How to Install Vinyl Hull Liner With a Foam Backing
Details
Details
Headliners and hull liners are the fabrics used to hide the fiberglass and smooth out the ceiling and walls inside your boat’s cabin. If you have a fairly open wall, you might want to create a decorative design element in your headliner for a nice focal point. It's also a great way to tie in fabrics and colors you used elsewhere on the boat for a cohesive look throughout your boat. That’s exactly what we decided to do in the aft cabin of our Powerboat Makeover, a 1982 Regal 245 XL Ambassador.
Along one wall in the aft cabin, Brian, a Sailrite® manager and owner of the boat, wanted to create a vinyl panel that would mimic the look of the exterior cushion upholstery in the boat’s cockpit. He used a foam-backed vinyl headliner for the other walls in the cabin, so to get the desired look and keep the same foam thickness, we sewed the design into a panel and glued a foam layer to the back. This technique can be done to make any marine vinyl fabric into a headliner fabric.
It doesn't take that much extra work to create this stylish design element. It's a great way to upgrade your interior cabin walls from plain headliner fabric and introduce new colors and textures to your walls. In this video, you’ll learn how to pattern the design for the space, how to attach the foam, and how to install the panel in the boat. To see details on how to sew the decorative piece together, refer to our "How to Make a Powerboat Lounge Cushion" blog (#200704XHT).
To see how we installed the rest of the hull liner in this cabin and the headliner in the main cabin, watch the companion videos: "How to Install Foam Backed Headliner" (#200709XHT) and "How to Install Carpet Style Headliner" (#200708XHT).