billymac814

Thanks guys. I'll check out those places. Springfield only has 1/4 in natural with a finish on it so it can't be dyed. They can get it but it will be 4-6 weeks. How ling does it take when ordering from Australia? I didn't know what all was involved with customs and the long boat ride so I've never really considered that route.

I probably won't do much to her bike, she doesn't really need to go faster and she really doesn't go fast anyway and I really don't have time for another project, I got enough going on. My quams with the bike are the shaft drive and a ton of plastic, other than that it looks cool. I do like that rack for the back but she isn't into it but I think I can talk her into it especially if her fender is scratched up at all from the stock seat. I can probably make one but by the time Id have it chromed it probably wouldn't be much cheaper and probably not worth the effort. Her pipes are the cobra drag pipes, they are a full one piece deal, doesn't do anything for it other than look and sound a bit better, they came with the bike so it's hard to tell if it was jetted at the same time or not, although my school of thought was always if you change the intake you have to change the exhaust but if you change the exhaust it doesn't affect the intake so no need to jet it within reason of course. Probably not the case for short straight open pipes like mine but ones with baffles at least there's still some backpressure there. Is your bike lowered? It looks like the shocks are at a steeper angle then hers are.

That's a pretty cool picture. That is actually what takes me the longest is deciding on a design to put on it but I pretty much had to quit thinking about it so much and since these will be for sale I'm just trying to do something that will appeal to the masses. Keeping 3 going at once really hasn't been that bad other than I have very little time to work on them. . It's much easier to cut out 6 pieces and prep 3 pans and all that stuff at once. It will be easier to dye and finish them to but the lacing might be tough doing 3 back to back since my hands get pretty sore after 1. Do you have any way of making the shadow any quicker? It's goes fast enough on the highway but it doesn't start off to quick. My Vulcan will run circles around it but really it's fine for her. Hers is all stock except the pipes. I got the seat in today and ripped the cover off, I probably won't do much more than that for a while, it is a big seat, I'm going to put it on the bike and see if I can shape it any better, I may get new foam and use that first, did you put plastic back over the foam?

So you did that without wet forming? If so I'm sure your next one will look much better then. I need to buy some thinner leather but Im waiting till I sell another seat or two first. The company I work for is letting me share their booth at thunder in the valley at the the end of June. I have no idea of how many I can sell or if I can sell any so I'm just going to keep making them till then, I have 3 going right now which seems to go a little faster when doing multiples at a time. I'm going to keep hers real close to stock for shape and size I think, unless once I rip the cover off I change my mind. The one I bought only came with the front seat so that's all I'm goingto do. We've been talking about taking the back one off anyway. I may redo her saddlebags at the same time. They are really old cheap ones we got at a swap meet so I may make new lids for them and cut the yoke out and make them a mount. They don't look good now but that's the only way we can take anything since I can't put anything on mine. I call her bike my mule.

That looks good, what weight leather did you use for the top and sides?

She has the Aero, I ordered a seat but it hasn't came yet. It's probably going to be a month or so before I start it but Id like to see pics if you have them. I've noticed on her seat the vinyl cover is stretched over the foam so tight that it doesn't even lay on the foam it's like stretched across it.

Anyone know where's the best place for kanaroo lace that I can dye myself and how much does it cost? I've been getting mine from Springfield but haven't been able to get anything that can be dyed. They said 4-6 weeks. I've been using brown and I just ordered saddle tan so that may be what I'm looking for anyway. But Id probably prefer to just dye it myself. I need 1/4". I've heard of Jim Downey but can't find much info on the price or anything else for that matter.

Well I bought one, It seemed silly not to for the price and it looks much better than what I was doing. After thinking long and hard I ended up putting no thought into it. I emailed Brenda, gave her some basic info on what I do and she came up with a few different ones and I picked my favorite. She was very easy to work with and very quick, I emailed her friday and had the stamp in the mailbox on Wednesday. I may get another one later on that is smaller, but this one is good for my seats.

I also use the blue painters tape, I can't say I prefer it over packing tape because I haven't used both, I just happened to have blue painters tape at the time. Neither stretch so I'd say both would work just fine. I have rubber cemented stuff down but I glue to the tape and not the leather, It seems like that would be less of a mess. So far I've only glued down the smaller projects and not my seats, I use the tape on the back and I haven't ever had a problem with stretching, although it does tend to curl up when drying, If I ever find something big enough to glue a seat cover to I'll try it.. I am in no way an expert, but I've had no problems with my method so far.

Very nice. The bike and the seat of course. I like the nice clean lines of the bike and the seat completes it.

Also I've dealt with Linda before and have no complaints so I probably will stick with her unless someone thinks Id have better luck with someone else.

Thanks everyone. I'm not really price chasing at all. If the difference between 1 and 3 is 1.50ft Id go with the best everytime. But when it's half the cost it got me thinking. My thought was if it's only range marks that if I can work around them then it's basically the same with a little extra waste. If the grain and everything is different I'm not really interested. It sounds like I need to just order one and try it. If it doesn't work I can use it for something I'm sure.

Ok thank you. That's a really good price then for a side. Will they still split it for me? I think the only thing listed on the overstocked is the 8-10oz.

Yes it does help. Thanks guys. I'll try it. It seems worthwile at least while it's onsale. I can work around some marks typically. I just wanted to make sure everything else was the same.

What is the difference between the number one and the number 3 or special grade? The last side I got was number one and it was nice but it was expensive. I seen on their site they have the special grade for 90 a side which is half of what I paid. Is it the same tanning process and just flawed or is it tanned differently. I'm thinking if it just has range marks I can work around that enough to make it worth it if it's that much cheaper. But if there's something other than that I'll just stay with the number 1.

it certainly looks more challenging to do that style of seat. I figure more people have those though so I should learn how. I ordered another seat in the event I mess it up or it takes me a while, I also wanted to suprise her with it but I might not be able to if I have to redo the padding. I Kinda need to sell some of the other ones to buy more leather. I'm working on a new work table this weekend so nothing else is getting done, but my work area will be much bigger and sturdy and I'm putting another light up.

I got the sno seal because it's about the only one I found locally. I'll try the pecards and see what it's like. It's probably more expensive but seems popular enough. Good to know it's holding up strong on yours. How often do you re-apply? I may need to pick your brain in the future here. I won on eBay a stock seat for my girlfriends shadow that I'm going to recover and probably either refoam(depending on the condition) it and add a gel insert. I figure it will be good practice on that style of seat and I can keep it a suprise since her seat won't be missing. What weight leather did you use on yours for the top and sides? All I have is 8oz so I'm sure it'll be to thick. I hate to buy two more sides though so I'm gonna have to see what I can do. This is an expensive hobby.

The center really isn't that noticable, if it weren't for the extra lace it wouldn't be noticed at all. I just don't want any messups on mine, in hopes of using it to sell more. It would do it good to clean it and put the stuff on every so often anyway so I don't mind doing it over. I'll make sure to give directions to anyone that buys it. I feel it protects better than the leather balm, mainly because it's much thicker. I should save my opinions till I have used both in the real world though. They both look about the same when put on. I may order some of the pecards, I hear good things about that. I'm probably going to clean the first star seat with saddle soap and antique it then apply the sno seal or something similar. Hopefully the two small water spots go away.

Ok so the Thunder in the Valley motorcycle rally is in about a month. They get several hundred thousand people in attendance. I don't have the money or inventory to set up my own booth this year however the company I work for(unrelated to the MC industry) is going down. They will let me have a seat on display on a small stand with business cards with it and then I can raffle it off at the end. So I figure it will give me a lot of exposure for very little money. A toolbag would be a more appropriate thing to win but I would rather have a seat on display even if the winner cant use it. Any suggestions, or advice or maybe something I'm not thinking about? It seems like a pretty good deal to me but I wanna get others opinions to make sure I'm not forgetting something. Also suggestions on what to tool on to it would be nice. I've thought of making a logo for myself and just using that or just doing something traditional. This is the last seat I made.

Here's the latest seat. It was meant to be for my bike but I glued the back on slightly off center. I want mine to be perfect since it will be kinda like my display model in a sense. If it was mounted I don't think it'll be noticable but I'll probably be flipping mine up quite a bit to show it off. Anyway 8oz Wicket&Craig All Kangaroo lace A combo of Tan, saddle tan, and med brown dye I used antique this time and I really like it. I looked at my other seat and it looks plain without it. I finished this with sno seal and feel a little more confident on the water resistance and it looks just as good, it buffed to a nice shine. I put the other one on my bike with the leatherbalm and got a few small waterspots on the bottom side.

I can't help you with the foam to much but I have done a whole lot of internet searching to find out what is usually selling and I hate to say it but it's skulls, flames and maltese crosses. I don't like them either. I do like the mexican muerte skulls much better but they don't seem to be what most want. I will be watching and seeing what everyone else says but I have a feeling it's hard to get away from skulls. I will say I've seen a bunch of CFL seats but I would assume only those with a CFL frame would buy them but I could be completly wrong.

Thanks. I would have guessed more. Maybe I just need to work faster:-).

Looks good. Id like to try my hand at a larger wet molded seat sometime. Probably not for a while yet though. If you don't mind me asking what's the price range on one of those compared to a sprung solo? They look like a bunch more work and materials and it takes me 30 something hours to do a solo so I can't imagine the time Id have in one of those.

I get rained on a bunch too, I'm guessing trial and error is the best method when it comes to finishes. I really like the finished look of the leather balm but got skeptical when I read it wasn't water proof. I used the sno seal on everything else I've made so far and I feel it does a really good job at protecting it. I've been thinking of trying some of that Aussie conditioner as well. I guess I could use that after the atom wax? I dunno if it'll do much as far as waterproofing though. Anyway I guess I'll figure out something that I like and works. I'm pretty happy with the color as well although it wasn't much a choice as it was a guess. The airbrush was great though, I'm glad I got it. It was the nicest one harbor freight had and it was still really really cheap, but it worked good for what I needed it to do. I started another one and this one I think will be for my bike!

Here's some more with the back, these ones show the color more accurately than the others. There's a few mistakes in it that are quite obvious.