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These guys are aluminum and the front section was 20" between the hole that the slide piece fits in.  They fold up flat so I unfolded them and measured between the holes until my stick hit the 20" mark.  The back section will be a bit trickier as there are three slide pieces (hope that makes sense).  Jerry made a great diagram that shows all the dimensions on the boat.  Quite cool. 

I think that after my 2 appointments for prom dresses come next week, I will move the bows downstairs into my new room.  Weather is going to be wintery again.  For the last 10 days, we have been in the high 50's to mid 70's (76 was our high yesterday), so I haven't minded going in and out of the garage.  That is going to change and it will be much more convenient to have them downstairs.

Have the bows set up in the garage, also Jerry made a very detailed drawing of the inside of his pontoon and measurements between deck hinges, etc.  I probably could have set the bows up in my new room off Sew & Sew, but it would have cramped it up and I already have a couple of hs girls bringing prom dresses over in the next few weeks so.....

I see no reason why this project will drag out though.  Hubby wasn't at all upset over turning the garage into a make shift pontoon.  Had one of the zippers sewn in fabric and gave that to Jerry to take home so his wife can see the fabric that he and I picked.  He agreed that Tempotest is very fine stuff.  As Chris said up somewhere in this thread, it folds very easily and I like that as well.

Virginia

Jerry is measuring the boat today and is coming over tomorrow morning.  We are setting the bows up in the garage (my incentive to get this done quickly -- before hubby has a tizzy fit about my turning his garage into a boat ; o ).

Thanks for the help.  I have cut some smaller pieces of the bimini out.  They sew on the bimini and then zip together.  Knew I couldn't go wrong on those.  I am very eager to get this up and going as I also have the fabric in house for my BIL & SIL's oversize recliners.  Busy, busy, busy and lovin' it!

Virginia

Just make sure your deck hinges etc... are spaced the same as on the boat and you can't go wrong.

That makes perfect sense; however, I don't have the boat, just the bows.  So, I should call Jerry (owner) and ask him to measure what on the boat for me?  Or should I be able to figure it out by looking at the bows?

Thanks!

Virginia

BIL came over yesterday and gave me money so that I can get the fabric/loose polyester fill ordered for their two oversize recliners.  He was too funny.  When he handed me the check, he said that he expressed surprise to his wife about needing to take money over to me.  He had told her "there's no rush in getting those chairs recovered" and she replied "I would like MY chair fixed so that I can sit in it again."  Guess the rate of urgency depends on whether or not the cat peed in your chair.  Bob & I both got a great chuckle out of that!

Virginia

Thanks for keeping me grounded Darren.  I'm going to see if I can get the bows downstairs later today.  If not, I'll set them up in the garage.

Chris, thanks for the explanation about the "stiffness" factor I had noticed in the fabric!  I love fun factoids like that!

Virginia

I thought Myth Busters successfully folded a piece of paper 8 times.  Of course, they had equipment to press the paper down and people helping to fold it over, etc; but technically they did it.

Virginia

I should start cutting fabric tomorrow.  Arrived around 11 on Wed.  Removed protective wrapping to have a look see.  Color is very close to the original but, most importantly, it is obviously the correct composition as feels identical to what was removed -- maybe a little stiffer since it is brand new.  Took lots of pictures of the existing bimini in various stages of tear out, plus made a detailed diagram of where zippers go, along with measurements.  I'm pretty confident that I did the pre-work correctly.

Virginia

Good Morning Floyd!

I ordered the uncoated, for what it's worth.  I'll let you know how things go.  From the sample cards, it definitely has a nice texture so we will see how it goes.  Now that the tempotest is ordered, I'm getting itchy fingers to get to going on it.  Have spent the last week and a half getting alterations out of the way so that I can devote working hours to this project.  Will do alterations in the evenings and on weekends so that will slow them down a bit but this project gets top billing until it is completed.

Just checked UPS tracking and order is projected to deliver COB Wed.  Shipped from Kokomo, IN.  Web doesn't indicate shipping method but I'm betting ground.  Still 2 day from order to receipt is nothing to sneeze about.

Hope that everyone has a great day and week! 

Virginia

Finally got the Tempotest ordered for the bimini this morning.  Got shipping notification early this afternoon so that was pleasing.  Expect it to come either tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on shipment method used and where it ships out from.  May get this project done yet!

Virginia

Steve, love the XL chair.  Know my hubby would like the extra room.

65Buick: I have our entire basement for my "shop".  People in town know where I am located and I have a LOT of foot traffic.  Some days I wish I didn't have as much foot traffic.   You don't have to rent in any specific area of town.  Just set yourself up so that you can function, do your stuff, develop a favorable reputation and before you know it you will be established.  I do no formal advertising at this point (media).  I get a lot of "we drove by and saw your sign" or returning customers or referrals.

Virginia

Thanks!  I am going to buy enough to do both recliners.  I'll recover the "cat" chair and once that's been reassembled, I'll do the second one.

As far as the rolled stuff, it does make more sense to buy local.  I only need that for the chair bottom.  Most of it is the loose poly fiber and that is the stuff I want to buy on-line in quantity as getting one sack at a time from HL or Jo-Ann's is cost prohibitive.

Virginia

Thanks Paul!

Loose fill poly sounds exactly right.  Just didn't know the terminology.  I hate to sound extremely stupid, bear in mind I have done mostly restaurant seats/chairs/boat seats so I haven't done that much with fillings.  What exactly is bonded and what is a good source for ordering it from?

Thanks so much!

Virginia

What sources do you all have for stuffing replacement for recliners.  Seat looks like a solid piece of foam (won't know until I open it up) but arm rests and back pillows are just stuffing, non descript, white, pull apart stuff.  I'll post a pic if need be.

Thanks for your help!

Virginia

For those of you that do work for restaurants, do you find that they think you should be getting $2.45 an hour for your labor?   In my limited experience with them, yes.

Not quite that bad but close.   The restaurants I worked at were competitively priced with their competitors, perhaps even a tad higher.  But they all whined about how they could barely afford to do this, yada, yada, yada.  Being hungry for work, I took the jobs. 

When I did the bar/grill, the manager was putting everything either on a business note or the owner's tab and he paid me what I was worth.  I was very sorry when that job was completed as he never tried to bargain me down, never blinked an eye.  I would give him an invoice, he would eyeball it over and write me a check.

Virginia