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Disappointed in how easy vinyl marks

BulldogsCadillac

BulldogsCadillac

Just some guy
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Dauphin, Manitoba
Quite disappointed with how easily the seats seem to discolor and mark. I only have 17 hours on my boat, and the back of my helm seat is already well don't know how to describe it, dark. We use the 303 protectant and cleaner, and still seems like there are always marks on it. If ever you are wearing sunscreen it leaves marks, they do come out fine enough, but we always seem to find some new random spot when we get home. We always have the playpen cover on since it is stored in our driveway, EVERY time we get back from the lake is cleaning time, we go over the whole boat and clean it up, wipe down the seats, wipe the motor, and take out the wet stuff to let it dry so we are ready for the next adventure. I used to manage a furniture store, so I know a fair amount about leather do's and don't's and I know vinyl is very similar, but it is usually more durable, unwashed dark denim isn't on my seats, not that a lot of people would be wearing dark denim on a hot summer day on a boat, but just saying I really don't understand why it seems to be darkening, it seems as though the dye is rubbing off. I know that it won't be new forever, but after 17 hours the thing should look like new!
 
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Sorry to hear that. Mine is holding up perfect, you would not know the difference from show room new. I use a small amount of dawn dish washer soap and water when I see a mark, and rarely if needed will use Mr Clean Magic eraser on a tuff spot followed by Macguires vinyl cleaner and condition (spot treatment only). I have not rubbed down the entire seats with anything other then soap & water.. My 2010 GCW 2250 has the Java soft touch vinyl.
 
I hear you Bulldog. It seems the downside of the "soft touch" is a vinyl that mars easily.

We use 303 regularly for UV protection, and Fantastic for spot removal (immediately followed by 303 again). We recently went to use the boat and one of the dock hands must have had some grease on his hands or shorts or something. Had a lot of black grease spots on the vinyl that we know weren't there after we used the boat last. Took some soaking and scrubbing with the Fantastic to remove, but it DID come out.

All said, I'd rather have Bennington's soft touch vinyl than some 60s-70s vintage shiny vinyl like my parents had.
 
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I agree, I do love the look and feel of the vinyl, anyone that touches it is super impressed. My cousin with the MB SPORTS boat was quite impressed with the quality of the boat, and pretty surprised by the handling too. But I had to spend a LONG time trying to get watermelon finger marks out. Yes, watermelon. My mom gave my niece a piece and she ate it, but apparently she must have switched hands while eating and was touching one of the rear lounger arms, I happened to walk back there and I could see little red finger marks, I darn near freaked! It wasn't her fault, she's around 2, and I have NEVER heard of watermelon ever staining anything, things like cheezies and spits or anything else that stains or is a pain to clean up are not allowed on the boat, but watermelon fingers? Who would have thought? I had to keep a cool head since I didn't want to upset my niece, but I know I wasn't happy. So that's why I think this vinyl seems pretty easy to mark. Well, on top of the other stuff. As I said, the look and feel of it is amazing, I just hope I don't have a bad 'batch' of vinyl.

Derrick
 
BulldogsCadillac said:
I agree, I do love the look and feel of the vinyl, anyone that touches it is super impressed. My cousin with the MB SPORTS boat was quite impressed with the quality of the boat, and pretty surprised by the handling too. But I had to spend a LONG time trying to get watermelon finger marks out. Yes, watermelon. My mom gave my niece a piece and she ate it, but apparently she must have switched hands while eating and was touching one of the rear lounger arms, I happened to walk back there and I could see little red finger marks, I darn near freaked! It wasn't her fault, she's around 2, and I have NEVER heard of watermelon ever staining anything, things like cheezies and spits or anything else that stains or is a pain to clean up are not allowed on the boat, but watermelon fingers? Who would have thought? I had to keep a cool head since I didn't want to upset my niece, but I know I wasn't happy. So that's why I think this vinyl seems pretty easy to mark. Well, on top of the other stuff. As I said, the look and feel of it is amazing, I just hope I don't have a bad 'batch' of vinyl.

Derrick
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Ok Derrick, What are "spits"? Us southerners need to know. I'm thinking cheezies are the same as cheetos that are also banned from our boat. :blink:
 
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cwag911 said:
Ok Derrick, What are "spits"? Us southerners need to know. I'm thinking cheezies are the same as cheetos that are also banned from our boat. :blink:
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Haha, sorry, auto correct fixed what wasn't broken, I typed spitz, they are a major brand of sunflower seeds.
 
BulldogsCadillac said:
I agree, I do love the look and feel of the vinyl, anyone that touches it is super impressed. My cousin with the MB SPORTS boat was quite impressed with the quality of the boat, and pretty surprised by the handling too. But I had to spend a LONG time trying to get watermelon finger marks out. Yes, watermelon. My mom gave my niece a piece and she ate it, but apparently she must have switched hands while eating and was touching one of the rear lounger arms, I happened to walk back there and I could see little red finger marks, I darn near freaked! It wasn't her fault, she's around 2, and I have NEVER heard of watermelon ever staining anything, things like cheezies and spits or anything else that stains or is a pain to clean up are not allowed on the boat, but watermelon fingers? Who would have thought? I had to keep a cool head since I didn't want to upset my niece, but I know I wasn't happy. So that's why I think this vinyl seems pretty easy to mark. Well, on top of the other stuff. As I said, the look and feel of it is amazing, I just hope I don't have a bad 'batch' of vinyl.

Derrick
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You may have a legitimate concern there. We had a red strawberry daiquiri drip i didn't see for two days. It spent two days in a shed in 100 degree weather, baking into the vinyl. I thought there was going to be a permanent memory on the seat from that night (but hey, it was a fun night) but it wiped right off. I can't imagine watermellln making stains. You may want to start taking photos to document it...
 
I also have not any issues regarding marking. Granted I get stuff on the seats but it has always wiped right off. I can't imagine the sprains seat turning dark. Granted, sunscreen is the worst thing for vinyl, but it shouldn't darken it. We always make sure we wipe them down after a trip simply due to the kids with the sunscreen. I have also outlawed all the normal stuff that stains. I also outlawed the new spray on sunscreen due to the mist of the spray going everywhere. My son had a bottle of this on his boat when it got hot and exploded. Even after wiping down, it ruined one seat.
 
Where the seat has darkened is the helm seat, so far I am the only one that has really sat there, the wife drove a little while I trolled for fish for a short period of time, but both were always wearing shirts. And yes shirts have been washed multiple times.

I am happy to say that TB has contacted me to look into the issue, since that is what a great company does, look after any concern promptly. Now it waits for me to uncover and snap some pics.

Derrick,

Proud Bennington Owner.
 
Now that's world class customer service for TB!!!

Jack
 
Glad to hear that TB is on it Bulldog. Just from reading your posts over the last few months I know that you are the type of guy that does like to take care of your things and you seem to be an upright guy. Good Luck
 
Thanks Link, I appreciate your comments. I do always try to take care of my things. As you all know, when you spend hard earned money for a premium quality product, there are certain expectations. I don't think my expectations are out of line, especially when all of you have had such positive experiences. So I will look to the next step and I'm sure Bennington will stand behind their product.

Derrick
 
BulldogsCadillac said:
I agree, I do love the look and feel of the vinyl, anyone that touches it is super impressed. My cousin with the MB SPORTS boat was quite impressed with the quality of the boat, and pretty surprised by the handling too. But I had to spend a LONG time trying to get watermelon finger marks out. Yes, watermelon. My mom gave my niece a piece and she ate it, but apparently she must have switched hands while eating and was touching one of the rear lounger arms, I happened to walk back there and I could see little red finger marks, I darn near freaked! It wasn't her fault, she's around 2, and I have NEVER heard of watermelon ever staining anything, things like cheezies and spits or anything else that stains or is a pain to clean up are not allowed on the boat, but watermelon fingers? Who would have thought? I had to keep a cool head since I didn't want to upset my niece, but I know I wasn't happy. So that's why I think this vinyl seems pretty easy to mark. Well, on top of the other stuff. As I said, the look and feel of it is amazing, I just hope I don't have a bad 'batch' of vinyl.

Derrick
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We just took possession of our new Q and my wife packed watermelon for the kids to snack on, when we docked last night and went to clean up the boat we noticed watermellon stains all over! We tried to remove the stains with Spray 9 marine, Babes cleaner and magic eraser with no luck.......I would love to hear how you were able to get your watermellon stains out because we weren't able to remove them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Shawn
 
Well, it was a long time of using both the 303 protectant and the 303 cleaner, with a little vinegar and water every once and a while. To be 100% honest, I'm not sure it is completely gone, it took a solid 20 minutes at least and it was just four little finger marks. As bad as this sounds, and I wish it didn't happen to either of us, but I'm happy someone else has an issue, I was thinking we were importing some kind of mutant watermelon up here in Canada!

Derrick
 
I have not been on the forum for a while. I saw this post and yes I am having the same problem with the vinyl. I have a 2012 2575 RCW with ivory seats and before that I had an Aqua Patio for 10 years. I never had a problem with marking on the seats of the Aqua Patio. The first time out this spring we had a guest on board with a black sweater on. When she got up, the seat back where she was sitting had black stains on it. We never have been able to completely remove the stains and we have tried everything.
 
BC, do you have the ivory as well? I can't get a stain to stick to my java interior.
 
spinzone said:
BC, do you have the ivory as well? I can't get a stain to stick to my java interior.
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Nope, java. Now to make matters worse, I was in the boat today, (playpen cover was on, I just crawled in the back) trying to figure out something with the volt meter, and as I'm crawling out between the rear loungers, I looked over at the starboard lounger, right behind where the post is that the stainless steel gate mounts, and that short little removable lower section of the lounger has a cut on the side of it! Sheesh! I don't think we've even had it off 3 times! I never noticed it when we picked up the boat, but then again, I never got on my hands and knees and looked behind the gate post/railing! Chalk up another one to my 'lucky' streak!

Derrick
 
I have a 2011 2274GLI and mine has stains from the mooring cover. It seems to be where the cover is sewn together with leaving a piece of the cover folded over. Has anyone else noticed this. Mine is a yellow cover.
 
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