Messages

Eric:

In the awning business stretching is a bad thing. Especially with RV awnings. Sunbrella stretches, sometimes badly.

I also heard from some in the mill industry that they changed their fiber mixing to China as well as their chemical formulas.

Recacril used to be a great fabric but their quality went down hill big time. There have been a lot of claims from companies using it.

Tempotest is made in Italy and Sattler is made in Germany. Both are the best acrylics in the world. Sunbrella is rarely used in Europe and is considered junk there.

Chris

Have to disagree with you there Chris, from what I see Sunbrella still has a good name over here & the 'cushion' grade is still very much the best for colour retention, although I do admit I use far less marine weight now than I did say 10 years ago, mainly because I discovered Reacril & there is a huge price difference, clients still ask for Sunbrella by name but I tend to steer them toward reacril. We don't see much of the Sattler although it has been available for a while now I haven't tried it yet. Spain is somewhat behind in cover making & clients slow to change ideas. So it may be a different matter in other areas of Europe. Some of the big canvas manufacturers like NV (France) still use Sunbrella.

Both marine suitable materials don't see a problem as long as it looks ok.

5 years is good going in the med, sometimes less, most local shops use the cheap clear vinyl.
Most customers don't want to pay for the good stuff, but the few that do sure stand out after a couple of years.

Suzi

Hi Mike, sorry we couldn't get together  ;)   Thanks for the contact BTW I now have my first batch of solarfix.  :-*

Suzi

What about the large boxed welt cord? We use spools at the shop because I could never get the boxed cord to work right. It cant unroll like the spools. As far as I know. Anyone use the boxed tissue cord and have good luck with it?

I used the boxed welt for a while. But eventually went back to the spools. The boxed welt had too many kinks in it.

Well if I get the choice I wont get the boxed again.. once it was untangled I put it on a spool, works fine now.

I am so sure that I have used other items straight out of the box like this.
Of course my OH said, oh no you never do that.   ::)

Suzi

 Why do they put a hole in the middle of the packaging box if you aren't supposed to use it  >:(
I just started a 75m run of welting when I realised the cord was all curling up behind me. Cut it off & opened the box, then spend the rest of my life untangling 100m of cord. Yes if I had another box that would have gone flying into the dark recesses of the shop, but I didn't.

Grrr won't be doing that again. 

Suzi

Thanks DH.

Glad to hear for ok BJ, lost to any friends this year. xx

Suzi

Thanks.

:-*

I have a few small chairs with loose cushions, the backs have 5 buttons on the front & 5 on the back which are somehow connected to the front one's.



Suzi

I have to make up a bit of my own acrylic binding which is a pita, I recently bought a binder that your surposed to be able to put in a flat strip of canvas & it gives it a double fold, so no raw edges. It does work, but not with the acrylic that I need  >:(  It needs tweeking somehow as the acrylic seems to thick.

Suzi

I am mainly using 'awning' canvas now, local suppliers sell Reacril doesn't stretch like sunbrella & a lot of the colours are the same.
Sunbrella do 'marine' coated & uncoated canvas the coated feeling thicker & stiffer with one side looking sightly darker than the other, cushion fabric is much thinner & softer they do others but that's the main ones I have used.

Suzi

Cool, thanks Eric I never found any of those.

Suzi

I have been looking for replacement seat covers for our Renault van. Now searching for skins just isn't working & replacement covers just comes up with the cheapo loose covers.
I don't want some high end fancy covers, just replacements for the worn out factory fits.
What should I be looking for guys ?
BTW think UK or Europe.

Gracias.