Seat cover

[howardb]

OK, so I have need to make a seat cover for a motorcycle. The wierd thing is I'm leaving the seat as it is, and just literally adding a covering to it.

I made a handlebar cover for a dude at work and now he needs the seat covered to match. He doesn't want any tooling on the seat, but he did like the edge braiding. (How I managed to let that thing out of the house without taking a single picture I will never understand...)

Seat is a LePara gel seat. I've attached a couple of pics. The color I will need to end up with is the Saddle Tan highlighter color stain from Tandy (Eco Flo type).

What I need to know:

1. Should I cover it in veg-tan? I know I can dye it to match the handlebar cover at that point. I'm also fairly sure it can stretch to fit.

2. Is there a better solution? Latigo? upholstery leather? Can these be dyed?

3. If I end up with veg-tan, is there a technique to keep it from stretching all to heck after a while?j

4. Lastly, he doesn't want to disturb the original seat, so how am I going to attach it?

help!

thanks,

Brent

Edited November 10, 2008 by howardb

[howardb]

OK, so I have need to make a seat cover for a motorcycle. The wierd thing is I'm leaving the seat as it is, and just literally adding a covering to it.

I made a handlebar cover for a dude at work and now he needs the seat covered to match. He doesn't want any tooling on the seat, but he did like the edge braiding. (How I managed to let that thing out of the house without taking a single picture I will never understand...)

Seat is a LePara gel seat. I've attached a couple of pics. The color I will need to end up with is the Saddle Tan highlighter color stain from Tandy (Eco Flo type).

What I need to know:

1. Should I cover it in veg-tan? I know I can dye it to match the handlebar cover at that point. I'm also fairly sure it can stretch to fit.

2. Is there a better solution? Latigo? upholstery leather? Can these be dyed?

3. If I end up with veg-tan, is there a technique to keep it from stretching all to heck after a while?j

4. Lastly, he doesn't want to disturb the original seat, so how am I going to attach it?

help!

thanks,

Brent

I'm getting sneaky again... To add more pictures I just reply to my own message! Ha! Take that gotcha media...

Anyhoo. A couple more pics.

[JohnD]

Hey Brent,

I've never actually tried to just cover a seat without effecting the seat itself, but after a little thinking about it, I would probably go with the veg tan. That way you can be sure it will match the piece you've already made (which is the reason he wants the seat covered, right?)

I would probably go with a light weight and I think, for the attachment, I would try punching my holes and using brass eyelets and a lacing system on the underside. That way as the cover stretched it could be tightened by adjusting the lacing.

Make sure that there are no clearance issues when the seat is on the bike and, also be careful setting the eyelets. Make sure the edges are set smooth so that they won't damage the lacing when tightening it.

Hope this helps, good luck.

John

[Scary Leatherworks]

Brent, I don't have alot of experience doing seats but the first one I did was for my wife and I covered it without taking off the orginal pleather cover. you can still see the ridge from where the original seat seam is but it's no big deal. Is the pan plastic or metal? if it's plastic you can staple the leather to the bottom while wet forming then after it's dry it can be riveted in place. I used 5/6 oz for the top and 3 oz for sides

good luck

Scott

[howardb]

John & Scott - thanks for the replies. I guess I fell asleep and forgot my post! I should get two seats next week from this guy. One gets the simple cover and the other is a spare seat he has and he's going to let me do a tooled one for show. I get to take it to IFOLG & he gets a tooled seat for cost of materials. Everybody happy!

Brent