First Seat attempt

[azrider]

So I am recovering the stock seats on my motorcycle. I grew up riding horses, and wanted something that reminded me of an old saddle. I am reusing the foam on the passenger pylon, and re-foaming the monstrosity of the drivers seat. (With the foam off the pan, I sit 3 inches lower, and 2 inches further back. It will make the bike a lot more comfortable.) I tooled the top for the pylon out of 6-7 oz leather, and the sides are 2-4 oz. This is my first attempt at any serious lacing. I had two questions for those that have done this before.

1) Do you glue or attach the top piece to the foam? The stock pylon was not, but the drivers seat was glued.

2) How do you soak the sides to do the wet wrap? I don't know if the top should also be soaked.

Any insight would be appreciated. Here are some pictures of the work so far, and what the stock seats looked like.

[azrider]

I finished lacing the top pieces for the driver's seat together. To give you an idea of size, the piece is about 14 inches wide.

I took the leather for the passenger pylon and dipped it in hot tap water. I wiped the top with a sponge to makes sure there was no spotting, and let it dry for about an hour before I started working with it. I spent about 30-40 minutes getting it in place, and had some problems getting the wrinkles out. If I ever do one of these again, I will cut and stich any side with corners, to make it closer to its final shape. I ended up just folding the leather.

[McJeep]

Neat looking project - what's it going on?

[azrider]

Thanks McJeep. Its for a Yamaha Vstar 1100. I traded my sportster for something that was a little more comfortable for long rides.

I think I am going to redo the mounting of the leather on the pylon. I was hoping to mount it with out any wrinkles, but ended up folding the corners like wrapping paper to smoot out the wrinkles. I am going to cut the excess leather out, and stich the corners from the top to the base to sooth them out. I also need to get a rivet gun, as the heavy duty staple gun I have just didn't work out. More pictures to come, and hopefully this week I will get the main seat covered.

[Scary Leatherworks]

AZRider, here's my 2 cents. I use cool water to soak the sides. If I remember correctly hot water can cause the leather to harden taking away some of it's flexability when dry. I also ONLY wet the sides the top doesn't need it and can make your top vulnerable to scratches, marks etc... I personally don't use glue. Some do, some don't. Before I put the cover on I mark the center of the seat front and back, then I mark the center of the leather top center front and back. It just gives me some reference marks to line up with. The back and front of the seat are the hardest to put on. If you can't get all the wrinkles out let it dry and go back the next day after the leather has "set" to it s new shape. The remaining wrinkles will be easier to remove.

Scott

[azrider]

Well I ended up reattaching they pylon to the pan. I continued the mexican basket weave down the corners, and cut a lot of extra leather out of the corners as well. Since the staples didn't work, I bought a riveter. I drilled holes in the pan with no padding or leather on it, and then went and streched the leather while dry to attach it. You can see the diffrence in the first two pictures.

For the drivers seat, I never even got the leather wet. I drilled holes in the pan again, and then riveted the leather in place. As I assembled it, I realized that removing the stock foam and putting less foam in the seat changed the way the top fits. At this point I didn't want to go back and redo the entire seat, so I will live with it. There is a picture of the top and bottom of the seat, and one of a test fit of the unstained seats on the bike.

There are definate areas for improvement, but the construction went well over all. I am going to start staining and sealing them today.

[Ian]

Looking good. If I could offer a suggestion for the future. When you do the P-pad, the construction is like a box, so you don't get any wrinkles or folds. If you make your pattern acurately, there is no need to wet the leather to fit it - it will fit like a glove dry.

Over-all, it looks real nice - you must be very pleased

[azrider]

Murse- It did dry really hard. I have been playing around with some scraps, and will probably use cold water for wet forming in the future, unless I want the hard finish. This was the first time I had every tried wet forming something. (Note to self- Practice with scraps BEFORE soaking a piece of tooled and laced leather that you have almost 40 hours of time invested in...)

Ian- Thanks, I actually like the way it came out. There are some areas that I can learn from the next project. I put the antique on the pylon today before work, and really like the way it came out. Because of the wrinkles and the finish, it looks like something that has been in use for a long time. My biggest problem in trying to get the wrinkles out is that the bottom of the pad is curved. It made it very difficult to get everything even. I actually cut the corners and turned this into kind of a box, but because I had wet formed it already, the wrinkles were there, and weren't going anywhere dry.

I am going to get the finish on both seats done this weekend, and will post some pictures when its done. I plan on wearing an old pair of jeans the first time I ride it, just because I am worried about the finish rubbing off.

[azrider]

DONE!!

I am really happy with the way these look. There some some glaring (to me) errors, but most people won't even see them. Further suggestions for the next time I do these are welcome.