First Time Seat

[AndyL1]

Hey All,

So a while back I got a seat pan from a local chopper shop. I asked the owner for it because I wanted to try my hand at making a seat. I don't know how to lace but the owner said he doesn't care for that style anyway so I will saddle stitch it by hand. Any tips you guys can offer me on how to start?

1. What thickness/material to use for padding? I've read somewhere about using thick neoprene...

2. How much larger do the top and bottom halves need to be to cover the seat? I guess that depends on how thick the padding is?

3. Do I cement the bottom leather to the bottom of the seat pan, or could I rivet it or do a combo?

Any other help you guys may want to lend would be great! I'll have to post a picture of the seat pan so you know what I'm working with.

Thanks,

Andy

[David]

Hey All,

So a while back I got a seat pan from a local chopper shop. I asked the owner for it because I wanted to try my hand at making a seat. I don't know how to lace but the owner said he doesn't care for that style anyway so I will saddle stitch it by hand. Any tips you guys can offer me on how to start?

1. What thickness/material to use for padding? I've read somewhere about using thick neoprene...

2. How much larger do the top and bottom halves need to be to cover the seat? I guess that depends on how thick the padding is?

3. Do I cement the bottom leather to the bottom of the seat pan, or could I rivet it or do a combo?

Any other help you guys may want to lend would be great! I'll have to post a picture of the seat pan so you know what I'm working with.

Thanks,

Andy

I'll try to answer some of the questions.

1. Padding thickness. Depends on the seat pan style. Is it designed to be the thin chopper style seat? Or is it one of the thick padding seats like a stock HD seat? For the chopper style, 1/2", 3/4" or 1" is about right.

2. How much larger do the leathers have to be than the pan. If you are doing a chopper style seat with 3/4" neoprene padding. They should be about 3/8" larger than the pan. You understand of course that the top and bottom leathers are not the same. You will need to make separate patterns for both. If you are making a thick padding seat there is no back. You have the top and a side piece of considerably thinner leather.

3. Rivet the back to the pan....no glue at all.... at least in my seats. Well, the padding is glued to the pan but no glue on the leather.

I encourage you to teach yourself to lace. Tandy has a small booklet call How to Lace......It's less than $5. It isn't rocket science, give it a try.

Dave Theobald

Edited August 17, 2010 by David

[AndyL1]

I'll try to answer some of the questions.

1. Padding thickness. Depends on the seat pan style. Is it designed to be the thin chopper style seat? Or is it one of the thick padding seats like a stock HD seat? For the chopper style, 1/2", 3/4" or 1" is about right.

2. How much larger do the leathers have to be than the pan. If you are doing a chopper style seat with 3/4" neoprene padding. They should be about 3/8" larger than the pan. You understand of course that the top and bottom leathers are not the same. You will need to make separate patterns for both. If you are making a thick padding seat there is no back. You have the top and a side piece of considerably thinner leather.

3. Rivet the back to the pan....no glue at all.... at least in my seats. Well, the padding is glued to the pan but no glue on the leather.

I encourage you to teach yourself to lace. Tandy has a small booklet call How to Lace......It's less than $5. It isn't rocket science, give it a try.

Dave Theobald

Hey Dave, thanks for the tips! The seat pan is I think a solo seat, just a flat piece of steel with a slight contour to it (just like a majority of your seat pans). I'm planning on using 6/7oz veg tan as that's what I have on hand. I don't plan on making seats full time... just thought I'd give it a shot, so I don't really want to invest in a whole side of a different weight if what I have will suffice. I do have some 5/6oz too if the other is too heavy.

How much larger would the top need to be? After the bottom is on and the padding glued down do you just put the top piece on and see how much it needs to meet up from there? It appears the goal is to have the seam in the middle of the padding.

Thanks again for taking the time to offer up some tips! I appreciate it.

-Andy