My first seat for a motorcycle

[Thor]

Title says it all. It's the first seat ever and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with it even though this isn't my forte. 

2 progress pics are in the gallery. 

The padding is far to thick for this 3.5 mm thick leather. I had to trim down the edges a bit to make it work, but in the end it all worked out. For future seats I'd be making a positive and a negative mold form to make life a bit easier, mold first, tool and dye then. The tooling looked a lot better before molding.

Having another seat in the works already, I'm happy this one is done and can go up for display.

Thanks for viewing.

BTW. critique is always welcome.

[Colt W Knight]

That's pretty bad ass

[paprhangr]

 WOW

What did you use to seal all that color in?

[Thor]

5 hours ago, Colt W Knight said:

That's pretty bad ass

Thanks colt.

1 hour ago, paprhangr said:

 WOW

What did you use to seal all that color in?

Thanks, it's dye actually and the seat got a coat of bag kote first, added some hi-liter to bring out the cuts better, added a coat of tan kote and will be sealed/conditioned with a custom made conditioner I got from leatherisfun to protect it from UV rays and water.

I'm guessing the skull will still darken naturally and should give it this gentle worn style in time. Probably not as fast as if it would be mounted to a bike, but it should work out fine.

[bikermutt07]

Looks great.

[bob21804]

Wow, that looks great.

[suzelle]

Super job! Love it. 

[Thor]

12 hours ago, bikermutt07 said:

Looks great.

 

2 hours ago, bob21804 said:

Wow, that looks great.

 

53 minutes ago, suzelle said:

Super job! Love it. 

Thank you all.

[Thefirst]

Thats awesome. The nose bone kinda makes it look like it says "Bad 2 the boner" though haha.

[Thor]

On 5/31/2016 at 4:32 PM, Thefirst said:

Thats awesome. The nose bone kinda makes it look like it says "Bad 2 the boner" though haha.

Thanks.

LOL... yeah you're right. Never even thought of that.

[Dave Richardson]

Hey, if you could send that seat to me I could critique it better ! Thats top notch, 

Dave

[alfredleatherworks]

That is amazing!  I'm going to be reupholstering my motorcycle seat soon (a touring seat) and I'm hoping to do something fun with it...though I doubt it will be quite that badass.  What weight leather did you use?  And the tooling may have looked better before molding, but it looks great as-is!  Well done!

[Thor]

2 hours ago, Dave Richardson said:

Hey, if you could send that seat to me I could critique it better ! Thats top notch, 

Dave

Thanks Dave. For the right amount I'd be happy to send it to any place on the globe

1 hour ago, alfredleatherworks said:

That is amazing!  I'm going to be reupholstering my motorcycle seat soon (a touring seat) and I'm hoping to do something fun with it...though I doubt it will be quite that badass.  What weight leather did you use?  And the tooling may have looked better before molding, but it looks great as-is!  Well done!

Thanks alfredleatherworks. 3.5 mm converts to about 9 to 10 oz. If there's no tooling involved it doesn't have to be that thick at all. something with around 2 mm will do. So somewhere of around 5 ounces. What I've learned from the seats I've done thus far is that you should ad a 2 mm liner of neoprene to the padding. It gives the whole padding more stability without losing the softness. 

[alfredleatherworks]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

...What I've learned from the seats I've done thus far is that you should ad a 2 mm liner of neoprene to the padding. It gives the whole padding more stability without losing the softness. 

Thanks, Thor!  The seat I'll be fixing/restoring is a Mustang seat.  I'm still researching how best to do it.  I love the seat, but the vinyl has cracked in several places, and torn in another (nearly a 4-inch long split).  It's also my daily driver, as I don't have a car...so I've got to figure out how to do this as efficiently as possible.  Your advice is much appreciated!

[paprhangr]

Sailrite.com has a "how to" video recovering a mc seat with vinly

[builderofstuff]

Love it!

[Thor]

22 hours ago, alfredleatherworks said:

Thanks, Thor!  The seat I'll be fixing/restoring is a Mustang seat.  I'm still researching how best to do it.  I love the seat, but the vinyl has cracked in several places, and torn in another (nearly a 4-inch long split).  It's also my daily driver, as I don't have a car...so I've got to figure out how to do this as efficiently as possible.  Your advice is much appreciated!

For a daily ride I would consider a few more things. There will be lots of rain and exhaust particles. Not that they wouldn't be there with every seat but it will be a lot more. Making sure the water doesn't run off into your seams. The one in the linked video wouldn't really work as the water will stand on the seam an penetrate into the foam in time. Neoprene will help with that. However, having the top run over the sides instead of the other way is much better. 

Usually I'm not a friend of chrome tanned leather, but in this case it might be the better option unless you want to carve something into your seat.

16 hours ago, paprhangr said:

Sailrite.com has a "how to" video recovering a mc seat with vinly

Probably referring to this video http://www.sailrite.com/How-to-Make-a-Pleated-Seat-Cover-for-a-Motorcycle-Video looks well explained. However, see comment above.

[paprhangr]

Sairite has another vid covering a mustang style seat

http://www.sailrite.com/How-to-Recover-a-Motorcycle-Seat-Using-Stretch-Vinyl-Fabric

[alfredleatherworks]

Thanks for those videos!  They were really informative!