First Seat Aggravation

[silentghost]

Well, I've been a long time reader, learned lots of stuff. Figured I would finally post up my very first seat. I would like honest critiques good or bad please. I ran into several problems on this one. (obviously) That being said, I have several questions for some of you guru seat guys.

I used a premade pan for this one. Put in 1 inch of marine grade foam and 1 inch of neoprene foam (Customer wanted more padding) I thought I had everything good to go, but realised when I went to wet form the top cover that I had drastically stepped out of my talent abilities. I was using 7-8 ounce pre-dyed leather. I am hoping that some of ya'll here can let me know where I went wrong, give me some pointers. I didn't like the way this one turned out, and even though I did this one for free, I kept it and made another one which I think turned out much better, but still needs some work.

My biggest question I guess I have, is how do you get a good top cover shape that will fit once you wet form it to the foam? It is demoralizing to say the least when you spend all that time tooling, just to realise your cover is too small to fit.

On to the pictures.

My second attempt. Sorry I only have one picture of this one, same steps involved, removed the extra padding and just went with 1 inch neoprene foam. I just left ALOT more leather on the sides and cut it off after I sewed it up. (I really need to figure out the whole lacing thing, but the customer wanted stitching so...he also wanted a rough finish so I definitely gave him that!!!

Thanks for looking

Edited November 12, 2011 by silentghost

[leatheroo]

Congratulations on your second seat...we all learn from our mistakes. My suggestion would be to get some sort of electric sander and finish off the edges. I use a dremel ALOT .... you need to sand those edges so they are EVEN and then burnish them until the edges look like one piece of leather. This will give your seat a much more professional finish. Well done and looking forward to seeing more of your work.

cheers

[silentghost]

Thanks for the reply Leatheroo. The second see picture is actually pre burnishing/sanding the edges. The guy I was making it for wanted to see it before it was all done. The edges didn't turn out too bad, but I still have a long way to go. Thank you for the advice, it is very much appreciated!

[benlilly1]

You could have done worse! You're right about problems getting it to fit when wet forming. If you notice making an exact pattern of the pan and adding to it doesn't work well. If the pan has a deep rise you have excess in length because of the bend but you need excess on the widest area of the pan. I don't know if there is an exact formula for a perfect fit every time. I always make mine slightly larger and cut excess away. There are a few threads on here that may be able to help you. Good luck with the next one.

Edited November 13, 2011 by benlilly1

[swinewerx]

What I always do is, when the foam is ready, as in , all smoothed out, then, I cut the leather oversized, a bit too much, you are almost to the area of how I make a seat, I make my leather wrap over and go under to be rivetted, I understand the customer wanted stitches! but, either way, after I have over cut the pattern I get it real wet under side as well as the outside! Even though it is too wet to tool, I start forming the leather to the seat, and keep doing this for up to hours, This is a process that requires a lot of patience, Because, I keep molding the leather to the seat, and my way of wrapping under takes even longer, I like to use the wood handles of certain tools I have to get rid of creases, and folds, once the leather is smooth, I let it dry while on the seat, takes about two to three days to dry, then, after drying, You will notice how tight it got! I trim the excess away while only wetting the top grain only with the same wrag I use to wet as I am tooling, then smooth out any other wrinkles, that are just there! and let it dry some more, at this point, drying don't take that long, like a day, then examining the way the cover looks, I then remove it and start my tooling time!! I usually go extreme on tooling our personal bike/chop seats, this will have an enlarging effect on the cover, no worries, after done tooling, and placing back onto the seat just remold it back onto the seat, I love making all of our seats, one piece of leather only, no stitches or seams, but rivetted to the bottom of the seat pan!!!!! I myself have not covered the bottom of a seat with leather, cuz I make my seat pans molded to the frame of the bike/chop itself as well!!! As in, I personally am against spring loaded seats, I ride rigid all the way!!!!! One of my chops is rigid front and rear, I am very disabled, but love my rigids!!!! I hope this helps, I also make the seats with 4 to 5 oz leather, a bit easier to mold it and not have the creases!!! I did one with 6 to 7 oz leather, it turned out great, cuz I got creative and skeeved the under side of the leather where it needed to be molded!!!