upholstery modification

[drew10483]

when replacing the plywood do yall use marine plywood or normal plywood?

[lively]

depends on if you want to replace it later ... i used bc sanded exterior grade

[jet]

marine on that one fo' sho! to many holes for water to get in. sybr has a picture of his interior wood only before it went to the vinyl guy.

[sybrmike]

I used pressure treated plywood, dried for a month in the garage, coated with 2 coats CPES. Overkill, but plan on keeping this one a good long while. However, regular exterior grade plywood with a good sealer (paint, resin, etc.) is pretty standard. My understanding is that marine ply uses the same glue as exterior ply - it just doesnt have voids in the wood layers. A real plus for uniform strength & may help slow down any rot from within, but not usually concerned with strength for an interior so not worth the price premium for most.

[drew10483]

thanks fellas

[michael hunter]

I have been doing some work for a local marine upholsterer and I use MDO plywood its used to make exterior signs. Make sure you seal it before you cover it.

[csuggs]

There's probably more than one right answer here. There are a lot of new products out there and some are pricey, so I guess it depends on how much you want to spend. The stuff Mike Hunter is talking about is what some marine OEM 's use I'm pretty sure. Before I took my boat to Viper years ago I replaced some of the plywood in the back with a good quality DRY plywood and coated it twice with Helmsman varnish. I thought about the marine grade, but something doesn't seem right to me about coating a treated lumber. I did use marine plywood on the inner fenders of my trailer though.

[greenhead84]

Does anyone know what Jim at Viper uses?

[Salty87]

i think mine is marine ply right now but i had plenty of it from rebuilding. i don't think marine ply is a waste of $. whichever way you decide, as always, the quality of your work will determine how long it lasts more than what you use. if you don't seal the end grains very well, you're doomed with any ply. if you cut drainage holes, be sure to make them over-size. fill the hole with epoxy/resin and then once it fully cures cut a smaller hole within the epoxy.

[mapleleaf]

I used marine ply, had it kicking around the woodshop and already paid for! The key, I found, as the others have mentioned is to coat the entire structure with some sort of resin, Not even marine ply will stand up to repeated soakings.....Also worked well in my comp being a little heavier to add some weight as ballast is tougher to add to these low freeboard boats.......