April 12, 2011

Pinching pesos

It's a minor crisis when a golf cart needs new seats every three or four years. Of course, the wood rot and upholstery break down doesn't occur when the cash is flowing. And after spending 4000 pesos plus 1400 in labor for new air conditioning and its installation, it's a little hard to envision spending 4000 pesos to fix up the machine.
On my last trip to Cancun, Carlos and I shopped alternatives. First, the Club Car store, where they wanted 780 pesos a seat cover, but had no backs. Plus your own plywood.
So I asked Carlos to take me to the fabric store Assis. I was looking for the equivalent of naugahide. They had several choices, but the only one thick and pliable enough was in pistachio green. A lovely Caribbean color, I might add.
My idea was to procure pre-cut plywood, thicker this time, and use a staple gun. Sergio took it on, even though he'd never done it.
The cloth was 280 pesos for three square meters. Staples 50 pesos, plywood 120 pesos and one donated sheet.

Punta, of course, enjoyed supervising the whole project. Sergio also tightened or replaced all the frame bolts and screws and cleaned off black paint applied to the aluminum a couple years ago by Gilligan. An annoyance as it always was chipping away.
So, for 1000 pesos labor and 500 pesos in parts, I have an upholstery job that would have cost me likely 4000 pesos this year, but without seams. Hey, I like it a lot!

6 comments:

Ann said...

Vey ingenious!

Jane said...

Looks great!

drgeo said...

Remember when hot cars had "rolled and pleated" seats?

IslaZina said...

In all honesty, no.

krisla said...

I LOVE IT...and I believe I've seen it 'around town.'
I must file this info to keep for further reference. Thanks. -kris

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