Ian

I find that using the 2 piece spot setters sometimes ends up with the prongs of the spots bending wrong and it's tough to place a spot accurately. What I do, is measure out the pattern with a wing divider, then use a diamond awl to stab my holes, place the spots by hand, bend the prongs over, then go back with spot setter without using the tube and set them firmly. Not easy, but accurate. I figured out a pretty cool way of doing spot patterns on the computer. If I ever get out of this lazy streak I'm in, I'll do up a little 'how-to'

Very beautiful indeed - like fine luggage.

My ring attempt. Not as neat as the original, but...

Wow, a real masterpiece. What are the dimentions of the piece?

I get he 1/2" neoprene (get the better quality stuff, the regular doesnt shape well) and build it up in layers to get the thickness and shape I want http://www.closedcellfoams.com/neoprene.html

Weaver does have them - I've got them from them before

Exactly. The pattern will be an exact duplicate of the foam. Here's a picture of the pattern for this solo chopper seat. The little banana piece is, of course, the side. As long as your seat foam is symetrical, you could either cut two sides and make a seam, or flip the pattern and make one piece that includes both sides (looks better). If you don't think your foam shaping is exactly the same side to side, then you'll need to make seperate pattern pieces for each side and do the top pattern in one piece. I was just recovering the factory seat on this, so I knew it would be symetrical. Have you considered re-doing the foam from scratch? The reason I say this is that the foam on Harley seats is very soft and if you've thinned it down a lot, you'll bottom out going over bumbs. Re-doing it with neoprene is a good option since neoprene shapes very easily and is firm enough so you won't feel the pan under your rear end.

The Hermann sample of brown latigo I got from Weaver looks real nice, but it's a lighter brown. Wickett and Craig has a brown harness leather that looks nice per their sample too.

I have never tried letting the leather darken naturally, but I was wondering on something like a saddlebag, you'd get a light area under the flap 'where the sun don't shine' wouldn't you?

Cool - I go in that direction all the time, and never knew they were there.

A little spray adhesive on the underside of the cover and on the foam, then smooth it into the dish will do the trick. Oh, and Hilly, one thing (maybe the most important thing) is to draw an exact center line on the seat foam and the back of the cover sothat you can line it up exactly when you put it on with adhesive. Like contact cement it is a one shot deal, and lifting the cover once it has been glued can ruin the foam.

very cool indeed. I can think of a dozen differnt items I could use them on. How about making them with the top to inlay a piece of leather to tool or for a piece of croc or python.

I've probably recovered about 100 stock seats, and have found that in two big ways they differ from the thin chopper/bobber style. Firstly, the foam is soft, making stretching heavier veg tan leather more difficult. Secondly, on most stock seats the foam extends beyond the edge of the pan, so when you attempt to stretch a cover on you will be actually crushing the foam on the edges and giving it a rounded look. Unless you are doing a tooled cover, the best way is to use upholstery leather that is finished for the auto industry. It is UV resistant and quite waterproof. You might have noticed that covers on stock seats are made to fit the foam exactly with very little stretching required. If you are making a cover from scratch, you will need to make a pattern that fits the foam exactly. Since many of the seats I am now doing are built on fiberglass pans that I molded on the bike, I am doing the foam and cover from scratch and make my patterns for each individual seat. I discovered a way of making patterns that will fit any shape or style of seat with a minimum of stretch, and fit 100% precisely to the shape of the foam with zero wrinkles. Harley seats are build on pretty soft ABS plastic pans and, since you are not stretching the leather much, the staples are pretty much just holding the cover in place, and are fine to use. If your pan were fiberglass or metal, you would be using rivets. If you really want to get a perfect fit without distorting the edges of the foam at all, you would also make a bottom panel that is like a flange. Most stock seats are made that way now, whether they are Harley, import or production choppers. Unfortunately, I don't have a seat on the bench right now, otherwise I would photograph the proceedure to explain it better. A very basic explanation is that you draw your seam lines on the foam with a sharpie, and then use muslin like tracing paper to trace out your pattern pieces. A light spray of adhesive will hold the muslin in place while you trace. You then transfer your pattern to poster board and add the seam allowances using a wing divider. This is a very simplified explanation, as it sometimes takes as long to make your pattern as it does to cut and sew the leather. One thing is that you need to study where to make your seam lines to that you are not trying to make unreasonable compound bends in the leather. Upholstery (chrome tanned) leather does not wet form the way veg tan does. By looking how the seams are placed on one of your stock seats, you'll see what I mean. Here's a few pictures of seats done this way. The last one is my little Max (he's not a seat)

LOL - I though I was the only one using spit. Yes, it does give a super slick edge.

Man, you saddle guys are the true artists of the leather world. I'm trying to think of any other single item that involes as much work and detail, and I can't. Amazing work indeed.

Isn't that the truth. The smallest, simplest finishing details like snaps and belt holes will get you every time and can ruin days of work in one foul swoop. I wish I could develop the discipline to do them the next day, but I'm always too anxious to see the finished product, and ....POW, I've done it again

I'm guessing you're talking about a nubuck type finish. This is obtained by a very light sanding at the tannery. You might be able to duplicate it with very fine sandpaper. Just a guess.

I'm try to figure a use for all the hundreds of little punch outs from punching lacing holes

Bet your tattoo guy had a few WTF moments as well, keeping all the what goes over and what goes under straight

Yeah there are all kinds of good images. I also found this. A little program for drawing simple celtic knots http://www.bit-101.com/celticknots/ And the REALLY grand prize goes to whoever carves THIS celtic design http://decors.canalblog.com/images/celtic_2.jpg

Thats really nice - are you going to color it? great work

David, as best as I can explain it here is that the skirt and side panel are the same on the seam line. The skirt is glued to the edge and then the top piece is sewn overlapping the side. Probably doesnt make sense in the telling. Anyway, the top is Veg, the sides and bottom (that you cant see) are 2/3 oz chrome and the skirt is 4/5 chrome with the inlay on 2/3 veg. Thanks Shirly, Beave and Jammon.

Wow! A question on your stitched border. Is what appears to be a double line a groove, or is it two parrallel lines? And, how did you achieve that? That is as nice as it comes.

I guess the first question would be - do you have a walking foot sewing machine? If you do, then recovering an OEM seat is pretty much unpicking the stitches, carefully ironing the sections(with a WARM iron and a piece of cloth on the vinyl). Spray a very light coat of adhesive on the back of the sections and adhere them to poster board. Then, trace around the sections (including the register marks) Cut out your cardboard pattern pieces and transfer them to the leather (you can use a ball point pen, since it will not show) Then cut out your pieces and sew them together. There are a million small things like doing the top stitching, etc, but without knowing your experience, it would take a small book to detail everything. But, thats a start. By the way Euro Leather has a nice matte finished crocodile embossed leather that works well. It's the same as what Corbin uses.

Ouch - you just said that painfull word (Chinese) But, anyway there are meny wholesalers who sell imported flipflops here - check the website "Wholesale Central'.