twostepct Report post Posted June 18, 2008 Hey seat crew, I need help/advice. Nearly 3 weeks ago, I laid my Softail over. I'm fine and the damage only consisted of needing a new derby cover, grips, clutch lever and a clutch lever housing. Anyway, me being supersticious, I decided to change the way it is equipped and I'm going with apes. So, while the bike is out of commission I've had time to tinker a little. I had two seats for the bike and cut one down to solo style last night. I still have to shape the stock foam or I may just go from scratch. The foam on the butt part (lack of better term) is pretty thick. If I leave this area thick, what is the best way to lace it up? I see alot of the seats on here are pretty thin and I don't think that will look right on a stock bike. I understand that the top piece is supposed to be the size of the top side of the seat. So, when you lace it together, do you just tuck the bottom under and rivit/staple it in place? I put a vinyl cover on the seat once before, but it had alot of wrinkles. Any help is appreciated and I hope I've explained things clear. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian Report post Posted June 18, 2008 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) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hilly Report post Posted June 18, 2008 Hi Ian. I have one question... How do you form the "dish" in the seat leather and have it lay like that? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian Report post Posted June 18, 2008 (edited) Hi Ian. I have one question... How do you form the "dish" in the seat leather and have it lay like that? 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. Edited June 18, 2008 by Ian Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twostepct Report post Posted June 21, 2008 Ok Ian, thank you! I've got my foam trimmed down and smoothed out for the most part. The stock foam did go below the pan, but I'm taking that off. I plan on doing a tooled leather seat for this one. I made the foam as thin as I could, but I had to leave some on it because of the way the pan is made. The pan comes up the rear fender a little bit, unlike most chopper seats so I had to leave some foam on it too to make it look right. I think that when I make my pattern for my side pieces I should trace the seat laying on it's side right? To describe this I can only think of a boomerang because my seat kind of has that shape on the side. I couldn't just cut a trim piece that is straight but, rather, it would have to have a bend in it when it was cut to match the bend in the seat, right?? Thanks a bunch! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian Report post Posted June 21, 2008 (edited) Ok Ian, thank you! I've got my foam trimmed down and smoothed out for the most part. The stock foam did go below the pan, but I'm taking that off. I plan on doing a tooled leather seat for this one. I made the foam as thin as I could, but I had to leave some on it because of the way the pan is made. The pan comes up the rear fender a little bit, unlike most chopper seats so I had to leave some foam on it too to make it look right. I think that when I make my pattern for my side pieces I should trace the seat laying on it's side right? To describe this I can only think of a boomerang because my seat kind of has that shape on the side. I couldn't just cut a trim piece that is straight but, rather, it would have to have a bend in it when it was cut to match the bend in the seat, right?? Thanks a bunch! 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. Edited June 21, 2008 by Ian Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twostepct Report post Posted June 21, 2008 What kind of foam do you use? I've got to get this bike back in service and have no idea where to get it. Thanks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian Report post Posted June 21, 2008 What kind of foam do you use? I've got to get this bike back in service and have no idea where to get it. Thanks 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 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
