David

Let us know how the tooling works out. Dave

If they want purple, give 'em purple. As long as the money is green. About the only seats I turn down are seats that I object to on some moral basis such as artwork that is, obscene, satanic etc. Those I turn down. I have referred wet molded requests to Roger as he is SO much more experienced at it than I am. Dave

Roger, I like the Wise Guys seats. Did you get a sewing machine? Tell me you didn't sew all that by hand....my fingers hurt just looking at them Glad to have you back and don't go under that rock again. Dave

TW, Just be glad for the wife you have, I worked for an attorney and his wife received a notice that her account was overdrawn, so she wrote a check to the bank! Ya gotta love em Dave

Beautiful as always Bob, I really look forward to your posts. Your quality always inspires. I gotta get back to doing some serious tooling.... soon as I healed up. Dave

TinyL It appears that you want to preserve the integrity of the black but you also want to continue adding other stain and/or color to the seat. This can be done with NeetLac. Be aware if you NeetLac the entire seat it will not accept further dye. So just paint over the black that you already have on the seat and don't allow it to get on anything else. Now your current black is locked in place and you can continue the finish as you want. Dave Theobald

If you want to keep the color on the leather and not on your jeans. Rub a coat of neet lac into the seat after you are all finished. One coat rubbed in will not turn glossy and will keep your dye where it belongs. Black is the worst for rubbing off and it doesn't matter if it is water based or oil based or spirit based. It all rubs off. Neet Lac is the only thing I've found to keep the color on the leather. By the way, the term for dye rubbing off is crocking. Dave Theobald

If you are wet molding the seat, 6oz is ok for the top 3-4 oz for the sides. If you are dry lacing the seat, I use 7oz for the top and bottom both. David Theobald

Tom, I can't guarantee anything, but I think this happens when leather is very dry. Some lexol will add moisture back to the leather. The leather may not take the stain quite as well, but it may prevent the spotting. I usually apply the stain with an airbrush, so this usually happened to me when I first touched the antiquing paste to the leather. I just used some of the dryest leather I've ever had and I got no spotting. Give it a try on you next project, what have you got to lose? Dave

If the stain came up at the spot where you first applied antique paste, try using Lexol on the entire piece after you stain but before the paste. Let it dry for a few hours at least. Dave

You got my head spinning Johanna....Did you ask for the square root of a Gregorian banana? Never was good at Chinese arithmatic. Dave

I've had this discussion with them before. They order a show seat, then ride the Hell out of it before they take it to the show. They polish the bike and ignore the seat. A little saddle soap and some neutral kiwi shoe polish would do wonders. Better yet a seat to show and a cheap seat to ride makes more sense if you are a builder. I think the trade secret seat was by Duane Ballard. I'm not sure but I think that is his work. Dave

BEAUTIFUL WORK Dave

Nicely done.... Very nicely done. Your customer is going to be very pleased. David Theobald

Greybeard, I use closed cell foam, the stuff they use in boat seats and lawn furniture. It does not retain water. Thanks for looking Dave

Tom, It was very tight to carve the fins. Just go slow and don't rush it. It will look great. Let me know if you find a line drawing of shovelhead. I've been looking for one. Beautiful ride. Very impressive list of hand made pieces to and they all look great. Congrats on the win at the Southwest Veterans Bike show. It was well deserved. I see there is carving on the seat. Is it a seat you have shown here before? The seat in this thread is a Fab Kevin seat pan and is the HEAVIEST pan I've ever been given to work with. The pan was work of art all by its self. Thanks for checking out the seat. Dave Theobald

Kustomezer, I'm not sure what "normal" practice is since I'm a totally self taught seat builder. I do it this way for a couple reasons. Once leather has been dyed, the leather becomes very stiff. This would make it very difficult for me to lace it together. I pull my edge lacing very tight and stiff "sharp" edges on holes and edge of the leather would not be a good thing for me. Secondly and most importantly. Dyeing is a wet process, and the last thing I want is for the leathers to shrink. Thanks for taking a look, Dave Theobald

Glad you like the finish MadMax, it is a combination of medium brown, saddle tan and sheridan paste antiquing. I like the color and hope the customer does too. That is Leather Balm with atom wax that I use. I've never had it pull up like you describe. The only thing I have noticed is that it has a tendency to turn to a whitish powder after a year or so on a bike. Some saddle soap and a scrubbing with a toothbrush followed by Aussie cream seem to do the trick and freshen the seat up. I used Lexol on the seat prior to antiquing and really like the even finish it gives to the project. I didn't get any antiquing splotches as can sometimes happen. Thanks for taking a look at the project. Dave Theobald

Wolvenstien, 7 -8 oz leather doesn't stretch much, but it was attached to my tooling board to do the tooling work. The main shrinkage that I encounter are due to long runs of decorative lacing. They tend to compact the leather a bit and "shrink" the seat tops and backs. It isn't a huge amount but maybe 1/8 to 1/4 inch over the length of the seat. It is a small enough factor that they can be pulled back into place when the top is tied to the back in preparation for final lacing. Thanks for taking a look at the project. Dave Theobald

Final installment......finally. The seat is complete....a little atom wax after it has dried for 24 hours and it is finished then it will be off to California. Dave

Schno, Remember your 4" of foam is mounted to the frame. This seat mounts to a bronze bearing pivot and 4"-5" springs. They ARE more comfortable than they look. Don't get me wrong, they are no lazy boy recliners, but the guys here in Cincy ride them to N. Carolina every year to the Smokeout. But mostly choppers are really what their "other" nickname implys. Barhoppers. Dave

The seat is ready to start the finishing process

It is almost finished. I'm sure you will all be glad of that. This has taken a bit longer than I expected. Probably because the seat in rather large and the pan weighs at least twice what my normal pans do. This is a Fabricator Kevin seat pan, it is truely a work of art. I should finish the lacing this morning. That would leave the staining and finishing for tomorrow. Dave

Hey Rick, I have to tell you, I am not a skull guy. This particular one is painted on my customer's tank, so it isn't my inspiration. There are so many more artistic genres to explore. Recently I've been having a great time with Japanese tattoo artwork. Dragons, koi fish and Samurai warriors are much more fun to do. The Japanese style artwork is so original and spontaneous; it makes for great leather working challenges. Thanks for the compliments. They are always appreciated and give me motivation to keep on working. I feel a Samurai coming on.....lol David Theobald

Here we go, As soon as my client tells me the color of lace, I'll be ready to give it a go. Dave Theobald