HELP! New pan.... New ground for me

[KliffsKustomHouse]

Hey Guys,

I'm after a bit of advice here. I've been working on sprung solo seats up to this point (Biltwell & West Eagle) and still have a heap to learn but I've just been handed a drop seat style that is totally different to anything I've done before. It has a pillion pad too. Not really my style but I said I'd give it a go. The builder just wants plain brown leather which makes that part simple but it would be great to get a bit of advice on where to start on getting this thing covered and looking clean. He doesn't want any lacing so just a plain and smooth as I can get it. This guy also has a heap of solo seat pans to go on bikes too so I'd like to get this one done for him, start off on the right foot and hopefully get some ongoing work.

• What weight/thickness leather would be suitable?

• Wet moulding?

• The pan is plastic..... pop rivets or staple gun?

I'll work it out some how but I thought a bit of help from the pros that do these kind of seats all the time could give me a better start. Any help or tips would be really appreciated

Thanks in advance guys.

Kliff

[MADMAX22]

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=8277

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=9924

Those two links are really good.

Also look at the last post in this link

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...mp;hl=sportster

Basically do a search for a sportster and you will get a few of that type of seat. Other then that I cant help ya too terribly much.

[Spinner]

Ah, the infamous Honda Spirit 750 seat...I know your pain! Mainly because my fiancee has a '06 Spirit and I eventually want to make a seat for it or recover the existing one. At least the owner was cool enough to reshape it and cut the pillon off! I don't have any advice yet, but look forward to what you do to it. The factory vinyl is held in with staples, but I read on here that using rivets with washers works well. The pan sits pretty close to the frame so that should help.

If you need pictures of the bike with the seat on or off for photo references, just let me know.

[KliffsKustomHouse]

Well I got there in the end. Here's some pics of the finished product. All I gotta say is these seats are not for me.

Kliff

[MADMAX22]

Hey atleast it turned out looking great. Really well done on the wetforming.

Did you have any hiccups or suggestions for someone doing the same thing.

[Spinner]

Looks good Kliff, and thanks for confirming a few things (visually) with the wetforming that I wasn't sure would work (like the multiple curves on the front). This will be helpful when I finally get to doing my fiancee's seat.

[KliffsKustomHouse]

Thanks for checking it out guys.

Took a bit of wrestling with the wet form but got there in the end. The foam was cut down and shaped by another guy and had a few undulations which would come through the 1.5mm leather I was using so I went out and got some 3mm closed cell foam and covered the whole seat. This gave me a much better surface to work on. I then totally saturated the leather and went to work wet forming from the top main curve down to the sides. To stop any creases forming where the top curve turns down to the side curves I used a strong spray adhesive to force the leather into the position I wanted. I found that by spraying and laying down a section at a time I could avoid any creases all together. The leather was forced into submission!!!!! I then just used a staple gun to hold it all down to the plastic seat pan. I much prefer using separate pieces and lacing together but he wanted it to be pretty smooth. I know how to do it now though I guess.

Cheers,

Kliff