OK, time to unveil my latest project. I know originally I had plans to do a carb/ juice box/ rockey key/ speedo install. Well I did get the carb & juice box in. I have another thread for it though.
I've watched Jesse James & pimp my ride make custom 3-d seats & headliners for some time now and I figured I can do that too. Not to mention I hate the factory seat & it had a rip. Here's a how to of how I did it, and some pics along the way. It was actually quite easy.
First thing I did has gather everything I needed. That consisted of some leather (ebay), a can of spray adhesive, some 1/8" thick foam, silicone glue, and a sleeping mat. Those last couple all direct from Wal-mart. (1st pic)
Since my bike already has flame decals on it the flame pattern was pretty easy. I simply took a piece of paper and a crayon (thanks son), and did a rub of one of my flames. I'm no atrist but if you are you could easily draw the pattern of what you want. I then cut it out and glued it onto a piece of the 1/8" white foam. I wasnt sure it that was high enough so I double stacked it on a piece of itsself. (2nd pic)
ok while the glue was setting on that I went ahead and used the silicone glue to glue the screws into the seat (no pic sorry). At this point I'm sure you are wondering how to screw the seat in. That was easy. I drilled the holes out in the frame that the screws go thru. With the screws glued into the seat they go thru the hole and I attach them with some nuts from the bottom. (sorry forgot the pic again)
Back to the seat. I then used the seat to trace a pattern out of the blue sleeping mat (pic below). I did this to the screw holes and stuff would be hidden).
With that done its time to put it together. The flame outline I made earlier got glued onto the blue foam. The whole thing got covered in spray glue then the leather laid on top. Here is one very important thing. Start from on side and go to the other. You cant just lay it on top. Start at the side and rub it on kinda like a sticker. This lets it form to the edges of the flame and thats what gave it the 3d look. (pic) Use a ink pen cap or something dull to rub around the outline of the flames to further help push it into the corners and sharpen the look.
From here after the glue set some I sprayed some more glue and set it onto the seat. It got flipped over and the edges trimmed and tucked underneath and glued in place as well. (pic) That pretty much did it for the seat itsself.
At this point there was nothing to do but smoke some cigarettes and have some brewskies till glue settled in the morning)
From there it was a matter of waking up (no-hang over rock on!) and bolt it on.
The finished product: (2 pics)
Total cost with leather involved right around $40. Leather isnt cheap even on
ebay.
Total time involved not including glue drying, beer, smokes & sleep was right around 1 1/2 hours.
Here's some more of the finished product. Overall I am really happy with it.
I'm already comtimplating another seat if I can find one. I wanna try using maybe velvet and layering to more resemble my bike (i.e. black with orange flames in blue outlines). Although that project is far off in the distance.
Anyway I would appreciate to hear what everyone thinks.
Thanks.
