally stapled rather than hog ringed. Anyway, is there a trick to getting even tension on that when stapling those tabs down? the way I normally do it is to just try and feel for an even tension but the sides of the vinyl are not stapled beforehand so i dont have much to go with. I hope all that made sense.

Another great question! So yes there are a few tricks. First I try to always measure and take note of the distance between the staples and seam line on the original cover. Then I roughly make that line on the new "staple listing" (I dont actually know the correct term either )
Then I will shoot in a few staples like every 6 inches on the measurement I took from the old cover. Then I test fit the foam and pull the cover tight by hand and see if I like the depth that its at. If its off then you can easily adjust if because you only put a few staples in.
Once you got a depth that you like I will then measure that distance and use a piece of tape to mark that distance on the top face of my stapler. Now you can use this tape mark to measure as you staple you covers on without having measure each staple you put in.

I hope that makes sense!

Using tape on the stapler as a reference. Man that is genius!

Thanks!!!!

a reference mark on the stapler is the bomb! Looking much better. Thanks @John

Really glad that helped so much!!! I need to make a video on that now

NO! Keep it a secret!

haha