Upholstery in Cabot, AR: a boat owner’s guide to who sews what
Published October 4, 2026 · 6 minute read
Cabot has three kinds of upholstery shops: auto trim, furniture and marine, and they are not interchangeable. A bass boat seat belongs with a marine shop that uses marine vinyl and UV-rated thread, and the mobile version comes to your driveway. Expect $200 to $500 for a seat re-cover and $450 to $1,200 for a driver seat rebuild.
Who does upholstery in Cabot, AR?
Auto trim shops along Highway 5 and Highway 89, a couple of furniture and drapery upholsterers in town, marine shops within a drive, and one mobile boat upholstery service that comes to Cabot from North Little Rock. That is us, and we only do boats. The search term covers all four because the word is the same, but the materials, machines and skills are not. A trim shop that does beautiful truck seats will often take a boat seat too, and the result looks right in the driveway and splits at the seams by the second summer because the thread and vinyl were made for a cab, not a deck.
| Shop type | Does well | Watch for | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto trim shop | Truck and car seats, headliners, convertible tops, some boat seats on the side | Automotive vinyl and thread unless you ask; the boat waits behind the cars | Vehicle interiors |
| Furniture upholsterer | Sofas, dining chairs, antiques, drapery | Indoor fabrics and foam that drink water; rarely owns a walking-foot marine machine | Living room pieces |
| Marine upholstery shop | Boat seats, pontoon furniture, canvas, with a shop queue and a trailer trip | You tow the boat in and tow it home; spring queues run weeks | Boats near the shop |
| Mobile marine upholstery (us) | Seats, pontoon furniture, bimini canvas, covers and deck flooring, patterned at your driveway or the ramp | Boats only; no cars, no couches | Boats that stay where they live |
If your job is a recliner or an F-150 bench, the first two rows are your answer and we are not. If it is a bass boat driver seat, a pontoon lounge or a bimini top, read on. The Cabot service page has the local detail on what tournament use does to seats.
What does bass boat seat upholstery cost in Cabot?
A single seat or bench re-cover runs $200 to $500, a driver seat rebuilt with new impact-grade foam $450 to $1,200, and a whole bass boat interior $2,000 to $6,000. Those numbers come straight off our published cost guide and they do not change because the boat is in Cabot instead of North Little Rock. The Cabot specific pattern is piecework: tournament rigs wear the driver seat at the bolster, the butt seat slick, and the front deck carpet frayed where the trolling motor and tackle live, while the rear jump seats often test fine. We quote the pieces that failed and leave the rest alone.
| Job | Published range |
|---|---|
| Small tear or split seam, repaired at the boat | $100 to $250 |
| Single bass boat seat or bench re-cover | $200 to $500 |
| Driver seat rebuild with impact-grade foam | $450 to $1,200 |
| Foam replacement, per cushion | $50 to $150 |
| Full bass boat interior | $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Marine carpet or woven deck flooring | $800 to $2,500 |
| Rush slot before a tournament or holiday weekend | add $100 to $200 |
Off-season pricing, October through February, runs about 13 percent lower because the tournament calendar is quiet and the bench is open. A rig that finishes its last event in October and gets its seats done in November is the cheapest version of this job that exists.
How fast can a seat get rebuilt between tournaments?
Inside a week for a single seat once the pattern is pulled, faster in the off-season, and a published rush premium of $100 to $200 when a specific event is on the calendar. The mobile model is what makes that work for a Cabot owner. The rig stays on its trailer in the garage, we pattern the failed pieces where they sit, sew them at the bench on marine machines, and come back to fit them. No tow to a shop, no tow home, no seat sitting in a queue behind a pontoon set. Pulls are staged so you keep usable seating if a weekend lands in the middle. The mobile service page explains how the visits sequence.
Why does marine vinyl matter so much in Arkansas?
Because an uncovered seat on a Greers Ferry or Arkansas River boat spends the summer under ultraviolet levels the EPA classes as very high to extreme, and that light is what dries, fades and cracks vinyl. The EPA UV index scale puts a clear Arkansas July afternoon at 8 to 11, and water reflects a share of it back up under the seat edges a cover never reaches. Marine-grade vinyl carries UV inhibitors and a mildew-resistant backing built for that exposure. Automotive and furniture vinyl do not, and neither does cotton-wrapped thread, which is why a seat that looked perfect leaving a trim shop opens at the stitch line two seasons later. The foam underneath matters just as much on a tournament boat: wave slam breaks down standard foam under the driver bolster long before the vinyl shows anything, so a seat can look fine and feel dead. Our hiring checklist lists the material questions to ask any shop, including us.
When a Cabot trim shop is the better call
Anything with a steering wheel on a road. Truck seats, headliners, motorcycle saddles and tractor seats are auto trim work, and the Highway 5 shops do it every day. A couch or a set of dining chairs goes to a furniture upholsterer. And a torn seat on a twenty-year-old jon boat is often better served by a $200 replacement seat from a marine supplier than by any upholstery labor. What we are for is the bass boat, runabout or pontoon that gets used, with seats, furniture or canvas that have started to go, and an owner who would rather have the work done in the driveway off a published price than tow the boat anywhere. Owners in Maumelle and the rest of the metro get the same table and the same van.
Price a Cabot rig
Where the boat lives plus photos of the seats gets a same-day range off the published table. Or call (501) 955-2289.