bleed through of sew foam on white vinyl?

[Geech]

Home from the honeymoon less than a week and find the place has gone to hell in a hand basket... such is life for the small business owner I guess, boy I miss that beautiful view from St. Pete Beach... if only i could go back one week in time and enjoy it again!

Daydreaming aside, an irate customer sent me several rather fuming emails late last night about his white vinyl seats showing the pink sew foam through it when it gets wet supposedly staining the vinyl each time making it worse the more it gets wet.  I have never heard of such a complaint and have used this same brand sew foam for years now.  The vinyl is not junk either (or at least my opinion of it is its not junk) and is Morbern Baypoint White.

I'm going to see if Mr. unhappy customer will calm down enough to have a civil discussion (currently his approach is to get my attention by threatening to bash my name on local boating forumns and take me and his boat to the local courthouse without even giving me the benefit of the doubt on my taking care of the problem - do I know how to pick them or what?) and bring the boat by this week to see it first hand so I can provide more details if needed to get to the bottom of this. 

In short - did I make a mistake by using this combination of this colored sew foam purchased I believe from our friends at DLT (no fault even hinted on their behalf of course, just mentioning it so that you all know it was quality stuff and not some junk bought in an alley) and this white Morbern vinyl from a local source or do you think I perhaps got a bad run of vinyl? 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, unfortunately at the moment is sounds as though I'll be redoing the entire job with new vinyl and this was not a small undertaking in the least so I'm a little more than disappointed in the bad news my customer has shared with me regardless of his approach at handling a problem.  A 20' upholstery redo that turned into a full restoration with new side panels, motor box (dog house), rear seats, back to back seat and basically everything made from wood replaced leaving only the stock plastic captains chair original - now sound as though they'll all need recovered. 

Some days you just want to throw in the towel you know...

Any and all advice greatly appreciated

Thanks
Greg

[Mike8560]

I have used pink sewfoam with no problems. He pink comes when it's wet and goese away dud he say? How long has he had the seats is the boat covered?
Sounds more like  pink mold   I heard that sun tan lotions can cause problems also with boat seats   
St pete sure is nice it's where I  stayed with my motorhome when I first started comming to fla 

[SHHR]

I"ve never seen it bleed through either, I use the pink sew foam with Morbern, Spralding, and Naugahyde vinyls and have never had a problem whatsoever.

Is it on all of the upholstery you did or just certain seats? If it's just a few seats and not all of them I would then find out who is using the cheap made in china red towels to sit on from Wal-mart while in the boat.

If for some reason it is the foam, did you use slick film on the seats? If not would it be easier to remove the covers and put down a layer instead of buying all new vinyl? Providing the old vinyl isn't stained with the dye.

That's why I find it hard to believe it's the foam causing trouble, because the foam is made from a chemical process and the pink is the color of it. not just dye added to a white or yellow foam that could bleed.

Kyle

[hdflame]

I had a boat that got pink mildew on white seats.  Has he covered it when it was wet, or maybe sweated under a cover and mildewed?

I saw a product advertised on Ship Shape TV that claimed to remove all stains from boat seats, even the pink mildew.  i don't think it is from the foam.

Keep us posted.  Good luck!

[JuneC]

Probably like the rest of the gang says - not bleed-through, but pink mold/fungus.  The stuff can be NEON pink in color. It looks totally unnatural.  I've had customers have it appear a year or a few months after installation.  Wet foam is the culprit.  If they'll wait it out it will frequently just go away.  Chlorine bleach on a towel can fade it a lot - the towel holds the bleach in place while it works.  BUT, the chlorine will also eat up the thread so you have to be careful there. 

June

[Mike8560]

Bobby. Think I saw that episode also and I think it was about spray nine.

[hdflame]

Bobby. Think I saw that episode also and I think it was about spray nine.

Mike,

I think you may be right.  I just did a search and found this:
http://www.myboatstore.com/marinespraynine2.asp

There's a video about it from Ship Shape.  After watching the video...I think that was it.  If it works like they show, it should make pink vinyl, white again! ;D

[scarab29]

There was an article in marine fabricator mag on the pink monster too. Like 2 years ago. I'll look and post what they did to fight it.

[Geech]

I haven't had the opportunity to see the boat yet, but I'm relieved to hear there could be another cause.

I did use silk film on the cushions, however I don't see how that could make a difference since the sew foam was glued to the back of the vinyl (using Weldwood adhesive in the "natural" color which has that slight yellow tint to it) and the silk layer is between the sew foam and the seat foam.

I'll provide an update once I get to see the boat.  I made this customer a new cover last fall before doing his upholstery so I'd like to think its not caused by improper venting or a failure of the cover.  The customer does have two dogs so I'd be willing to bet he's getting the interior pretty wet.

I hope its just the pink mold that can be remedied - I'd hate to have to redo all of this upholstery as it would easily take me a week to do again.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help - will keep you posted.

[SHHR]

I did use silk film on the cushions, however I don't see how that could make a difference since the sew foam was glued to the back of the vinyl (using Weldwood adhesive in the "natural" color which has that slight yellow tint to it) and the silk layer is between the sew foam and the seat foam.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help - will keep you posted.

Sorry Greg for that advice. I had a major brain fart and didn't even think about the sew foam being above the film. As much as I do this you'd think I 'd have the order down by now.
Kyle

[Mike8560]

i had as guy some time ago that I did  a red cover on his boat where the cover was touching some of the white vinyl was turning pink he thought it was the ye rubbing off the sunbrella. turns out if was pink mold from the cover traping some moisture under the cover. Scarab I just tossed out about 10 years of the fabricator mag out in my moving at home. I was hording them even broght them from NH with me but finnaly tossed them.

[Miami Mike]

Here you go. Send this to your guy.

http://www.chemicalfabricsandfilm.com/pdfs_researchSection/techSupport/moldmarine.pdf

if it's the pink mold,

[Rickster]

Had the same bleed and thought it was my pink offshore sew foam.  I live in the midwest. I have never heard of mold being pink. Took the seat apart and that one had green sew foam. Mold it was. Also, learned my lesson about magic markers a long time ago. Even a dot can turn into a dime sized bleed.

R

[bobbin]

Interesting link, Mike, thanks for that. 

I was hoping Geech was checking back in with an "update". 

Over the years we've moved almost entirely to replacing plywood bases with the synthetic, "plastic" marine "plywood".  We drill holes in it for drainage and we recommend EZ Dri foam.  It adds significantly to the cost of the job, but it has put a serious dent in the number of complaints about mold/mildew growth and subsequent staining. 

On seat backs and snap on/drop in "free cushions" we always try to incorporate some textilene on the bottoms/boxing side that is "down".  In concert with the EZ Dri this allows air circulation and free drainage of any water that may trickle in through the stitch holes.  But no solution is "perfect". 

[JuneC]

BTW, I've seen the pink fungus disappear as quickly as it appeared.  If the vinyl is kept clean and dry, it can just die off and disappear.  Of course, you can't guarantee your customer that it will happen.  But, you might offer them a "wait 6 months and if it's still there I'll replace" and see if they'll buy it. 

June