OK, in hindsight it was stupid, but just for future reference, don't use a red sharpie marker to mark the back side of vinyl when it is going to get wet.
(https://forum.upholster.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy16%2Fslow96z%2FUpholstery%2Fth_2012-01-25_08-09-30_841.jpg&hash=5be421f4fe7ad0ec3951e6fbc03c882a) (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/slow96z/Upholstery/?action=view¤t=2012-01-25_08-09-30_841.jpg)
I went to the storage this morning to look at my boat and found 2 of my seats were now polka-dotted with pink (I used yellow on the rest of them). I guess the ink on the bottom side got wet and bled through. Maybe it's not so permanent after all.
Hey......don't feel too bad about the red sharpie. Making mistakes is how most of us learned the trade. The secret is remember your lessons and avoid it the next time.
I first learned of "bleed through" before I was a shop owner. My 1st "real world" job was being a fabric rep for Dogwood Fabrics (based out of Atlanta) and I was call to one of my accounts in Myrtle Beach, SC. When I got there, he had a boat seat on his table and right in the middle of the seat looked to be a backwards SF.......we stripped off the cover and it exposed where he had used an ink pen to mark "F"ront "S"eat (FS) on the seat top. He was embarrassed and both of us learned the lesson the you discovered with your boat seat.
Thank you for sharing your experience and helping others avoid "bleed through". Steve
Experience is a poor teacher, you get the exam before the lesson.
Pemanent shmurmenant. If you get silicon spray on your hands and brush ink or marker your fingers can pick it up and deposit it permanently (for real this time) on vinyl. I do use sharpies for marking out foam but I try to cut it off or mark the bottom. I also like using slip film which I think helps prevent bleed through.
Definitely a bummer Slow. I remember all that hard work, and the good job you did. But better to learn on your own project than a customers. I usually use chalkboard chalk. On a light color like yours I use pencil but have to be very careful not to smear.
That actually looks like the pink algae (mold?) that frequently invades cushions in Florida. I'd say it might or might not be your sharpie. In any case, sharpie marks and vinyl are a bad combination. If it's the algae, let the cushions dry out really well in the sun. The algae may just disappears as mysteriously as it came. It may take several weeks or it may never go away.
http://www.thehulltruth.com/mckee-craft-boats/186870-pink-spots-vinyl.html
June
Try this. Get on down to your local garden shop (or Home Depot/Lowes) and buy some Ortho rose fungicide. Cover part of the spots with the fungicide and don't rinse. If that part goes away after a few days or so, it's not sharpie.
June
my last podt was on my phone after see the pic on my pc i agree with jume looks like pink mold. marker will burn through with the same marks as oin the inside not nlotches. i wonder with the mold if its a xheap vinyl issue ive never had it on any boat of mike or have i had a past upholstery customer call me back , i did have a customer asj me abouyt a stain in his rear sunpad. his son had a indian girlfrien he said who used alot of oils and then layd o nthe viyl the next week he had a pink stain the later faded away
I would say mold also. If it was bleed through it would be only where
you marked with the Sharpie. I doubt you marked all that. Plus the marks
are somewhat circular in shape. Indicative of growth.
I just mark vinyls with a pencil and mark out foam with a black china marker.no problems.
I am with June. I looked at the pic and felt right away it was algae. Sharpies typically wont run like that and migrate all over the fabric. It stays pretty much concentrated in one area.
I am going to lay down my bet as algae.
Chris
Went to a seminar at last years CMCFA convention and we covered this phenomenon. They called it mildew. I can't remember if they discussed a remedy or not. Junes remedy sounds promising, please keep us posted.
June can you explain further on that fungicide mere of maybe a new thread I like to be a le to decomend that I never heard of it. Is it a powder you put all over.?
The topic of "pink mildew" was in an ifai article or marine fabricator mag a few years ago. I'venever seen it but have heard of it.
Back on topic ,sharpies for my patterns only !! Chalk , pencil , soapstone , grease pencils/china markers are my fabric friends . 8)
Quote from: scarab29 on January 26, 2012, 08:47:44 am
Back on topic ,sharpies for my patterns only !! Chalk , pencil , soapstone , grease pencils/china markers are my fabric friends . 8)
ive not found a good while pencil latly that will not keep breaking the tip
Mike
I got an eyeliner pencil sharpener that is a little gentler on the pencils and keeps the tip from breaking,
were would one find one rusty?
The fungicide is a liquid. Might want to dilute it, but not as much as you would for actual roses. Vinyl is tougher than most roses :-\
http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?proId=prod160038&itemId=cat50092&tabs=general
June
thanks June GReat tip I nrever heard of using this
I have peoplemask me about the on occation. For info how long doese if generaly take to clear up
Mike
I got mine in WalMart, Makeup area, smaller than a regular sharpener
Oh yeah, I want to be there when mike goes to the makeup counter and asks for a eyeliner pencil sharpener. :-[
No clue if the fungicide would be a long-lasting solution. I suppose it depends on just where the mildew is growing. If it's on the foam underneath, it'll just come back - unless maybe you take off the covers and treat everything. Even if you did, your seats could be reinfected from whatever got them infected in the first place. I've heard about people simply dyeing the vinyl with SEM.
June
I've never seems mold on my own seats ckuse I've always used s good vinyl like morbern. I wonder if it's the vinyl also with no inhibitors ?
And ga I'd look funny at the makeup counter :)
I've never had it happen to Morbern or Spradling vinyl. But even so, when I re-use existing (old) foam, I spritz the foam with a dilution of bleach and water to kill whatever lurks there.
June
I have found put (the hard way, of course!) that both sharpies and ball point pens will bleed through vinyl (except black, of course)! I use a very soft lead pencil on the wrong side of vinyl, with no problems!
I was looking for information I had in another post and came back across this one, I wonder why I was never aleerted to these updates. I always felt that it might be fungus because it was not really where the sharpie was and I didn't think the small amount of ink I used would make that kind of mess anyway. I am going to try these remedies, hopefully it will save me from having to redo the whole boat again!
It makes sense that it would be the same stuff that's plaguing Florida boats since I got this one from Florida. Now if Texas boats start to get this issue I'll know I'm patient 1.
If I do have to redo the seats at least I know to bleach the heck out of the foam before I wrap it again.
Thanks all!
Slow its not justred but any marker , ive seen it burn through in a mirror image to the marks. it wont speard all over like that
It never really did make sense to me how there could be that much red ink anyway as I did the cushions one at a time so there was no panel labeling and most of the seam marks got cut off after sewing. I'm going to go buy the Ortho Rose fungicide at lunch today, seems to be the only thing I can get anybody to sware by that it works and lasts...
Wish me luck, if this doesn't work I'm going to have to buy a servo motor, new vinyl (from a different supplier, I guess, since quality is the cause) and all new foam, not counting my time!
June said she spritzs foam being reusing with diluted bleach -about what kind of ratio? I take spritz as a light misting?
Man I don't know the ratio, but I'd make it stout. Bleach isn't going to damage the foam, too much would definately be better than not enough. Don't under-do it and end up having to redo the job!
-j